Times-promoter. (Hernando, DeSoto County, Miss.) 1898-1970, 1908-04-03
TAXATION. TEMPERANCE. FREEDOM
Poplar Corner Citizen Writes Strong Ar.
ticle on Live Issues.
Editor Times-Promoter:

The close relationship existing be-
tween taxation, temperance and free
dom may not be easily seen or appre-
ciated by those who are not accus-
toned to weigh such questions care
fully; yet it exists, and may easily be
seen by all who are willing to see the
truth.
This relationship is bound to come
up for discussion now that we have
statutory prohibitions good thing as
temporary expedient, but a thing
that will prove an utter failure in
course of time. / think it probable
that there will be some diminution in
the consumption of alcoholic drinks,
but that is not the only effect of pro-
hibition. 1t will bring more grist to
the legal mills, and necessitate the
employment of larger number Of
men to wrangle over the scope and
meaning of man-made laws instead of
using their talents to discover and ap-
ply the laws of nature in the physi-
cal, mental and moral universe, in
which lies the future as well as the
present welfare of humanity.
It will bring an increase in sneaking
and prevarication and perjury in the
courts, and, worse still, it will bring
an increased crop Of drug habits, to
cure which we shall be urged to for
bid the sale of dope" except upon a
DOCTORS prescription, thus giving
physicians "dope" monopoly by
means of which they will turn num-
Der of honest pennies into their own
pockets, as they are only human like
the rest of us.
We should not overlook the fact
that the causes which lead men to in
dulge in things that stimulate or
Supply will not cease to operate when
our prohibition law goes into effect.
This question of caases contains the
key to the solution Of the whole prob
lem so far as men can solve it.
When we have removed the causes
that spring from human enactments
we shall have done all that duty re-
quires; for, if there are natural causes,
the Omnipotent alone is responsible
for them, and He alone can remove
them.
There is one consideration wholly
to the credit of the statutory prohibi-
tion law, namely: it will prohibit the
state from reaping harvest of taxes
from drunkenness and depravity, and,
it may further be said, will prevent
many poor fellow from paying taxes
he ought in no case to pay; but. the
latter fact is portentious with evil on
account OF the tremendous premium
on illicit distribution of intoxicants.
Before going farther, it will be well
to consider the effect of the federal
taxes on the liquor question. In the
first place we may state that the fed
eral government collects one dollar
and ten cents on every gallon Of
whiskey 100 proof, or, in other words,
two dollars and twenty cents for
every gallon of alcohol contained in
it. In addition to this, it collects
taxes from wholesale and retail deal
ers. The net result is that whiskey is
quadrupled in price while the farmer
does not get a cent of extra profit on
the grain supplied. The same sort Of
fiscal legislation in regard to tobacco
is responsible for the existence of the
tobacco trust and the lawlessness of
the might riders' in Kentucky.
Let the reader remember taxing
system which would make -four sell
at twenty-five dollars a barrel, while
lit adds not a cent to the farmers
wheat; let him imagine further that
| the power Of the government is exer-
cised through the federal courts to
prevent him from grinding his own
wheat and selling the flour freely;
let him imagine, as result, a gigan-
tic -four trust, with semi-starvation
and bread riots, and he will begin to
get an insight into the morality of the
federal liquor and tobacco laws.
The writer has sat upon federal
ljuries and helped to send men to
prison for doing nothing more than
distilling q few gallons Of liquor in a
shady nook in an out-of-way place
where q little Whiskey would natur-
ally be made on the farm. Here is a
question which some one will please
answer: II farmer converts q