Norwich bulletin., 1909-09-20


 | c. Wright, was upon no-license, speak ing upon the topic, "The Saloon Has Forfeited Its Right to Exist" He said in part:
 I wish to reiterate a former state- | ment that this is purely a Social ques- | tion. It is non-partisan, non-sectari | an, noa-racial, and non personal It is | not a question as to who the men are who are conducting the saloon or who i are the men who are opposing it. The question before the community is, | Shall the institution known as the sa- loon in our social body be licensed? Neither temperance fanaticism nor saloon misrepresentation will deter mine the issue. The saloons right to exist will depend upon Its value to the community, it's forfeiture upon its curse to the community.
 l submit to you some reasons why I contend that it has forefited its right to be: 1. It is a principal breeder of most vicious sickness, pauperism and crime. One hundred thousand of the citizens of Connecticut, according to the present rate of death from tuber- culosis, are doomed to die of that disease The International Congress on Tuberculosis in 1905 declared that the relation of alcohol to tuberculosis was so close that efforts against them should be combined.
 2. The saloon Is a curse to the younger generation. The representa- tives at Budapest declared that alcohol has disastrous effects upon future generations" Thousands of children are epileptics and imbeciles through having had the misfortune to be born of drunken parents. Besides this great section of childhood there is another which is robbed of the education oth- erwise possible by being compelled to leave school to work in the interests of the family. Investigation proves that Connccticut's eighteen cities now contain over 2.300 such young people.
 3. The saloon is an economic octo- pus. The liquor traffic is a more ter riible octopus than any other trust known. Is it the friend of labor? Let Us see. Iron and steel and their pro- duets employ 496 men to every million dollars invested. Lumber and it's man. ufactures employees 726 men to every million invested; leather industries 5S0 men, paper and printing 349, vehicles S5S. LiqLcr employs 104 to every million invested.
 Take another view. What share of the value produced by his toll does the laborer get in the liquor traffic com- pared to these other industries? In iron and steel labor he gets p per cent, in lumber 27 per cent, in leather 16 per cent, in paper 21 per cent, in vehicles S4 per cent, in liquor g per cent. Wherein is the aiquor business the friend of the laborer.
 The saloon is surely a curse finan- cially to this town. We pay year by year all we get in licenses to take care of it's product. and are out rum's share in the cost of the police force, thou sands of days spent in jail by laboring men, besides seven or eight hundred J1TI |, f1t f1,.a bar and are thus diverted from legiti- mate business channels. Liquor costs Norwich and New London between a million and two million every year we suffer the saloon.
 Local Reasons for Abolishing It.
 l. To reduce the number If two years of no-license doesn't justify that experiment, when we go back, law will prohibit the presence of more than one saloon for every 500 of population, or for Norwich only 52 saloons.
 2. The saloon is debauching our citizens.
 3. Do it to help the boys and girls Get the saloons away from the schools feet of churches and schools. Some say so. Is that the voice of the town?
 f. Shall rum defy and threaten the citizens of this community and enjoy their patronage? When men want to sign a petition to vote on the license question. not indicating thereby even which way they choose to vote. shall they be threatened and compelled to remove their names? Shall we speak of personal liberty?" Shall we, living in the home town of Governor Buck ingfam and his compatriots. suffer such wrongs and be silent? One act will determine that question. Vote "No."
 No-License in No-License Places.
 At Trinity Methodist church Sum- day morning. Rev. pr. M. S Kauf- man presented Up to Date Testimony for No-License from No-License States and Cities" He read personal letters to himself direct from the present governors of North Carolina and Kansas. from the leading judge of the district court of North Da- kota, from the mayor of Cambridge and the mayor of Worcester All of these gave strong and positive witness to the great advantage of no-license over license, especially in a business way. Much emphasis was laid upon the economic value of doing away with the open saloon. The merchant prince of North Dakota says: When no-li- cense went into effect in 1890 the friends of the saloon said grass would grow in our streets. My experience has proven that they were mistaken. It has been clearly demonstrated that the saloon is competitor of the store and a detriment to every legitimate business. The saloon impoverishes it's customer, robs him of earning ability and brings poverty to his home. As a purely business proposition, any community is a gainer by abolishing the liquor traffic" This is actual ex- perience, these are facts and faCrs are more powerful arguments than theories.
 In the evening. Dr. Kaufman spoke on: Liquor Traffic and the Laboring Man." He said in part: Laboring people make up the overwhelming majority of the population in all coun- tries of the civilized world. He is in- dispensable to the very existence of society. Hence whatever materially affects his elevation or degradation is of supreme importance to him and to mankind. That many wage earners and laborers, both skilled and unskill- ed, are seriously and fatally injured by the liquor traffic, no honest man can deny. Ex-Governor Hanly of In- diana says: "Of all men wronged by this traffic, the man who tolls for his bread is most cruelty injured. And of all men he can least afford the in- jury. His health, his power to labor,- his physical and mental efficiency, constitute his capital. And these are all impaired by his patronage of this traffic"
 Here we have one of the heaviest indictments against the licensed sa- loon. It is the laboring mans most deadly and destructive and ruinous foe because CD it entices and tempts him to the habitual and excessive use of