Los Angeles herald., 1910-03-08
TEMPERANCE REFORM

VII HO is behind" the liquor bust
w ness? The big brewer? Yes,
" Brewing interests have naturally
sought to create a market. The great
distilleries? les, The great distiller-
les naturally desire to reach consum-
ers. The retailers? no. Most of them
only work for a bare living. Other
things being equal, many of them
would gladly exchange their calling
for another but they have followed
the trade" since their youth. and it is
the only business they understand. No
retail liquor seller ever wants to see
his son in the same business.
Such people are behind" the traffic,
of course But who are behind the
people who are behind the traffic?
Why, the landlords who rent or lease
the premises, to be sure. If the liquor
seller is willing to pay two or three
times more rental than the baker
whether will the baker or the liquor
seller get the lease from the agent?
The block system will work a grad
ual reduction in theSnumber of liquor
places. because it will allow a liquor
establishment to operate under the
law Of free competition in procuring a
location. This means that so far as
the profit-seeking landlord is concerned,
he cannot hold up the saloon business
for exorbitant rentals, any more than
he can hold up the butchers business,
or anv other. Now it is an easily
proved fact that a place engaged in
carrying on the liquor business is in
furious to the rental values of con-
tiguous stores. So it follows that if
landlord is estopped from holding up
the liquor lsiness to such an extent
he can afford the consequent neighbor-
hood depreciation and still be finan-
cially a gamer (and almost invariably
the landlord who owns storeroom
owns several contiguous ones in the
same building), there is no longer any
inducement for him to rent to liquor
business.
On the contrary, he will have strong
inducements NOT to rent to such
bl lsiness. The professors of an ad-
vanced school of social and political
economy are incontrovertibly right in
one of their claims, which is, eliminate
profit from the liquor-selling business,
and it will end itself. Decrease the
l-adlord's opportunities of realizing
profits from rentals to liquor stores,
and he will unfailingly be driven by
economic reasons to the co-Glusion
man engaged in the liquor business is
an undesirable tenant.
The tentative measurers proposed are
characterized by great sagacity and
common sense, and are we'll worthy of
support. They contain many good fea-
lures in addition to the admirable
"block' provision, which DEGREES that
by filing a petition bearing the sigma
lures of the owners of a majority of
the property frontage on both sides of
a block the signers may prevent any
additional saloon or wholesale license
from being granted on the block.
The tentative ordinance proposes to
further the cause of temperance and
good citizenship by increasing price of
saloon licenses from $100 to $3.50 a
month; brewery licenses from $50 to
$3.50 month; wholesale licenses from
SIS to $125 a month"; social club licenses
from nothing to $lOO a month; wineries
from nothing to $50 a month for those
doing a gross business of $1,000 month,
and SIS for those doing less than that
amount
A special hotel liquor license permit
ting the holder to serve drinks any
where on the Premises viii cost $3.50 a
month, and there will be two classes
of restaurant licenses, one of which,
costing $3.50 a month, will permit prac-
tically all kinds of liquors to be served
at meals; the other which allows serv-
ing with meals beer and wine in origi-
nal packages only, will cost SIS a
month.
The cause of temperance reform will
be helped greatly and progress in this
direction accomplished safely, sanely,
and surely, if the proposed ordinances
prepared by the public welfare commit
tee of the council become effechva-