The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1914-10-22
THE PEOPLES FORUM.
The Question Uppermost In the r1inds
of The People.

Mr.. EDITOR Will you allow me space
to speak a few words to the voters of
the county.
In few more days we will be called
upon to face one of the most important
questions that can confront US as citi-
zens. We want, of course, to do our
whole duty. We cannot afford to make
a mistake. We have no more right,
legally or morally. to do an injustice to,
or wrong the saloon man than we have
any other man. Have We right to vote
away his business? A right to rise up
and say to them, you can't sell any
more OF the stuff, or traffic in intoXica
ting liquors in our midst? Have we as
citizens right to say to the man who
attempts to run a slaughter house in
our midst that he must move out at
once? 1t would be condemned as a
nuisance. Would we tolerate mad
dog on our streets and thus endanger
our children, or a wild beast at large
and thus expose our children to danger?
! Yet we tolerate saloons which are con-
slant menace to good morals, snare to
our youth and temptation to manhood
to debauch itself. Why? There's some
money IN it. That is, the license they
pay goes into the treasury and it looks
big; it keeps the machinery of govern
ment running.
Let US be honest and look at the other
side of the question. What does it cost
to maintain them? 1t increases the
taxes you pay every time. 1t is claimed
/ by some that this town will not amount
to anything-it will have no life if it
goes dry. From such evidences of life
as the saloon gives US, Good Lord de-
liver u.s." It's the kind of life that
makes our streets at night unsafe for
ladies' to walk without escorts; that
brings here anywhere from ten to sixty
suit casers" from other places to fill
up their skins and cases and go back
home to deal it out to suckers. This is
especially true on Saturday nights,
when buns and cases are so in evidence
at the depot that a decent woman
shrinks from being seen there. The
conditions in Oakland now are a dis
grace to civilized community. Every
good citizen who loves order and decency
ought to do all he can to correct it.
Autos unblushingly load up the stuff in
daylight and whirl it away across the
border.
/ No rational man of business will claim
that it helps his business; he can't in
the face of the facts at hand. The in
disputable facts prove that the tax rate
in dry towns is lower than in wet ones.
The controller of the State of California
shows IN his report for 1912 that in 10
wet towns the tax rates averaged
SLAB, while in 10 dry towns 81 Is, but
when you subtract the bonded debts of
the city, which are usually for perma-
nent improvement, the average was
81. 10 for the vets and SO cents for the
drys.
If the traffic aids business, why do
commercial organizations and railroads
when advertising city. community or
state tell about the schools, churches,
banks, mills. farm products, timber,
mines, climate, scenery and natural re-
sources and fail, every time, to tell
about the saloons, gambling houses,
breweries, distilleries, brothels and their
products. Can you tell why they do
this? But they do.
We are up against the high cost of
living. DESTROY this traffic and you re-
duce the cost of living. How so? 1t is
responsible for so per cent of our in
sane, 60 per cent of our paupers. 70 per
cent of our criminals, for the destruc-
ton of homes and the corruption of pol