Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-09-17

town that has voted dry the places
given over to the saloon business
have been occupied by other kinds
of business of a legitimate nature
and hence the same number of build
ings are necessary and a larger num-
Der of business houses are necessary
to supply the wants Of the increased
purchasing power of that element
which formerly spent the money in
the saloon. This ought at least to
be a suggestion to the average mind
that drinking men of saloon towns
which vote dry" will have money
| to repair their sidewalks, improve
their homes or build new ones and
thus bear their share of the burden
of taxation.
Revenue also comes from saloon
! licenses. Voting dry" abolishes
this source of revenue. What takes
its place? Clearly there is no other
revenue which directly and immed-
lately takes it's place. But an answer
to this can be found in almost any
town. Wenatchee furnishes a con-
crete problem. When the saloons
were in full blast, the city received
$500 in Lenses and something over
$4,000 in fines rsulting from Gil ar
rests, covering period of one year
and half, ending August |, 1909.
The total disbursements out of the
city treasury to maintain the police
force and the police court, to feed
adm take care of the prisoners, was
$40, 220.07 for the same period. OF
these arrests, Az were for drunken
ness, SO for vagrancy, "a for fight
ing, "a as inmates of the red light
district which was abolished with the
saloons, A for selling liquor without
license and one for keeping open
on Sunday, making more than out
of every 6 of the arrests from which
these fines resulted. So, it can be
truthfully said that the saloon is
responsible for very large per cent
of the cost of m aintaining the police
program of the city and that the city
was actually a loser N dollars and
cents in revenue at the end of the
year. This is undoubtedly true of any
town of similar size and condition
for Wenatchee has always had a fair
reputation for enforcement of law.
What Wenatchee received in license
fees and fines was Immediately paid
out to take care of the products of
the saloon.
In addition to this question of revc-
nue. comes the second question Of
the relation of the saloon to business.
Part of this has already been
answered. Further, the experience
of the average merchant is that
very large proportion of his bad ac-
counts which total hundreds of dol
lars per annum, and from many of
which he will never receive a cent,
comes from the family of the drink
err. who, by reason of his drinking,
becomes incapable of earning or saw
ing money. The business man is
bound also to realize the difference
between saloon and no-saloon town
by the increased purchasing power
of the afOretime drinker. 1t Is con-
servatively estim ated that the aver
age income of the saloon is not less
than 100000 per year. Multiply
this by the number of saloons and it
is easy to see that much less will be
spent for dry goods, groceries, ETC. A
few hundred dollars a year deducted
from bad accounts and correspond
ing increase in the amount of goods
sold for which cash is paid, would
enable every man engaged in every
kind of business easily to pay his ad-
ditional share of revenue required by
the loss of the license fee, if there
were any. Wenatchee says there isn't
any loss. 1t is merely a matter of
cold-blooded calculation. The bust
ness men of tL1 country are joining
the no-license side.