Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1916-05-15
THE FIRST MOVE
FOR PROHIBITION
Campaign Against Saloons Opened
Here Yesterday With
Enthusiasm.
NOTED SPEAKERS PRESENT.
James M. Munroe Presided DIR.
Levister and Hon Lloyd Wilkinson
Made Addresses Opening Of
Local Campaign Promising.

Local Campaign Promising.
The first move in the campaign to
rid Annapolis of the licensed saloon
was enthusiastically encouraged yes
terday at o'clock in the Republic
Theatre by those opposed To the traffic
In spite of the inclement weather.
the theatre was filled with an intense
~ interested and earnest aWiience. in
cluding most of the representative
citizens and leading business men OF
the town. The stage was appropriate
ly draped in the national and state col
ors, which seemed to symbolic tho
deep patriotic foundation on which the
fight for a clean state and nation is
based
The meeting was opened with pray
er by the Rev. Or. William /. McKen-
ney, of the Maryland Avenue Nj. +
Church. after which Mr.. Hugh r
Riley explained the object Of the meet
ing ami introduced the Hon. James NJ
Munroe, the presiding officer of the
meeting. Mr.. Munroe, in turn. intro
duced the speaker of the evening, the
Rev. Dr. Charles NJ Levister, Assist
ant Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon
Leogue, with a few we'll chosen re-
marks
Or. Levistcr struck. to the heart OF
his subject Immediately and declared
that there were nine hundred reasons
why Annapolis should go dry, and that
they lived over in the Naval Academy
1t seems to be a gross inconsistency on
the part of the Government to send out
stringent orders to prevent drinking.
and the use of intoxicants on its bat
tleships and among its midshipmen.
and yet to condone the business, and
allow it to be carried on directly
around the school which trains its flu
ture officers, for the sake of few
paltry dollars in revenue. But this
can now be remedied by the people of
the city themselves. After fifty years
effort, the Legislature has been made
alive to the fact that the people have
the right to vote on this question. and
now, undoubtedly. prohibition is GO
ing through"
DR.. Levister then took up the eide of
the liquor interests on the question
and analyzed their arguments. I'm
the first place" he said, "the saloon
really has no tentable argument. First
it has never earned a decent dollar in
i'll its existence. and has no other OBJ
iect but to derive riches by destruc-
tion OF the finest in man. Every year
out OF every 1000 men in the country
the saloons claim 212 as their toll, raw
material out of which to turn a finish
ed product of criminals, paupers and
hopeless 1runkards. The first and
really OILY half way argument they
can advance is an economic one. the
great internal revenue paid to the Gov
ernment by them
THE liquor business of the United
States annually pays to the govern
ment the sum of S32S 100000 but by
their own admission they receive So
100000 annually from those people of
the country least able to afford to pay
| it. In other words, for every $1.00
spent by the people and received by
| the liquor interests they pay the gov
ernment 3Ia cents and pocket 96k
| cents. Aside from every other consid-
Grafton is this sound finance, would
| if spent generally for the necessities
of life over broader fiehl instead of
| for one thing? Another way to look
at it. $32S 100000 per year means.
roughly. $32S per year for each man
woman and child in the country
Would you sell for your child for S3.2S?
| But yet the Government stands back.
| and in way acts as a shareholder in
the traffic, supports and pays for It's
| results all for the sum of S3.2S per
| individual
"You hear West Virginia used as an
| illustration by the liquor people as the
dire effects of prohibition Here are
| few facts. At the end of 1913, before
the sale of liquor was abolished. West
the sale of it. Yet with this income
| she hail deficit in the State Treasury
| of S3S0,000 at the end of the year due
| partly TO having to call out the militia
| to suppress strikes and riots in her
coal districts. BY 1915 the deficit
| equaled $470,000. after a year of pro-
| hibition. after having lost the revenue
! of 100000 her deficit was 100000, a
smaller increase in proportion than in
years before, and the high state au-
thorities have stated to the prohibition
heads that before the end of 1917 they
| expect to transform that 100000 de-
ficit into an asset of 81. .000,0 ,000
| do you ever hear of the condition
of Maryland-receiving 100000 rev
enue from the liquor traffic. and yet
| $1.500.000 in debt with a tax rate
steadily climbing? In North Carolina,
| after four years of prohibition, the
State founf that it had built additional
school houses. one for each day of the
four years. They had stopped spend
ing money for booze and were putting
it into brains. Which pays the most?
During the same period. forty-seven