Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 39, Number 111, 20 March 1914 — Page 9

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 1914

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In last evening's papers Mr. Gordon thinks he has made a find in what he calls "105 Whiskey Joints in 'Dry' Marion", and he plays this up in screaming headlines for the benefit of the Richmond public. Apparently he does not know that his discovery is a boomerang which will react and puncture all of his so-called arguments and facts in short order. He forgets to say that the 105 revenue tax receipts which he plays up so prominently, were taken out at the beginning of the present fiscal year which was July 1, 1913. That was during the rule of a wet and liberal city administration in Marion. Apparently he is ignorant of the fact that the people last fall voted a change in administration, and that because the officers were allowing violations of the liquor laws to go unpunished. A new era has dawned and Marion now has a Mayor who in less than three months' time has renovated the city, driven out these lawless elements, and made the city dry in fact as well as in name. A phone message from Mayor Batchelor brings the information that since the advent of his administration, he has cleaned up the liquor drug stores and so far as the officers can find there is not a blind tiger left in Marion. He says that many of these 105 persons who took out the tax receipts last July, have been given a jail sentence, while most of them have left the city.

Why can't our friend, Mr. Gordon, learn to keep up with the procession? In four months from now, when Richmond's saloons have all had to close as a result of the execution next Tuesday, Mr. Gordon can say that Richmond still has fifty-six saloons because the record shows they were granted a license within the last twelve months, and be as truthful in his statement, as he is In saying that Marion has 105 blind tigers when he refuses to take cognizance of the fact that all of them have been closed up. With a city administration in Richmond that promises to use its entire force in enforcing the liquor laws and with a substantial fund already subscribed to back up the officers in this enforcement, his scare head about Marion has no sort of application to the Richmond situation. Mayor Batchelor whom the citizens of Marion picked out as a progressive young business man for their candidate for Mayor, together with Tony George, an Ex-Sheriff of Grant County, who had a record as Sheriff equal to the best, will both be in Richmond this coming Sunday evening, and at the tabernacle will answer this foul slander against present conditions in the city of Marion. So far as the aspersions of Mr. Gordon upon Kokomo are concerned, we will have plenty to say before this campaign is over. It seems that Mr. Gordon cannot touch anything in this campaign but that it falls to pieces by its own weight, when the real facts are disclosed.

WHAT LABOR SAYS ABOUT THE SALOON JOHN LENNON, TREASURER AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR. "Every element of influence that the saloon exercises upon human society is antagonistic to everything that organized labor stands for. The influence of the saloon in its effects upon man is constantly against any and all increases in wages, and u an ever potent force in the world for lowering wages. It is also a force, and a tremendous one, because of its influence upon men and society against any reduction in the hours of labor."

JOHN MITCHELL. "I am against the saloon because they are against my people, and I am more than w iling to antagonize them. On pay-day the saloonkeepers are like tigers. My men enter their resorts with their wages, and often leave with nothing, and then it falls on the wife to pacify the storekeeper for the nonpayment of the bills, and the family is left practically destitute. Our union stands for temperance, better and more decent men."

ANOTHER "FACT" NAILED In one of the paid liquor advertisements last week the writer grew eloquent in a statement that while New Castle, Indiana, was dry, boys and girls in the high school had been enticed into the blind tigers of that city. We have had several communications branding this statement as an absolute falsehood. The following will suffice as a sample of these statements. In last Wednesday's installment of "facts," Mr. Gordon, in reference to the bad conditions that obtained in New Castle during its dry period says: "Boys and girls in high school were enticed into these blind tigers and besotted." "I brand that statement an egregious lie. I do not speak dogmatically .as Mr. Gordon usually does,, but authoritatively. "I was a student in the New Castle high school at the time that lie was started. "It was concocted and bandied about by the wets. I was personally acquainted (at that time) with every boy and girl in the high school. I submit this to you with pleasure. "O. CHESTER WRIGHT, "Williamsburg, Indiana." March 16, 1914.

THOSE KANSAS CITY FIGURES In his advertisement for the saloons of Richmond in Wednesday evening's papers, Mr. Gordon charges the Citizens Committee with quoting Mr. W. S. Hannah, Secretary of Kansas City, Kansas, Mercantile Club, to the effect that the city tax rate for 1913 was $1.61, and Mr. Gordon lays the emphasis upon the word city. We have Mr. Hannah's statement before us, and this is his exact language: "In 1905, for all purposes (the tax rate) was $2.32; in 1913 it is $1.61." He then goes on to tell why there has been that reduction since the joints were closed in that city. It will be noted that Mr. Hannah's statement is that the tax rate is for all purposes, $1.61 last year. At no time does he even intimate that the city tax rate was $1.61. Our former statement was to the effect that this year the tax rate in Kansas City, Kansas, is $1.64, but our information, which was furnished by the city and county officers, is to the effect that this is the tax rate for all purposes, which includes school, state, county and city taxes. The city tax rate is 67.6 cents as shown by the officials. It seems impossible for Mr. Gordon to understand plain statement of facts, and he is the one, and not the Citizens' Committee, that must get untangled in this matter, as in most of the other matters which he has touched in this campaign.

