Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-10

where else." he explained 1.-THE differ
| ence seems to be due mainly to the dis
covery of legal remedy which was first
tried in Kansas City. Kan. and has since
been applied elsewhere. 1t Is based on
the theory OF condemning the property in
which a saloon is conducted. This has
made it extremely dangerous for proprie-
tors to permit illegal business Of any kind
to be conducted on their premises.
Il am satisfied in my own mind that
the law was never so we'll enforced as
at the present time. although there are.
of course. violations of it at many times
in many places. The law. as you doubt
less remember. is not directed at any in
dividual or any personal privilege as to
liquids. In other words. it is not a sump-
tuary law. Its sole scope is to prevent
manufacturing and selling alcoholic no.
ors for certain purposes. This means
that a private citizen may have a hogs
head full of liquor in his own house with
out in the slightest degree violating the
law. But he must not sell for the promo.
tied purposes: or. rather. he must not sell
for any other than the permitted pur-
poses-namely. for medicinal. mechanical
and scientific uses. For those three uses
any man may sell. OF course the drug
stores selling for medicinal purposes vio-
late the law to considerable extent put
in violating the law the druggist is not
necessa rily guilty, and in any event IL Is
exceedingly difficult to prove guilt in the
case of a druggist. There are ways. now
ever of reaching fake drug stores. and l
am of the opinion that the drug stores or
the state are conducted very close to the
line of the law. One thing Is certain
drunkenness in the state Is very lnlre-
uuent If the object of e-prohibltory
law is to abolish drunkenness 1t IS GER
tainly as successful as any law ever
heard of"
Revenue From Liquor Traffic.
During the year 1907 the state Of New
York collected S9.697.504 from the liquor
traffic. without reference to the additional
sums collected by municipal and village
corporations. This is the largest sum
ever paid into the treasury Of that or
any other state in the Union from such
source although. as a rule. the liquor
traffic is the most prolific source OF reVe-
nue in the different states and municipal1-
ties. 1t is interesting question as 10
what the southern states. when nave
recently abolished the license system are
going TO do for revenue. No provision has
been made for additional taxation as a
substitute for the receipts that have been
derived from the saloons. The advocates
Of prohibition have argued. and 1t mas
been one of their strongest arguments.
that the expense of maintaining prisons.
aImshouses. criminal courts and ponce
protection will be very much reduced by
wiping out the saloons; and there is no
doubt that such will be the case. But
whether ordinary munlclpdi anu SID &c
expenses can be met without additional
taxes will have to be demonstrated by
experience.
The tax on corporations in New York
last year produced a revenue of $S.oS1 2S5.
which is very much in excess of the re-
ceipts from that source in previous years
The tax on legacies amounted to $o.:h'o
1914. although the usual efforts were made
by the beneficiaries to escape paying what
are known as death duties" in England.
Several years ago the New York legis-
lature passed a law taxing every trans
fer of stock. with the expectation that 1t
would in measure, reduce the volume of
speculation. but it does not seem to have
been effective in that direction. although
it has contributed a large sum to the
state treasury. The receipts from the
tax on transfer of stock during the year
1907 amounted to s5.575.986 which was a
considerable falling off from the previous
year. when the receipts from this source
were So G31 .903 This difference. amount
ing to $l.10o.917. represents. in a meas
ure. the falling off in the business of the
stock exchange during the recent panic.