The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1914-10-23
SALEM SUFFERS
BUSINESS LOSSES
FROM DRY RULE
Store Property Rentals Drop$75
a Month in City
BANK DEPOSITS OFF SSoO,OOO
Fourteen Business Houses Quit in Less
Thar Yer. School Attendance Less

Many Oregon papers have
been loaded down within
the past three weeks with
repeated assurances that
"Business is Fine in Dry
Towns"
The three most important
Oregon cities to become
"dry" nine months ago were
Salem, Oregon City and
Springfield.
If business is fine in those cities
the taxpayers and most of the
business men would like to have
the "drys" explain just what
they mean by fine II they
had said business is thin," then
they might have been more easily
understood.
Let them answer first about
conditions in Salem. Ex-Council-
man John D. Turner, Of Salem,
an attorney, is sponsor for the
following facts about that city:
Salem went "dry" December last,
closing Is saloons, three restaurants
and two wholesale houses and withdrew
liquor permits from eight drug stores
and cut off an annual license revenue
Of 15,400. Ninety men and monthly
payroll Of $500 were put out Of com.
mission. Most of the men have left
the city. All buildings vacated by
these concerns are still empty, except
six, which have been occupied by ten
ants who have vacated other buildings,
several of the best buildings being
boarded over and used as billboards.
More than five hundred modern dwell
ings are "for rent.o Store property
rentals on State street have dropped
from $185 to $l10 month, but "busi-
ness is fine.0
Fourteen other business places have
closed since December last, aside
from the saloons and restaurants. In
cluded are three shoe stores-two by
sheriff and one voluntarily; one of the
largest drygoods stores has been sued
for the first time in twenty years.
Scores of clerks have left the city,
causing the loss of more payrolls to
the city, but "business is fine"
A leading prohibitionist promised to
build.16 new dwellings if the city went
"dry.u Nine houses were begun, two
have the windows and doors in, but
have never been finished; no work has
been done on the others, besides their
bare frames.
Building permits from January to
August, the last nine wet months of
1918, were $3SS,925 from November,
1918, to September, 1914, the next
hleven "dry" months, they were $780,.
boo less, or $685. ,l60.
The grammar school opening day en-
rollment in 1913 was 1910; on the same
day 1914, 1869, but "business is fine."
Bank deposits show decrease of
$309,942 since the town went "dry,"
even after allowing for the $4S5,000
deposited this year from sale of bonds
in Boston. The decrease, therefore,
really should be $79a,942, but "busi-
ness is fine
Fair" this year was about one-half
what it was the last "wet" year. The
Ministerial Association before the cleo
ticn which made Salem "dry," told
the Cherry Fair promoters that they
would make up for the donations usu'
ally made by the saloons, but utterly
failed to do so this year and the pro-
moters refused to hold that carnival.
The "Cherrians," consisting of 100
real boosters, but of no prohibitionists,
then pledged their personal member.
ship for the necessary funds, requiring
the payment on their part Of $500. To
rub it in, the Methodists then turned
their church into restaurant, put the
kitchen in the pulpit and competed
with the legitimate restaurants for the
little business that their proprietora
had hungrily looked for as q possible
annual godsend
Business must be "finen in any city
when building permits, payrolls, bank
deposits, bankruptcies, closed stores, dc.
populated dwellings, depressed realty
values, school enrollments and carnival
statistics all tell so dreary story Of
literal fact. Maybe the prohibitionists
mean that the "agitating business" is
| fine.
Paid Advertisement, Taxpayers @ Wage
Farmers League of Oregon, Portland, Ore