The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1914-03-11
Earlham Professor Asserts
City Tax Paid by Saloon
Keeper on Stock and Fix
lures Is $211.64.
$500,000 EXPENDED
IN SALOONS YEARLY
Half Million Dollars Would
Be Here for Business Pur-
poses if Town Went Dry,
Speaker Holds.

"Even with saloons in Richmond,
the city is in the hole s258.12 each
year by their being here, and that
does not take into account the losses
of jobs, education and homes by
drinkers declared Ebert Russell,
head Of the Earlham Biblical depart
ment, to a mass meeting at Reid Me-
mortal church last evening
Councilman Russell, Attorney Fred
White and Edgar A. Fisher, purchas-
ing agent Of Earlham college, COM
piled figures regarding the tax situa-
ton in Richmond, and the meeting
last evening was held to make known
the results of the investigation.
Dr. 8. R. Lyons, pastor Of the church,
made brief speech OF welcome in
which he suggested, Our little friend
on Seventh street (J. Bennett Cor
dom will see that the pot is boiling
too hot for him
S. Edgar Nicholson said, Our friend
Mr. Gordon is five years behind the
times. His rot might have been be-
neved five years ago, but the people
OF Richmond have progressed too
much to believe such stuff" This
statement was applauded.
RusselIs Address.
In developing the subject Taxa
tton In Richmond" Councilman Rus
sell read the following address:
"One of the most plausible argu-
ments advanced in favor of keeping
the saloons in Richmond is based up
on the license fees paid by the saloon
keepers into the city treasury. Four
teen thousand dollars is a large and
definite sum, the argument runs. If
we abolish the saloons, the city treas
rry will be short that much with moth
ing to take its place. Therefore, the
city will have to neglect needed pub
lie service or else raise taxes to make
up for the loss. The argument is
plausible because only one side of the
account is taken into account, as we
shall show.
In 1918 there were fifty-six license
holders (retaiD in Richmond We
were able to find the assessment
sheets at the court house for only
fifty-one Of these. We may have
missed some on account of the fire.
quent transfers Of licenses. OF the
fifty-one, three gave no returns on sa-
loon fixtures or stock. We have omit
ted these from the averages because
the fixtures and stock may possibly
have been owned by somebody else
and by them returned for taxation,
but it looks suspiciously like some
body had committed perjury in these
cases; either when the license holder
swore, as the Proctor law requires,
that he was sole owner of the busi-
ness, or when he swOre that the re-
turn of property was complete. One
hotel gave no return of saloon prop
erty separate from hotel property. The
total property for saloon purposes
given, in by the forty-seven remain
ing was as follows: For stock and fix
lures, $19.240; for cash registers and
safes, $2,405. 1t will be noticed that
cash registers and safes equal one
eighth of the amount given in for
saloon purposes. In considering the
taxes paid by the saloon keepers. for
purpose of comparison with that paid
by other business, we omit the items
for cash registers and safes, since
any other business would require
them. The total city tax paid by these
forty-seven saloon keepers on the as
sessed valuation Of their stock and
fixtures is s21164. Adding to this
the license fees. we find the city treas
ury enriched to the extent Of $14,-
21164 by its saloons for 1918.
The Other Side.
I'VE now turn to the other side of
the ledger We desired to learn how
much tax the city might have realized
from a similar number of legitimate
businesses. We chose forty-seven rep
resentative firms from the telephone
directory. We took them at first at