The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-19
$2OO,OOO IN 0NE
 MONTH FOR BOOZE Chattanooga Has Rushing
 Trade In Atlanta "SHoESTRING' TOWN TAXES Small Towns in Georgia Are Profiting By New Law-lnvestigation Is
 To Be Made of Quality of .
 Certain Soft Drinks.
"SHOESTRlNG' TOWN TAXES

Atlanta, February 19.-(Specia1. )-While
 1t doesn't give anything like an accurate
 idea of the amount of booze consumed in
 and around Atlanta, it may be interesting
 to know that the amount of postoffice
 money orders sold on Chattanooga alone
 during the month of January was in
 round numbers s2oO,00O. Here is a be-
 ginning of the calculation with g, 4O0, ,90O
 year.
 Chattanooga, of course, is Atlanta s
 chief liquor shipping point, because the
 best known among Atlanta dealers have
 gone there and carried their patronage
 with them. AS result of this fact the
 postoffice here has found it necessary to
 have printed special form of money or der on Chattanooga; that is, one with everything filled in except amount and
 the patron in making it out.
 Naturally, there are a great many con-
 sumers of brands which are not procur-
 able in Chattanooga; there are others
 who send checks to Chattanooga or what
 ever point they order from; there are
 still others who equipped themselves
 abundantly before the advent of prohibit
 tion, and have not yet found it necessary
 to replenish.
 All of which may give some faint idea
 of what the liquor business used to be and
 still is in Atlanta.
 The consumption of beer here has fallen
 off considerably, and those who used to
 drink it, it is said, now turn to whisky
 because it is easier to manage Perhaps in the summer time beer will become the favorite again with those who can com mand the use of an ice box, because it will be impossible without various uten-
 sils and ingredients to get the succulent
 mint julep or the bracing long toddy It is interesting to speculate upon what sort of a money order business the de- partment will do when the present sup ply begins to show undoubted signs of ex- haustion.
 The interesting fact that "shoestring' towns are springing up all over Georgia has recently been remarked upon at the capitol, where. the question of taxes IS dealt with, and where corporation taxes for towns and counties have to be col lected.
 These "shoestringv towns have been the product of the law requiring rail- roads to pay taxes to each incorporated town through which they run, and the more of a railroad town can incor- porate, the more taxes it will get out of it.
 There are numerous examples of towns
 in the state with population of 800 to 1000 which have incorporated from two to four
 miles of railroad track to get the taxes on it. Along with every mile of railroad track goes its proportion of rolling stock and personal property owned by the com pany. Hence a mile of good railroad track is a valuable asset to a small com munity
 l towns not far from Atlanta through I which run two of the most prosperous railroads in the state the Central of Geor- | gia and the Atlanta and West Point. With | one mile of each of these roads-on either l side of the station, which stands in the ! center of the town, this village has four i miles of most valuable railroad property | in the state upon which to levy taxes. It | is easy to see how taxes from this much | railroad property are sufficient to sup , port town of that sort independently of | taxes from the residents. N | Under the new law, which permits the l taxation of property for school purposes | new school districts likewise spring l ing up all over the state. These, too, are 1 marking out their boundaries so as to
 include as much corporation property as i possible thus increasing their income. There will be argued before the | state supreme court next Tuesday morning the motion to make two man dates from the supreme court of the United States. the judgments of the Georgia court.
 One of these is in the case involv-