The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-05-07
w. c. I. u. COLUMN.
Devoted TO the Interest Of Christian and temperance
Work, Under the Supervision OF Francis Willard
VIC. 7. U. and Directed by Mrs. Dr. Dagan,
to Whom all Communications for This
Column Should be Sent
Column Should be Sent.

GAINESVILLE, o.. March 13.-(Speclai
correspondence - Clergymen and
other prominent people in this city
are receiving clippings from news
papers published in various parts of
the country containing what purport
to be stories of the awful results"
of no-llcense in GAINESVILLE. The back
bone of these stories Is usually a
quotation from the Tines Record, n
paper published here, which, q few
weeks ago, reported a mammoth
meeting" held i'm the Chamber OF
Commerce in this city, to protest
against the results of no-license. Ac-
cording to these published stories,
the city is fun of empty store build
ings, the number variously stated at
from 20 TO SO: merchants
are complaining concerning the loss
of business and the city Is very near
ly bankrupt
Now the facts In the case are
these The Merchants Committee"
the name under which the liquor in
terests operated here in their cam
paign against no-license, called n
meeting some weeks ago to meet on
February 3 for the purpose of pre-
pairing petition to the legislature
to secure the sale of liquor A large
number of circulars and letters ad-
vertising and promoting the meeting
were mailed not only throughout the
city, but through the whole county.
The meeting was held in the Cham
ber of Commerce, in which there
were at that time just forty-seven
chairs. The chairs were flled and
there were some people standing, per-
haps as many as were occupying
chairs. In all, there certainly were
not more than 1875 people present,
at the outside. That was the imam
moth meeting" Not only this. but
number of those present attended
TO champion no-license Twelve
speeches were made and three of
them were vigorously in favor of mo-
license. ,.-...-,
In point of fact, no-lincenSe here
has not been failure, excepting that
saloon-owned officials have not en-
forced II so faithfully as they shouhl.
When the regime went into operation
IL closed eighty-two saloons. and the
closest possible counting can not find
one-half that number OF business
places vacant IN tne CITY tOudN. oH
the day when the meeting in ques-
ton was held there were just three
vacant business places in the nine
blocks which constitute the business
center of Main street. Two of these
were the former homes of groggeries.
and the other a place that had just
been vacated Rents have largely in
creased during the no-license year
and a number of new buildings have
been built and old buildings have
been improved In three months
past. the deposits of the five banks
have increased more than half mil
lion dollars: business is prosperous
IN every line: coal, furniture and pros
vision men have made larger sales
this winter than ever before In
spite OF the talk about the poverty
of the city, II Is notorious fact that
the city council has largely increased
expenses during the year, raising the
salaries of the mayor and other OFF,
GERS and entering upon new lines OF
expenditure.-The National Prohibi-
tfonist OF March II, 1910.
Education among the children viii