The Alaska citizen., 1916-07-03
Sermon to the People G G.
BY THE REV c. c. BRUCE.

| l3S to 53. the decrease Was 63 De. cent Des Moines was learning, by experience. that crime diminished with the saloons closed That all this was not without its effect in a monetary way was to appear later.
 While this was going on in tay | police court. what was the sItUL tion in the county courts? The records of the clerk of courts dls- close that between February b and October l. 1914, 95 mel .4t been found to be habitual drunkards and had been committed to the inebrl- ate hospital. In the same period in 1915, with the saloons closed, tween February 15 and October j. 1914. the number committed to the state insane hospitals was 66; in the corresponding dry period in 1915 the number was reduced to eI The divorce records confirmed the conylct on that Was rapidly -eyv .us 1 more apparent
 The effect of all this was appaIr..t when the city commissioners aI.u the county supervisors came to make up the tax leyies for the ensuing year With a saloon reye- nle of $129,00O a year cut off, both the county and city found them selves able not only to hold the levies where they were. but in several minor instances to reduce them.
 To understand the situation clear ly We must go back. Up to Feb ruary l5, 1915. Des Moncs hdG eighty-six saloons, each paying $9GO year tax direct to the city and $500 a year to the county, the county keeping $500 and remitting $500 to the city This made a revenue of $500 year, on each saloon, for the county, and $l2O0 a year on each saloon for the city. On the eighty-SiX saloons it amounted to | S25,S0 a year for the county ana | $103 POO year for the city; a total of $129, 900. Every cent 0t the citys saloon money went into the general fund; every cent of the County's saloon money went into the county fund. No other fund, of Other city or country, received a cent of the saloon money.
 Consider first the county taxes As a result of the falling off of in appeals from the police court, and of crime and litigation generally, the levy for the court expenses was reduced six months alter the saloons | closed, from three mills to two aud seventh-ninth mills, or three-tenths of a mill. The levy for the state ate hospitals, penitentiaries and the | like) was reduced for the first time in the history of the county. The 1
 year before the levy for this fund was one mill; the year after the saloons closed it was reduced to eight-tenths of a mill. The net re ed to onehalf mill, or $19,000 in taxes
 But what of the county funds, to which all the county saloon money went? Did the increase there offset | the saving in the court expense and state institutions funds? Let us see.
 The year prior to the closing ot the saloons, the county fund levy was one and seven-tenths mills, nee essary in addition to the S25,O0O of saloon money. It was planned, | however to increase this levy tD | two mills, as the decrease to one and seven-tenths had been made the year before only because of a
 $5O,000 surplus in this fund, which the county board decided to wipe out With a two-mill levy planned and customary, the board found it necessary to increase this levy to two-tenth mills, a raise of one-tenth
 of a mill directly attributable to the closing of the saloons. This amount
 ed to $3,90O in actual taxes.
 Next consider the city taxes. With
 the general fund suffering a loss
 of $103,200 annual income, the city
 commiss toners began regime ot
 economy which might we'll have
 been practiced long before; cutting
 down salaries, discharging political
 chair-warmers and putting the city
 administration on an economical and
 business like basis for practically
 the first time In August wher
 the tax levy came up for settlement
 the levy for the general fund Was increased seven-tenths mills (which
 it had been with open saloons) tC
 nine and two-tenths mills. an in
 crease of half a mill, meaning abou
 $14 900 in actual taxes. This Wa:
 the only fund directly affected by
 the loss of the saloon revenue.
 Here, then, is the net result O the closing of the saloons. The . ccuDty increased jtS tax income