The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1911-05-25


ing and drinking and gambling and
the like are permitted with little or
no hindrances; where theaters are open
seven days in the week, and where
saloons do business all night as well
as all day, Sunday as we'll as Mon
day; and where the people, in their
business and in their recreations, are
allowed to observe Sunday in any way
they may choose. And the question
now before us is whether it is a com
mercial advantage to a town to be
thus wide open.
Mexico Andt lain Are Wide-open.
Fortunately we are not without data
to assist us in reaching a conclusion
in this matter. Mexico and Spain and
Cuba are the countries of the world
most distinctly wide open. Here,
therefore, of all places We should look
for the surest and most incontroverti-
BILE results of the wide-open idea. How
does Spain as a commercial nation
compare with England or Mexico
with Scotland; or Cuba with Canada?
Compare Madrid, with its bull fights
all day Sunday, with London without
newspapers, without theaters and with
out street cars. Compare the city of
Havana, with it's Sunday baseball, its
seven-day saloons, and it's racing, with
Tore without Sunday saloons and
without gambling and racing at any
time. And compare the City Of Mex
leo with its cock fights and vaudevilles
and Sunday drinking places with the
city of Edinburgh, stately and solid,
where religion is honored by the city
in its ordinances and in it's observ-
ances. Compare gay New Orleans,
falling far behind other great cities
of the country, not as great a factor
now, comparatively speaking, as she
, was before the war, with Liverpool, in
. no sense noted for it's wide-openness,
but everywhere famous for her great
commercial prowess. Even compare
Savannah, boasting of her wide-open
character and of her disregard of all
prohibitory laws, with Atlanta, strong
in so-called restrictive tendencies, go
ing forward in all commercial and bus
mess lines with leaps and bounds as
remarkable as unprecedented.
. How It Affects Business.
There are those who maintain that
a wide-open town means commercial
prosperity, and that non-wide-oper
town means commercial disaster. Let
us see a little bit.
i The three cities of the United States
- which in the recent census showed the
greatest per cent of gain were three
prohibition cities. Oklahoma City, &
saloonless city in dry" state, lead:
with an increase of 500 per cent in ter
years; and next comes Muskogee, witt
an increase of 494 per cent; and third
Birmingham, with 245 per cent. 81
y much has been said and written abou
business depression and ruin following
prohibition and about the grass grow
> ing in the streets of dry cities tina
the result in these three prohibition
cities must be staggering to these
= false prophets of evil.
Knoxville's Tax Rate Reduced.
=. Knoxville was the first large city il
the South to vote out its saloons
Knoxville spent last year twice al
. much money for public Improvement
as she ever spent before In one year
. and the tax rate without the salool
revenue is five cents lower on tn,
;. hundred dollars than in 1907 unde
saloons.
Kansas City Bank Deposits Increased
q In 1906 the saloons were driven on
q of Kansas City, Kansas, city of on
# hundred thousand population. TIL
n bankers, real estate dealers, and mel
v of all classes and professions said tina
it would ruin business and stop tn
progress of the town. But none O
those things happened. Those sam
"a bankers say now that they wer
e wrong, the real estate men pronounc
r business better than ever before, an
If the lumbermen say that they can hare
t, ly supply the demand The tax pave
found that prohibition put money int
the public treasury instead Of increa.
q ing taxes. In twelve months the con
lie bined bank deposits increased one an
r a half million dollars, and the real ei
ot tate men reported that more propert