The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-10-27

instead the people spending their
money Tor Iiquor they would spend Il
for more eatab1es. shoes. clothing.
household goods and building of new
homes, 1t would give more business
to the merchants They could have
larger stocks of goods. bigger build
lhBs' more clerks, and attract more
trade from the surrounding country.
The workingmen would have more
work. the property would increase in
the city When the tax assessor went
around there would be more property
to tax, and in time this would bring
into the treasury many times the
amount OF money lost by abolishing
saloons Where saloons exist ntr-
chants must charge more for their
| goods to make up for the bad debts
caused by those who spend their
money In the saloon. Merchants hold
the trade of their own city and at
| tract trade from the surrounding
country by Offering the best bargains.
| No matter how much people may dis
| like a nationality or an individual,
| they VIII not hesitate to trade with
! them If they offer the best bargains,
| I'm saloon cities landlords must charge
more rent for their houses in order
to make up for the loss of rent caused
| by those who spend their money i'm
saloons and would sooner move than
pay rent. Saloons by increasing
crime. pauperism and insanity, great
ly Increase the expenses of the city.
county, state and nation. 1t has been
we'll said that "for every dollar the
government gets from the liquor traf-
iic it must pay back from fifteen to
twenty dollars to care for the results
of the liquor traffic
Recruits for the saloon.
The financial prosperity of the
thousands of cities throughout our
land that have abolished the saloon
Is proof Of their wisdom from dol
lar-and-cent standpoint. When a city
maintains saloons for revenue pur-
poses it needs financial education. 1t
reminds of the story of the people of
long ago who ate raw pork. one day
the wood shed where hog was kept
burned down and roasted the hog that
was i'm it. When they tasted roast
pork they were delighted and they
kept on building and burning sheds
with hogs in them in order to get
roast pork. until they finally learned
that they could get pork roasted with
out burning up sheds.
II city had to make up every cent
by taxation of what It would lose In
license fees by the adjustment of
the saloon, yet there is another rea-
son more important than all why the
10
loon cannot exist without making
drunkards The drunkard will die.
the moderate drinker will take the
drunkard's place, and the boys of
your city will take the moderate
drinkers place and march on to
drunkard's grave. When you license
the saloon you sell YOUR boys, and
what do you get for them? Divide the
revenue secured from the saloons
among your population and 1t will not
to a dollar per head.
At the rate of 10000 deaths a year,
three out of every twenty-one per-
sons are going down to a drunkard's
grave. one out of twenty is going to
the jail, penitentlai.y. gallows insane
asylum or poorhouse through strong
doomed to ruin through the open sa-
loon; one out Of every seven to a
death. If n man came To-
your city and Interviewed the fathers |
and mothers and told them he was
going to take all OF the boys of the |
city, according as they grew up, into |
n society, a very lively society with !
plenty of music, fun and excitement, |
but that one out of every five boys |
was to go to ruin, and one out of |
every seven was to die, for the society |
was to be death lottery. where |
would be the father or mother who |
would say to that man. you may |
have my boy?" He might say to |
them, Don't be afraid; only one out |
of every seven will meet death, and |
it may not be your boy; it may be |
somebody else's boy; and then do not
forget that We are to pay into the
city treasury the munlfcent sum of
their boys going into a death lottery, |
where one out of seven would meet
death would drive terror into faith
cr's or mothers heart. They would |
look upon man who came to them
with proposition OF that kind ms the
worst lunatic on the face of the earth;
and IL he got nothing worse than a
flat-iron dying after him he would
be mighty lucky But the liquor traf-
iic comes to you with a like propo-
slton; give us your boys TO keep our
saloons going and we Will pay into
your treasury SLOT. per capita; and
there are people going around trying
to get the city to accept the offer.
All the saloons i'm your city and, In
fact, all the saloons in the world, are
not worth one boy. There Is in Chi
cago magnificent government build
ing which cost eight million dollars
and took eleven years TO build; but
there Is not one boy in your city, no
matter how poor he may be, who Is
not worth more than that building,
because IN the course of time that
Will crumble to ruins ana
there will be nothing left of 1t; while
the boy has q soul and that soul VIII
live forever Place all the saloons In
your city on one side, and one boy on
the other side and you should decide
in favor of the boy XIII the saloon
instead OF letting the saloon Kill your
boys Don't be bribed with license
money. People who would sell them