Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-12-19
WARDEN SANDERS BEARS WITNESS.

institution are there as ulreCt FeSull
OF the booze proposition" said j. G,
Sanders, warden OF FIT Madison pent-
Tertiary, to the board OF control, but
have very few of the bartenaers who
sold the 80 per cent men the booze
and few Of the legislators who made
the law to license the saloon"
This statement of the warden is In
teresting as bearing on the question
Of the economic status of the saloon,
the balance sheet proposition between
the people and the licensed saloon. 1t
opens UP a field for the statistic'ian and
the man handy with a pencil and of a
taste for figures.
Now this warden knew what he was
talking about. He had opportunity for
investigation. Then too, he Only stated
q fact that is corroborated by the sta
tistics Of every penal institution and
will be backed up by the dockets OF
every saloon city in the universe, Mar
shalltown included Nine tenths Of the
criminal calendar tracks straight back
to i'the booze"
Get out your pencilA Ninety per cent
OF the men in TT. Madison pen belong
to the booze proposition and FIT. Mad
tson is a fair example. We have two
peflitentiaries in Iowa Without tl1e
booze we would need one ons-fifth the
size of one of these. Take down the
number of convicts. Multiply by the
cost per individual. Substract 80 per
cent and see how it affects the state
treasury Then get the figures from
the insane asylums, the poor houses
and the patper funds. estimate the
amount of money expended in private
charity on account Of the booze prop
osition." Q. +. d. Does the boooze prop
osition pay the taxeso The saloon is
the mighty fortress of the whole
proposition" Does it pay?
Keep the pencil out. Take nine
tenths of the restitution in MARSHALL
town, the kids without home, the
deserted wives without breadwinners.
It's the booze proposition again. Count
up the decent women who are wash
ing. ironing, doing any kind of hard
labor to keep the home alive and the
! children in school Seems a nice
woman, what does her husband do?"
asks you. Spends all he e,lrns at the
saloons" reply the "neighbors.' Does
1t pay? When you add the cost of a
few murder trials and bunch of 9TH
er costly incidentals to the traffic, how
does the total balance with the mulct
tax? How does it come out?
Just hang on to the pencil mo-
ment. Figure strictly local conditions.
The council lately fathered twenty
one saloons. Now we all know that
these must take in somewhere between
$225,0o0 and 100000 to pay, and they
must pay or their proprietors would
not move heaven and earth to hang
to their permits. How mitch of this
vast sum goes thru the cash registers
Of grocery, dry goods, clothing and
other legitimate business enterprises?
How much OF 1t flashes by in the
brewers auto cars and is piled up in
his bronze stone mansion? Don't you
know that the laboring man who
spends So out of SO or IS out of $40
"a week in the saloon, doesn't buy furs
for his wife? Certainty he buys meat
and groceries, but he doesn't buy them
with the SO or the S..
Just keep the pencil and work per-
centage with it. Get your balance
sheet. Use honest bookkeeper's meth
DDS. Does it pay?