Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1883 — High License Works Well. [ARTICLE]

High License Works Well.

Chicago Tribune:—Joliet, in this State, is a typical Democratic city of the Northwest The Irish element of the population is the largest There is also a strong American element and a sprinkling of Germans. Some years ago it had the name of being a harddrinking city. It has now quite a different reputation. It is one of the soberest cities of the Northwest When the great panic came, nine years ago, and the rolling-mills and other manufacturing establishments were shut down, the employees had hardly a penny, and the families of many of them became charges on the public. Most of their earnings had been spent in the saloons near the mills and quarries. When the mills were shut down last winter the men had enough to maintain themselves until work resumed or they could obtain other employment. The pauper and criminal statistics also show a decided improvement All this has been brought about by temperance organizations a mong the Joliet Irishmen, and high license. More than a year ago the Joliet City Council adopted the SSOO license as a tentative measure. It worked so well in raising the standard of the saloons, in wiping out the dives, in increasing the the city revenues while diminishing the demands upon them to maintain paupers and criminals, that it was resolved to go one step farther. The Irish joined with the Americans of the city in electing a high license Mayor and a City Council by an immense majority, which recently passed an ordinance making the license fee SI,OOO, payable in "advance, and allowing no distinction in favor of beer saloons, as none was necessary, there being no saloon in the city where beer alone was sold. The effect of this ordinance has been to weed out the more objectionable saloons which had survived under the SSOO ordinance and still further to increase the revenue and improve the character ot the saloons that remain. Law and order have since been maintained at a minimum expense, drunkenness has almost ceased in the city—Joliet has become, in fact, one of the most orderly towns in the Northwest, as the result of the voluntary temperance movement and the ordinance which imposes a fee of SI,OOO, payable all in advance. The town has become an example for other Democratic municipalities. Ottawa, an Irish Democratic town a little further down the caual bank, has taken the first step after Joliet in this movement. Monday night it adopted a SSOO- license-fee ordinance, the money being payable in advance, as in the case of Joliet, and no distinction being made between saloons. “Hard drinks” are sold in all of them, as the people,, like those of JolieL are mostly Amerieans and Irish. When Ottawa has tasted of the benefits of the SSOO law it will, like Joliet, go step in advance and adopt, the sl,000 license fee. Matters are tending in that direction. The temperance element of the Irish population, which is quite large, will, as in Joliet, join with the temperance American element to force proper regulation of the whiskey traffic. Example is contagious. We look to see Morris, La Salle, Peru, Peoria, and other cities where the Irish temperance element is gathering strength, follow the example of Joliet.