Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1917 — THIS BILL SHOULD BE KILLED [ARTICLE]

THIS BILL SHOULD BE KILLED

Senator Kinder of Lake county —-the “wettest” county in Indiana •—who is supposed to represent Jasper and Lake in the Indiana legislature, has got a bill through the senate ■without a dissenting vote to permit the issuance of licenses to wholesale and retail liquor dealers for fractional parts of a year—the present law requiring the issuance and payment of fee for a full year, even though the applicant can operate his place but a short time. This bill, it become a law, ■would enable all the saloons in ,the state to operate right up to the very limit, April 2, 1918, with the payment of license, say, for but a single day, should the old license expi r e one day before the .limit for the state going dry.

i In our humble opinion this is a bad bill and should never receive the governor’s signature even though it gets by the house. It will be far Jsetter , for ( the cities and towns that now have saloons where the licenses expire at different times to have them go out of business gradually, as they would rather than pay a full year’s license when they could only operate a fractional part of a year under such licenser, than to encourage them all to remain in business’ right up to the time the state-wide prohibition law .takes ! effect’ and then all be thrown out at one time. The former course would mean that the thousands of buildings now occupied by this business would be gradually absorbed by other lines or they were vacated and the men now employed therein would also take up other vocations gradually instead of all being vacated at one time and the thousands of emplftyes thrown on the labor market at once. In their efforts to alleviate the pains and distress of the liquor dealer the legislature would, should this bill become a law, not only do him a positive injury but likewise injur© scores of cities and towns by throwing the saloon men all out of business at one time and thus vacate thousands of busi-

ness rooms throughout the state at one time instead of gradually*; as would be the case under the present law. As the law now stands no dealer is compelled to take out a license unless he thinks it would justify him to pay the full year’s, fee. Many have a full year or more from the time their present license expires to determine what they want to do. Hundreds of licenses taken out hereafter, in the next few months, will run right up to the limit of time before the “dry’’ law takes effect. The owners of present licenses and those that may' be granted later Jknow

that their “lease of life” is limited, and if they are compelled to take out licenses for a full year—and this requirement could not by any stretch of imagination work a hardship on dealers whose renewals come up say before April 2— and they will gradually enter other lines of business and their employes be absorbed in the labor market without working any additional hardship on the dealers themselves, their employes or the city and towns which tolerate this line of business.