The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1908-02-14
The New Oklahoma

Sigmund Fuesler, once in the bakery
business in Norfolk but now a resident
OF Oklahoma City, where he has pros.
pored, does not think well of the Okla
homa constitution under which the
new state has yentured forth ON the
seas of statehood. Mr.. Fuesler is a
brother of Philip Fuesler and in let
ter written o Norfolk writes:
oklahoma City is quiet since we
got prohibition. Both breweries had
to quit, putting 200 people out of en-
ployment; also three wholesale liquor
houses and siXty.fve saloons which
put another 800 people out of work.
There are plenty of empty stores and
houses now. There Is no building GO
ing on.
Property prices have gone down.
The best offer that have had for my
Broadway property since prohibition
was last week when $37,500 was Of
fered. Before prohibition | had an
offer of 500 spot cash and no COM
mission. You can see what prohibition
is good for.
Not only this but the city is out of
money. Two months ago the city
council put an occupation tax on all
the merchants in the city ranging from
$l5 to 500. No one paid the tax so
last week the city arrested one of the
principal business men to make an
example. They figured without the
people. The business men called a
mass meeting the same night, de-
nounced the occupation tax, declared
that they would never pay it and that
they would put it in the courts and
test the legality. So the council re-
pealed the ordinance.
The prohibition preachers can't
pay, the business men won't pay; so
the city will have to sell bonds to
meet running expenses until next year
when general taxes will be increased
Now this is not all. The saloon
men have sued the city to recover 1884,
600 due them for licenses which they
paid the city before prohibition. The
city refuses, in fact cannot pay.
so you see everything is topsy tur-
Wy. Instead of beer and whiskey being
manufactured and shipped out of here,
the same is shipped in from other
states, which make the profit that is
paid here.
There is not as much beer used as
before prohibition but at least five
times as much whiskey. Nearly
everybody has his keg of whisksy in
the house. OF course | have my beer
and wine and when it is gone l know
where l can get more.
You see more DRINKS on the street
than ever The first two weeks of
prohibition there were no arrests
made and the prohibition people hol-
Tered themselves hoarse what a good
thing prohibition was. But the police
got tired letting all the DRINKS go
just to please the prohibition preach
ers, and besides needing the money.
so they took up their old job again
and arrested every drunk and fined
them So as before. Things got so bad
the police judge had to raise the fine
to SO. | see in this mornings paper
that the police judge said if this didn't
let up he would raise the fine to SIS.
but iet me tell sou tudI Iuose WIN
want whiskey will get it in spite of
hell.
"Of course this city will pick up
again but it will take at least year
before it will be where it was last
summer. If this was a settled town
il would never recover from the pPo-
hibition blow but this town is so To-
Gated that it can't help but make a
city unless they try something else
10 kill it,"