Arizona republican., 1907-10-14
10. It is the chief source of poverty


 lCan we not get along without it in Phoenix?
 After thirty years of varied expe- Iriences in fighting the saloon it is my lfinal. irreversible and deliberate opin- ion that if there were no hell in exist lence it would be imperative upon a just God to provide one for the inn Ipenitent makers and vendors of the Itoxicating drinks.
 The twentieth century revision of Proverbs AZ, according to current ar lgument, seems to be: Money is the principal thing: therefore get money: lyea. and with thy getting, get the dol lar"
 The thought is as old as Shake Ispeare's King John:-
 l"Bell, book and candle shall not drive l me back,
 When gold and silver beck me to
 come on.''
 l arraign the saloon as a robber. It robs the taxpayer by increasing the expense of the police department No license, given a fair trial through a series of years, reduces the police force by about fifty per cent. That is to say. it takes about twice the num- Der of policemen for a license city as compared with a no license town. For every policeIpan dispensed with the city saves xboiN a thousand dollars. The cost of a saloon may be reck- oned in the statistics of crime In his investigations legislative direc- tion in answer to its question. What is the relation of the liquor traffic to crirr1a naunariSr,a nd inS missioner Wadlin of Massachusetts made the following report: of adult criminals. 96 per cent were so because of the liquor traffic" "Of adult papupers. 75 per cent were so because of the liquor traffic "Of adult insane. 51 per cent were so because of the liquor traffic" It is a conservative estimate to say that drunkenness is responsible for so per cent of the expense of the police department. I charge the saloon with the robbery of the taxpayer to the amount of expense entailed by drunk enness and its resultant crimes No license would save all this but it would save a large and increasing percent age of it.
 The saloon robs the taxpayer by in- creasing the expense of the poor de- partment In Massachusetts the liquor traffic is responsible for 90 per cent Of the cost of supporting the poor. The conclusion of an eminent Massachu- setts lawyer is that "the plain logic of these officially obtained facts is that if we would lessen the burden of taxation. the number of prisoners. paupers and insane. we must restrict the present opportunities for the sale of liquor to be used as a beverage"
 The saloon robs the taxpayer, be- cause it means the liquor power in the saddle in municipal government. and this is the synonym for extrava- gant expenditures and organized rob bery of the city treasury. The vote of our council last Monday evening is happy evidence that there is a break in the saloons saddle girth. The liquor power may swagger and bluster, deny and threaten, but 1t is an open secret that at heart 1t is a coward and a thief.
 If you'll open the door and let me in. I'll warm my hands and go home
 again"
 So sings Err Wolf at the door of Err Rabbits shanty where his babies are keeping house. according to the Uncle Remus tales. That is to say. Err Wolf will warm his hands in the babies blood. fill his stomach with their flesh and go home content. So sings the liquor power at the taxpay- CTS door:
 If you'll open the door and let me in. I'll fill my pockets and come back
 again.
 Every dollar received from license fees costs the taxpayer twenty dol lars" Frenzied finance. isn't it?
 The saloon robs the real estate own Ter. It does this by depressing values Shrewd capitalists give land for the erection of churches because adjacent property values are thereby increased. A saloon lowers everything it touches. including the value of all adjoining property. saloon cannot, according to the laws of most of the states. To- cate within a certain number of feet of any abutter who files an objection to it's presence. Thus the law of the states recognizes the undesirable na- ture of this institution as a financial neighbor.
 It robs the real estate owner by lowering rents. When a saloon comes in, rents go down and the moral char acter of the neighborhood sinks with them. Plant saloon and you reap slum. No self-respecting person. who can avoid it, will do business or live In the proximity of a saloon.
 It robs the real estate owner by making rentals uncertain and tenants transient Money which goes into the rumseller's till cannot go into the real estate owners safe. These are cold facts which freeze up all the saloon keepers arguments
 The licensed saloon fobs the mer- chant. the grocer, the butcher. the baker and all who deal in the necessa- rieS of life. This is a self-evident proposition. There is no need to ar que it with any one who has gone through addition and subtraction in arithmetic. No two persons can have the same dollar at the same time. If the liquor dealer gets it. the merchant does not get it. What goes for whis- ky or beer does not go for meat, bread, potatoes or shoes: what goes down the throat does not go on the back. The saloon means. for legitimate branches of business. less trade, longer credits.