Decorah public opinion., 1911-04-12
OSSIAN BEE AND SALOON ISSUE

without wisdom.
Listen now to the drone of this
Ossian bumble-bee:
The decision of Judge Hobson
will deprive Winneshiek county of
$17,500 annually, which deficit in
taxes must be raised by levying ad-
ditional taxes. The additional taxes,
however, will not be very exacting
to the taxpayer, who frequents well
regulated, high-licensed, lawful sa-
looms and drinks his little glass of
beer every day.
His little glass of beer every
day."
Has the Ossian Bee ever winged
its way outside lily or a clover
blossom? 1t evidently knows more
about buttercups than beer glasses.
His little glass of beer every day
forsooth! And so it cost this coun-
ty $1,700 last year to send men to
Knoxville who never drank but one
little glass of beer every day. And
there were seven tragic deaths in
year and half, in the town of De-
corah, of men who never drank but
one little glass of beer every day in
well regulated saloons. When his
innocency, the editor of the Ossian
Bee, stops feeding on honey-dew The
Winneshiek County Law and Order
League would like to employ him
to establish -glass-of-b
everyday saloons all over this coun-
ty, and while he is at work it will
promise to go out of business.
m go
to your hive-hole! Your mother,
the Queen bee, doesn't know you're
out!
And so it seems that this tax pay
er who drinks his little glass of
beer every day will be money to the
good when he can no longer drink
in well regulated, licensed saloons
and can stand the additional taxa
ton out of his savings. For this
conclusion, many thanks, little Bee.
This implies of course that the blind
pig will have no kind of attraction
for the man who has been accus-
cry day in the lawful saloon.
very much fear, little Bee, that
this sentence of your is full of tan
gle-foot. When you come to put
on your forty horse power drone
about the blind pigs we will bear
this sentence in mind. But now,
let us continue our quotation: But
this taxation will be burdensome to
the tax payer who by reason of econz
omy or other private reason, does
not frequent saloons" How burden
some? Not a dollar apiece for ev-
cry man, woman and child in Win
neshiek county. And, farmers, no
increase at all in reality, for you.
Farmers, you only get a few thou
sand dollars out of all this money
for your county treasury. And the
extra tax for Knoxville, poor-rates,
poor, farm, extra court and pail ex-
penses, by reason of the saloon,
falls in the main on you.
Farmers, surely there is little or
nothing in these saloon licenses for
you. Surely the men and women
In this county who do not frequent
saloons are SO much more to the
good financially than those who do
that the little additional tax for a
season will be borne patiently for
humanity's sake. ai
But now comes such description
of the horrors of the blind pig that
one might easily believe that all the
hogs in Winneshiek county had
gone stone blind and then gone into
bootlegging.
T Saloons closed, what then, accord
ing to the Ossian Bee?
1t presents an opportunity for
boot-leggers and blind-piggers to
practice their nefarious, wicked,
criminal, unjust, unrighteous, flag
rant, .fiagicious, heinous, outrageous
and atrocious trade, namely the IL
legal sale of Intoxicating liquors."
In the meantime, citizens of Win
neshiek county, what are you doing?
Dozens of other counties in this
state of Iowa have gone dry by a
narrow margin and in these dozens
of other counties the law against the
illegal sale of liquors are reasonably
we'll enforced. But the citizens of
Winn9shiek county, according TO the
Ossian Bee, are so "nefariously
wicked, criminal, heinous, unjust,
unrighteous, outrageous and afro
cious,' that they neither can nor
will do in the enforcement OF law
what other citizens dn the same cir
cumstances both can do and are do
ing.
How do you like that kind of COM
pliment, citizens of Winneshiek?
How do you like to have 1t boldly
asserted that you are exceptionally
lawless and weak kneed?
But, mark you, there is more than
bold assertion here that you can
not to what other counties are do
ing. There is also a veiled threat
here. ..nere are men in the liquor
Interests of this county who defiant
ly assert that IL they are not allowed
to continue their open saloons they
will do their level best to make both
town and county SO riotous and
drunken by the illegal sale of liquor
that the county will be forced back
into the arms of the open saloon
in self defense. In other words, 22
saloon keepers and their allies cry
with beer bottle at our heads stand
and deliver" or we will uncork.
Just imagine what a howl there
would be If the shoe was on the
other foot. Suppose that law and
order men were trying to cow the
saloon interests by veiled threats Of
what would come to pass II saloon
man insisted upOn their legal rights