The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-11-03
\ REVENUE QUESTION.

The Industrial Worker congratu- lates the workers for the Dry move ment in Alaska that they have re- duced the saloon arguments to the simple one of You need the money Apparently there is to be no denial of the evils of the saloon: of the degenerating and degrading effect of the traffic, but because this who'll 1y evil business contributes it's share towards the maintenance of the schools, the up-keep of the city and the general expenses of the town, the evil however dangerous or intolerabe must be maintained.
 In the name of common sense is that reasonable? If man steals the wad of another man, and makes his excuse to the Judge that his daughter is taking music lessons, that his house is a mansion requires many lights. that special fire protec- tion has to erected-wOuld that be any Justification whatever for the theft of the other mans wad? Yet if the arguments against the liquor traffic are admitted, and when you get down to brass tacks they are be- yond denial, that is what is now put forward without any tergiversation in the Nugget editorially of last Wednesday evening in defense of it all!
 The main trouble with this point of view is that it endows the saloon with a faculty that it does not pos sess. The saloon is not productive industry. It does not add one cent to the values which it handles. The money that comes from the saloon, comes from the community where the saloon exists. Read that again. It comes from the community where the saloon exists. It is mere ly a roundabout way of knocking man down, taking his money and di- wing up with the city or the gov ernment a portion of the proceeds. AS a system of taxation it is crude farce. As a method of the city se- curing money to run it's government it is nothing short of the acme of in- efficiency.
 If the saloons are abolished to- morrow the source whence the sa- looms made their money would still remain, and the source whence the saloons in a roundabout way secured the money for the city, would still be here. The saloons are here be- cause this wealth production is here, and they are parasites upon that wealth production, legalizing their parasitism by giving up little tax in the form of license.
 If the argument is sound that the saloon evil should be tolerated be- cause the city needs the money, then the city should get in and license gambling, prostitution, hop dens and 
 cure in its revenue.
 [ Chapter seventy-six of the Laws of Alaska, 1915, is the revenue ere ating act. It licenses many things from attorneys to public messengers.
 It does not license the saloon. The saloon is privileged. While bakery pays federal tax and a ter | ritorial tax in the form of license, the solons did not want to be hard on the saloonists and let them off. ] We have a copy of the Juneau Dis patch of September 6, and that pa per shows that by the time the le- 1 gislature meets next March, there | will be over a million dollars in the Treasury; not a bean of it from the | liquor traffic,
 We say it advisedly that it was high time that the entire school sy- stem of Alaska became standardized | and under a territorial supervision; | that it would be better if the muni- cipalities surrendered their mainte- nance of the schools to the Terri | tory, and with one million dollars in the Treasury. it is quite obvious | that this can be done and done ef- fectively.
 The prohibition proposed for the | Territory would go into effect in 1918, and the government of the | Territory has until that time to