The Washington herald., 1912-02-16

are noted for thrift. sobriety, and good
conduct, and the communities In which
] they live regard them as a valuable and
desirable element OF the population The
localities all over the country in which
brewery workers reside are noted fol
freedom from turbulence and crime.
The revenue derived by nation. State
and municipality from breweries and sa-
looms Is a most important part Of the pub
lie income, amounting TO $50 soo0,ooA pay
ing an additional tax on real estate, per-
sonal property and city licenses OF more
than $75.ooo.ooo yearly.
tremendous hole in the tax. receipts
The adoption OF prohibition or local op-
ton would cause deficit 20 great in the
public revenues that the finding OF other
sources OF taxation to make up the loss
would be one of the gravest problems
that could possibly be presented to law
makers and TO the people.
The argument OF the advocates of pro-
hibition that public expenses would be
proportionately diminished through the
suppression Of the brewery and saloon
is contradicted by the experience Of all
communities which have tried the costly
prohibition or local option experiment
The North American Review said re-
Gently on this subject: In 9o6 towns,
located in thirty-three different States
GA of them under prohibition or local
mitting no liquor to be sold in them, the
average tax rate on each 800 valuation
was 243 in the prohibition towns and
$-59 in the towns where licenses are
granted. A similar investigation gives
like results as to rents and real estate
values in such localities"
Common sense is enough to demon
strate that, when new crimes are created
by making unlawful that which was
lawful Ehan man NJ !, Hsfe x1-l,o
used to take their beer in quiet and
comfort are driven to stimulants because
they cannot get beer on account of pro-
hibitory laws and when the police, who
ought to be watching for burglars and
thieves and firebugs, are engaged in
watching for Illicit liquor selling, taxes
must be higher to pay for the Increased
expenses thus incurred by interfering
with the personal rights OF the citizen.
In addition to the cost in money, the
community is demoralized by prohibition
Blackmsilers and sneaks thrive at the
public expense; the drug store. where
soft drinks" used to be sold, goes into
the business of selling stimulants in soda
water, and men and women are thus led
to contract habits which in a majority
Of cases are impossible to over
come The time Of public prose-
cutors is taken up with liquor cases,
to the neglect of their duties in the
prosecution Of real crimes. Any one who
has lived in n prohibition locality knows
that all this is true, and that much more
might be said of the demoralizing ef-
fects Of trying to force men to be total
abstainers by statute law. Those locali-
ties are the paradise of worthless
wretches, who thrive in a prohibition at
mosphere as maggots live in slime, and
who, in any manly, decent, self-respect-
ing community, would find their way to
the workhouse or the penitentiary. These
worthless wretches are employed as spies
to detect the blind tigers and the
"speak-easies," and when they cannot
blackmail they betray, and often they
both blackmail and betray. II is no won
der that the better part of the community
revolts from such degrading conditions,
and that a trial Of prohibition or local
option has almost invariably been fol-
lowed by a return to the license system.
The true friend of temperance will do
all tha' he can to promote the brewing
industry. and to bring about a larger sale
of beer in place of stimulants which mad
den and inflame. The vast majority OF men
are bound to use stimulants in some form,
and those who would be content with
beer will take something stronger If
they cannot get beer. The industry
which provides the safe, mild, and
wholesome beer should therefore be ap-
proved by every patriotic American, by
every friend of humanity. 1t is one or
our greatest Industries, and should be
encouraged to become. greater. Farmers
and mechanics, manufacturers and
tradesmen in scores of different occu-
pations have a vital interest in the well
fare of the breweries, and every citizen
who loves peace and order and quiet IS
likewise interested in maintaining and
safeguarding from the attacks of fad
dists and fools the right of his fellow
citizens to take a glass Of beer when
they feel like It, without having some
sneak or spy at their elbows, watching
for the violation Of a local option or
prohibitory law. 1t is a well-established
fact that where the sale OF beer in
creases the sale of stimulants dimin-
ishes, and it is equally well established
that where prohibition or local option
prevails decoctions of the vilest charac-
ter take the place of beer.
The brewers of the United States are
therefore justly esteemed by all whose
good opinion is worth having as among
the very best Of our business men, and as
engaged in an industry which is a bless
ing to the whole country. The amount
OF capital, as We have already pointed
out, invested in the industry is enormous.
All that investment save only the actual
land value would be rendered practically
worthless by prohibition, which is the
real object of the champions of local op-
tion. Prohibition would Immediately cause
thousands of pieces Of property to be-
come vacant and to stand idle. thus
bringing heavy losses and probable ruin
upon countless real estate owners as well
as want and distress upon the former
tenants. The depreciation in the value
OF the great hotel and high-class restau-
rants which have sprung up in cities and
towns throughout the country would be
tremendous and in many instances dis
astrous.
The immediate effect on labor of adopt
ing prohibition would be to throw out of
work many classes of wage-earners. The
breweries alone employ fifty thousand
wage-earners, who receive not less than
$50, 900, 900 annually and have steady en-
pIoyment. These employees generally have
families and not less than 10000 per-
sons rely on them for a living. Fully
10000 saloonkeepers and as many bar
keepers are dependent on the continuance
of their business for means of support,
and most of these also have families.
Taking in the farmhands on the hop
farms of the country, the many thousands
of hop pickers engaged in the hop picking
season, the many thousands OF workers
in the cooperage, bottle-making, wagon
manufacturing, and other trades, allied to
the brewing industry, and in large
degree dependent upon it, and II can
safely be said that no other industry In
the country has a more beneficial infiu-
ence upon the welfare Of labor than that
of the brewers.
The heads OF the great brewing industries
hold foremost place also in every move
ment that makes for public betterment and