The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-05-10
U. S. Gets Third
OF ITS REVENUE
FROM BOOZE TAX
325 Million Represents Annual
Contribution to Government.
Where'H 1t Come From When
Saloons Are All Gone.
efIHAAu AIN AMnFn nnnIII An
"'JAGS" NO LONGER POPULAR
Mail Orders Prove "Drys" Are
Still Good Customers.
Secretary National Liquor Deal
ers Defends the Industry.

Louisville, KY, May 1o.-Joseph
Debar, secretary of the National
Wholesale Liquor Dealers association,
at this mornings session read a
lengthy report in which, among other
things, he made these remarks:
The federal government in 1914
derived one-third of its revenue from
the liquor Industries. Two hundred
and twenty six million, two hundred
thousand dollars of this was received
from internal revenue and SIS, 200,0 600
from import duties on liquors. In adj
dition, the states and counties derived
from liquor licenses total of $751;
100000, total in the United States
from all sources of 1925. 100000. No
anti-saloon league orator or advocate
has yet told US from what other
sources they will derive this revenue
should national prohibition prevail.
The federal portion of this income
amounts to obe-third the total reve-
nues of the federal government.
Per Capita Consumption Same.
while the per capita consumption
of liquols in the United States has for
some years remained stationary, the
per capita increase of sobriety has
augmented a thousand fold. Excess is
today a rarity in our vast and rap
idly growing population. No better
evidence of this can be found than
during great celebrations in our large
cities, when hundreds of thousands of
people walk our streets and no evil
dence of intoXication is seen any
where.
Nothing more clearly shows the
un-American spirit of prohibition than
the tyrannical effort to force prohibi-
ton upon the District of Columbia
without submitting the question to a
vote of the people of the District. This
unwillingness to trust the people
shows how little confidence the ad-
vocates of prohibition have In the
voters of their country.
When Prohibition Can Win,
prohibition can be successfully en-
forced only when a very large major
ity of the people of the United States
practice personal abstinence and are
personally opposed to the manufacture
and sale of liquor. The books of our
mail order houses, which record the
cate that OR prohibition friends are
still large consumers for personal and
medicinal use.
ours is the only government in the
world which permits one portion of
its population to plumber another by
a scanty majority vote in prescribed
localities. In all the countries of
Europe, where attempt has been made
to curtail the number of licenses,
compensatino is made in fullest meas
ure for stock, fixtures, leases, good
will and, in some instances, even for
those who produce the raw material
used in the manufacture of the pre-
scribed liquors.
Georgians stocking Up"
From all quarters we learn of ire
mendous shipments of beer, wine and
other liquors into the state of Georgia
from all directions in anticipation of
the May aridity. The curious feature
of the stocking up has been the GUAM
tity of whisky and wine laid in by
people who are not usually looked
upon as drinkers and even by MANY
open advocS ties of prohibition.
Georgia has had statewide prohi-
bition for seven years. This last eff
fort on the part of the state to pro-
vide a form of prohibition that will
really prohibit will be watched with
interest by the entire country at large,
especially in view of their experience
for the last seven years.