The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-03-21

mes III the city OF 81. raul, DeSlQeS
those paid indirectly, in cash or
cashiers checks by brewing compa-
MES, and operating as loans to the
| saloonkeeper which he would be re-
quired to repay in weekly Install
| ments of twenty dollars and fire.
quently four or five and up to twen-
! ty-five licenses have been paid for by
| on brewing company's check; that,
in cases where the saloonkeepers are
in default in the payment of their
license fee, the brewing company, on
notice thereof, have paid the same;
that many of the leases or contracts
above referred to between the brew
| ing companies and saloonkeepers re-
quired the saloonkeeper to handle
only the beer manufactured or fur
nished by the brewing company
granting the lease and they have
been known to open saloons owned or
controlled by them in direct competi-
ton with Independent saloons for lie
evident purpose of diverting the
liouor business in such locality to
| themselves. That it is common prac-
tice for the brewing companies to
nav the bonding fee to surety compa-
MES for bonds issued to saloonkeep-
ers. Transfers of licenses have be-
come frequent. Some licenses have
been transferred as early as two or
three months after they were issued
and as often as two or three times
during the life of the license and
where the original licenSee ceased
business and before the transfer the
brewing company would take posses
sion of the license and business until
transferred to other parties and then
continue in control of the business.
That brewing companies purchase
lots and buildings for retail liquor
business and place persons in charge
thereof and protect them in business
not sanctioned by law.
Evidence of Brewery Control.
"And, as further evidence of the
brewing companies ownership and
control of the retail liquor business,
your committee recites the following
from the message of the mayor OF
the city of Minneapolis to the mem
bers of the city council of that city,
delivered on January Z, 1907, to-wit:
""The rights of the license dealer
is very plainly to be seen. However,
that the brewery ownership of 80 per
cent of the retail liquor dealers OF
the city has much to do with the
system that offers such bitter and
stubborn resistance to the new order
of things and. while the struggle has
only been fairly begun against this
monstrous assumption OF special privi-
lege by liquor dealers, the reform be-
gun will doubtless become permanent
for their benefits are well understood
and this community has become thor
oughly convinced of the value of de-
handing that the saloonkeeper be
held within the law as are citizens
engaged in other lines of business.
1.-The sale and disposal of intoxi-
eating liquors in so-called unlicensed
drinking places, blind pigs and
houses of i'll fame, are and have been
carried on extensively and in this
connection it was ascertained that
brewing companies frequently encour-
age and protect blind pigs by deliv-
ering to and supplying them with
beer, placing on deposit up to one
thousand dollars as fund for the
payment of fines imposed: that by
system of compensating their deliv-
erymen on commission or percent
age basis, by which the largest sales
would bring the highest wages, blind
pigs and other unlicensed drinking
places increased and more beer and
liquor was necessarily sold and con-
sumed: that police officers have
found in blind pigs twenty-four, thir-
ty, and, forty cases of beer and have
found them in the residence portions
of the city. The federal government
license found in unlicensed drinking
places was paid for by brewing
company and claimed by it. That fire.
quently places known as blind pigs
or disorderly houses are in fact
houses of designation and are often
located in the residence parts of the
Cities that young girls, sixteen years
of age and upward, often frequent
such places and remain there all
night that in the business section of
the city blind pigs are found mostly
over saloons that frequently the
same places have been raided three
and four times and each time the
same parties have been found in
charge of same; that in Minneapolis
in the year 1909, 129 blind pigs and
diSorderly houses were located and
convictions secured and in the year
1910 there were 104 convictions; that
in the prosecution of blind pig cases
an agent of the brewing company
generally was present with the de-
PENDANT
Houses of Assignation.
with respect to the houses of as
signation, it appears that property
owned by brewing companies were
used for designation purposes, receiv-
ing monthly rent therefor, and di-
rectly supplying the same with beer
by their brewery wagons, sometimes
every day, or when ordered by the
one in charge of the place and by
special arrangement with the agent
of the brewing company, the manage
ment of such designation house was
notified of threatened arrest or pO-
lice interference and, furthermore, it
was shown that houses of prostitu-
ton were assisted and protected to
the extent that officers of a brewing
company, to-wit, the secretary there
Of, signed from fifteen to twenty bail
bonds given by persons arrested in
raids made on houses of prostitution
and on June IS, 1912, brewing COM
pany was indicted for letting their
proportv for nroc titution pupnocpS