The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-06-11

Lake crystal people were not so much
annoyed at having liquor shipped from
Mankato into Lake Crystal as they
were at the fact that young men of
Lake Crystal found 10 so handy to come
TO aankato to tank up"
ReFert Frcm owatonna.
6. X. Nelson cs Owatonna stated
that during the wet wear of I913-14.
whith was a Prosperous year with
good crops. the bank deposits had in
creased $4,000. and during the fol-
lowsrS wear. which wa1 dry, these de-
posts had increase ny S139000. BY
voting cut the s,io-ns III" owaionna
people had increased the bank depcs-
its by 100000. Buaiross had thriyed
under the Cr" regime Gag stores
prospered because poole thrt used
TO spend their none for Ecuo- spent
IL on clothes. Stores that had wnm-
ems apparel to sell were doing f~cat
business because men that usca ~
drink now had more money thap :iev
ever had before to spend on the =
wives garments. At the same time
II could not be expected that II the
saloon license money was taken
away, taxes would not be raised. He
| figured that 10 man paid $40 a year
taxes after the city of Mankato went
dry. 81 of this money would be paid
, as the price of having no saloons.
Statement From Blue Earth.
III. j. Frundt of Blue Earth COM
pared the city expenses of Blue Earth
dry. with Fairmont. wet. for several
years. He stated that in 1911 the mon.
ey raised by taxation to run the city
OF Blue Earth was $11.02S. 06. while
, in the same year. Fairmont raised
s1O.s11.42 by taxation. and received
$4,000 from the six saloons. Thus Il
took nearly the whole of that $4,000
OF iicence money TO run Fairmont
over and above what IL took to run
Blue Earth. He said that during the
year 1914 Blue Earth raised by taxa
ton sl5.166 "a. while Fairmont rails
ed by taxation s16.G95.2i and had
also its $4,000 saloon license money
besides. The speaker also gave fig.
ures OF other years. He stated that
during tie pact year there were 3f6
cases or arrest for drunkenness I'm
Fa'rmont, wet. against only eighteen
In Blue Earth dry. He sought to
show that II cost more To run the city
government of wet town than that
OF dry town because the saloons
made so much trouble.
j. NJ. Malmin of Blue Earth told the
people that when anybody argued to
them that more liGuOr was drunk
where 10 was dry than where ID was
wet. To ask why il was that saloon
keepers were opposed 10 prohibition,
and whether they were eager to pay
their license money into the public
treasury. when they might sell liquor
without paying that money under dry
conditions.
o. ]. Finstad Of Window compared
cottonwood county. dry. with Jack
son. county. wet. giving figures to
show that the cost of criminal pro-
cess IN the former was only n third
Of that of the latter. He said the
bank deposits at Window amounted
to S2,O0o000 and were as great as
In any community OF the same size
In the United States.
Mr.. Currier stated that the late
Judge W. j. Severance OF Mankato
once told him that in his opinion
eighty per cent OF the criminal cases
sprung from the liauor traffic. He
said he had had practically the same
statement from Judge Lorin GRAY and
Judge w. l.. Comstock. He quoted
the late County Commissioner Young
as stating that about eighty per cent
Of the pauperism of the county was
due TO liquor and County Commits
sioner Foley had said he thought the
percentage was nearer to ninety Mr..
Currier said that II the county wenc
dry the county taxes might reason
ably be expected TO be less.
Senator c. w. Gillian. president OF
the Commercial club OF Window. told
OF an instance in ST. Paul. where
twenty.three overcOats were given as
an act of charity 10 as many down
and-out men. and the next dav II
was found that twenv.three overcoats
had been pawned for drink i'm st.
Paul saloons.