The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-07-02
Better Business and Better
Homes Always Follow 9
IN Its Trail
|STATIST9CIANS GIVE
DEFINITE FIGURES
Massachusetts Spends S6,325,894 Per
Year to Get s3,435,321 in License
Fees-Plenty of Demand for Idle Sa-
loon Properties-No Idleness.

BOSTON, July l-Gains beyond COM
putation, both in money and manhood
are the results predicted to go hand in
hand with prohibition, which went into
effect in the United States Tuesday
False economists still under the spell OF
the hquor interests try to argue that
there is loss, but they overlook the
fact that not a cent of money is des-
troyed, but instead, there VIII be simply a
redistribution of the flow of currency and
the millions more in labor and material
previously wasted will be directed to le-
Ultimate pursuits that will contribute to
the welafre of mankind instead of being
| devoted to the destruction of health.
prosperity and happiness. Reduced to
passing of the saloons means not a loss
at all, but billions of dollars a year more
to divide up among the legitimate bust
nesses OF the United States. Instead OF
being wasted on something that disap-
pears TO leave nothing bnt evidences of
destruction in its wake, this tremendous
| amount Of money, figured in billions, it is
| pointed ont will be released and made
| dNdiitibit ltI IulliHS more laSI1nI ana
| worth while
Every city and state that las really
| tried prohibition invariably reports re
ward in the shape of more business in
stead OF less, better business instead of
worse, better homes, better citizens, and
greater happiness, all OF which is gener-
| ally accepted as incontrovertible proof
| that the whole country will inevitably ex-
| perlencc the same advantages
One OF the claims made BY the liquor
| interests has been thar closing down the
| liquor business would throw many men
out OF work OF course, the same argu-
ment might be used in favor OF inter
| tering with the personal rights OF the
| burglar and throwing him out OF work
! but apart from that there is n splendid
| answer made recently in a Boston pape,
| which quotes an expert who has made q
| stndy of the fabor+ situation, and he re
+, ports that Within six months there wi
! be labor shortage which may reach
| 5,eo0,eo0 men. This is due, he says t.
| the war losses, increase in the standing
| army. emigration new INDUSTRIES, and
other causes. If business is better. anC
| the forecast IS that it will be, even more
men will be needed, all Of which is taket
TO mean that there will be opportunity
| Tor every man who quits the liquor bust
ness. And it Is interesting to recall that
the liquor men themselves say that tht
Eartenders, as a rule, are not drinking
men, they ought to be well fitted fol
jobs that require sober men.
In Boston last year, there were 20;
arrests, and 54.9iS were for drunkenness
Boston people also find food for reflection
in the fact that 81 per cent of those
| whom Boston paid to take care of weT,
| non-residents.
Undeniahle rcfutation OF the false CLAIM
of loss of revenue is found in a statement
made by Robert w kelso, secretary o
the Massachusetts board of charity, VIII,
says IF we add the several item
chargeahle to public expenditure to al
cohohc intemperance, we have total o
SC, 235,s94 expended yearly in Massachu
sets. The fees paid to the state for Ii
censes amount to $3,435,32l, SO we fine
that the people have to pay SIS, 573 ex
ira a year Tor the drink habit
Even more astonishing figures are fur
nished by Irving Fisher, professor of eco
Monies at Yale. who says that the govern
ment, which is the people, has to spen,
more than S2,000G00,000 a year to ge
back less than a quarter of it in fees
He says it is a great deal like burnin
up ones house to roast a pig, which
quite an expensive roast, but hardly a
much so as the drink bill has been
Leading prohibition advocates, as we
as some men in the liquor trade, asser
that now that the national law has com
stopping the making and the sale of il
toxicating liquor, people should do every
thing possible to give it fair trial III
der an honest enforcement of the prohb
tory measures to learn just what the ben
Gifts are.
In answer to the claim that valuabl