New Britain herald., 1916-09-23

Who Wants License?
 Under the caption, Who Wants License In Plainville 2" one of the pro- hibition agitators has written the fol- lowing on the license issue and has requested it's publication in this col umn:
 Who is it that wants license and saloons in Plainvi1Ie? Is it the peo- pie in general, the majority of the population? If so let us have license. But the majority of the people do not actually want saloons. They are foisted upon us by a determined few. Let us see who these few are, and thus locate the responsibility in the matter. For if the people, and es- pecially the voters, of P1ainville could realize that a group of people outside of our own town are determined to keep Plainville a license town, we would soon come to our senses and send these outsiders about their busi- ness. y'
 Plainville uses from s80,o0o to s50,- 900 worth of liquor per year. Who gets the profits from this enormous tax on Plainville? The Commercial ized Liquor Traffic. There's the an-, swer to the question Who wants H. cense in Plainville?" The Liquor manufacturers and the wholesale deal CTS. They and they only are profit Ing by our license system. Everybody knows that the revenue to a town from license is ridiculously small In comparison to the costs which the saloons necessitate. But not every body knows that the commercial profits in liquors are so fabulous as to warrant the payment of high li- censes and the expenditure of large sums of money in corrupting electtt ns and bribing legislation. And don't make the mistake of thinking that our local liquor dealers in Plainville come in for big share of this profit They do not. Any one of them could go right into legitimate business and make as much as he is making now. But the manufacturer and wholesalers could not. Their gains are i1legiti- mate, and so they arc bound to force their traffic upon the public, at all costs, just as long as they can And 1t Is they who confuse the issues tn our local elections, and try to make the voters believe that they are sup porting their parties by voting license, and trying to make the business men believe that they are voting against the good of the town by voting no-1i- cense. And the shame of 1t is that they are hood-winktng and deceiving so many of us. But how do they do this?
 Not only in Plainvil1e, but in every city, town and village where the license issue is before the people, the big liquor interests are pouring in as much campaign money as is necessary to win the fight. Of course they make 1t appear that 1t comes from local business. But it does not. It Is blood-money, paid in by outside agen- cies, to keep our town corrupt, With thi money, such local citizens as are willing to play into the hands of the sharks, or are hoodwinked into do- ing so, organize the minimizing voters along party lines, and under the ban ner of party loyalty call out as heavy vote as can be commanded osten- sibly in the interest of local party politics, but really in the interest of this uscrupulous commercialized traf- nc. With this money, too, Plain- Vile IS educated with the foolish doo- Irles Wh1ch you hear men along the streets and in the saloons gravelv ex- pounding, arguments too silly for a schoolooy to believe, about no-Iicense hurtlng business in a town, and mak- ing drinking worse, etc. These argu- ments come right from liquor head quarters and are as false as their aim IS interruptions. They have been re- futed in hundreds of dry cities, in every part of the country. But nev- ertheless, false as their arguments are ana dishonest as is their political method, the wholesale and manufac- turing interests have saddled upon Plainville, by means of their money. through the thoughtlessness of the voters who do vote and the careless ness of the voters who don't vote, our dlsgraceful burden of public saloons, The majority of us don't want them. but we are all obliged. nevertheless, to put up with them
 Now laying aside all feeling of lo- cal antagonism, realizing that we are not working against the good of any citizen of Plainville, but only against the 1llegitimate commercial gains of outside parties, who are purposely confusing the issue for us and trying to make us think we are fighting one another and are voting disloyally to our parties and inturing our own town business by voting no license, let us look this issue squarely in the face and realize who it Is that wants i cense in Plainville. PlainviIle. her self, does not want 1t. The liquor business, manufacturing and who'll sale, outside of Plainville, Is the chief agency that wants license in Plain v1lle. Shall we let them have 1t. and thus pay big tax into their pockets? If we are the true descendants of those got up the old Boston Tea Par ty, we will not be taxed against our will by any outside organization
 AN INTERESTED CITIZEN.
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