The Mena weekly star., 1908-05-28

of the Kansas City Southern rail- way, 10 Conductor Oscar Bush of this city, who requested its pub- lication in The Star:
 Is the Saloon War Just!
 1 was greatly interested in commu- nication which recently appeared in one of the Chicago evening papers under the caption, 'Calls Saloon War Unjust" The writer evidently be- lieved that 'if the liquor traffic is 1 prohibitedr its ''tremendous reve- nues' would ''cease to flow into the public treasury He referred to the ready market' for millions of bushels of the farmers grain and the Hundreds and thousands of men who now have steady employment in the production of liquors, and says: "Who will make up the deficit in our public revenue? Who will buy the farmers gram and who will give em- ployment to the unemployed? Will the agitators do all of these things? If not, then what right have they to l bring about condition of affairs such as will work untold hardship and bring immeasurable financial loss up- on millions of human beings?"
 Having some years ago given con l siderable time to an investigation covering most of the questions raised. I take the liberty of sending this brief reply. Regarding the revenue, per init me to ask where does the liquor dealer get the money with which to pay the license fee. To this there is but one answer: From the pronts of l the business. So the tremendous revenuen credited to the liquor busi- ness is really paid by the consumers. It is an indirect tax upon the drinkers and their families, and as those who drink are usually those least able to pay, it amounts to an unjust burden upon the poor for the benefit of the rich, who thus evade a portion of what they should justly pay.
 With no saloons the revenue might be paid by those who now pay it, i. e., the present consumers of intoxicating drinks, but more likely the revenne would be raised by tax on savings banks as in the prohibition state of Maine, where every third person has savings account, the banks paying interest on deposits and also being taxed for revenue purposes.
 In 1906 the total grain production of the five great cereals in the United States was, in round figures, 4,Si0, : 000, 900 bushels, of which only 1l0,- 900, 900 bushels, or one bushel out of | forty-four, was used in the production of liquors.
 The proportion of grain used in making intoxicating liquor is so small that the closing of breweries and dis tilleries would not affect the farmers market to any large extent, and if il did they might do as the Kansas farmer suggested: Raise more hogs and less h-l."
 The farmer could easily find mar ket for the one bushel in forty-four by selling to the makers of cereal break fast foods to supply the demand of the wives and children of drunkards, who are now improperly nourished because the husband and father takes their share and his own of the farm ers' grain in the form of intoxicating drink.
 According to the United States cen sus of l900 which is official, impartial and open to all investigators, the money spent for liquor returns less to labor than the same money spent any other way. For illustration, let us compare the wholesale value-if value it can be called-of the liquor pro- duct, $340,6l5, 466, with that of the cotton goods produced, which is al most the same amount, S339, POO, 320, and we will find that the liquor pro- duction employees 44, 4l9 persons, not hundreds of thousands or millions, while the cotton goods employ BOP, S6l persons, or almost seven times as many. Suppose the money spent for liquor was spent for cotton goods in stead. It would give employment to many times the number now employed in the liquor production.
 Taking the average of eight general industries, including boots and shoes, men's and women's clothing, cotton goods, furniture, hardware, wooler and worsted goods, and we find thai 2 per cent of the value of the produc goes to labor, while the average foI the liquor industry is less than 6 per cent.
 Suppose ten workingmen, each witt sl0 in his pocket, start out cn Satur day night. They have Sl00 among them. If they buy footware, clothing for themselves or families, cottor goods, furniture for the homes, hard ware, wooden or worsted goods, ther S23 of the Sl00 goes back to labor tc themselves or other workingmen ol workingwomen. Now suppose that in stead of spending their sl00 for neces sary articles on Saturday night they ft f.-.. l. ( n.