LICENSE THE HOP JOINTS The Richmond dally papers this week Indicate the existence of some opium JotntB In the city. Now of course the public will demand that these joints be made lawful and that they be licensed to sell opium under the direction of some men who will agree simply to sell the opium without violating any law. That solution of the problem is on a parallel with the solution of the liquor traffic in Richmond. They complain about the blind tigers, and then insist that the sale of llguor be made lawful and that it be licensed under the control of men who will agree toN sell the same kind of liquor, but do it without violating the law. A FEW OTHER TESTIMONIALS. Here is some cumulative evidence showing the good effects of the no-license policy in other cities. W. J. Devol. President, First National Bank, Lebanon, Indiana. Just at this time while the bank is looking about for temporary quarters, while the erection of a new building for our own purposes is going on, we find it impossible to secure a vacant room for our temporary accommodation. . . . With reference to criminality, the best argument I can give is the fact that onr county jail is almost always unoccupied by prisoners. O. M. Gregg. President, Indiana Match Company, Crawfordsville, Indiana. When C'rawfordsville had saloons, that class of factory employees inclined to drink, even though to a limited extent, would draw their pa on Saturday, come down town, one treat another until they would be under the influence of liquor and their efficiency greatly decreased for the next two or three days. Since the saloons have been closed this trouble has largely been done away with.

Bluffton, Indiana, is a dry city and has been since 1909. The bank deposits of the Wells County Bank have increased from $675,032.67 in 1908 to $1,059,651.78. That is an unusual showing for a town the size of Bluffton. Aaron PurseL Jeweler, Noblesville, Indiana. Since the voting of the saloons out of this place there has been a better cash trade, and the poor in a general way have been better clothed. A. C. Warren, Jeweler, Noblesville, Indiana.- I can say in regard to the dry regime that it is like dealing with a new public, that we can now let people have goods that before were doubtful. Benjamin Hadley, Furniture, Noblesville, Indiana. I have been in business under both wet and dry regimes. I strongly assert that business has improved with us. Our debts are collected, and few sales are made on the Installment plan, while there are more cash sales. I have been in business here seventeen years and am able easily to see the benefit of a dry town. John Thom, Trunks, Harness, etc., Noblesville, Indiana. I have been in business thirty-three years in this city and can most emphatically endorse the dry system as a help to business. Richmond should go dry by all means if she wants to set the town on the best possible business basis. Wm. J. Voris, Franklin, Indiana. In my opinion a dry town has been a help to business. More money is paid out for the necessities of life, and with us a better class of merchandise is being bought. I think a dry town is far better in every way. S. C. Yager, Book Store, Franklin, Indiana. I am satisfied a dry town is a benefit to my business. J. B. Payne & Son, Franklin, Indiana. Our business has been better since the saloons are out of the city. People have had more money to buy clothing with.

O. C. Dunn, Vice-president, Citizens' National Bank, Franklin, Indiana. Business in our bank has increased during the past five or six years. Men who were formerly drinkers now carry bank accounts, and pay their store accounts by check. Henry Merster, Superintendent Wire & Nail Company, Crawfordsville. Indiana. We employ 225 men The quality, production and quantity is better. The men are more contented and work steadier. Mrs. Ben F. McKey, Lebanon, Indiana. I have been a member of the charity board for the last six or seven years, and this winter we were not asked to help more than one-tenth the families we had to help when the town was wet. Men who formerly bought coal by the fifty cents worth now buy their winter's supply In the fall and pay cash for it. This last statement is from our coal dealers. Men who nsed to get drunk every Saturday night when they got their money, now spend that money for groceries and clothing for their families. T. S. Atkinson, Superintendent, Gas Light Company, Van Wert, Ohio. The three banks doing business here are doing a much larger business with the laboring class, people who when the saloons were here could not get money enough ahead to buy the necessities of life have accounts in the bank now. As for taxation, the tax rat is lower now than it was when the saloons were here. As for pauperism, we ha but very little. The general welfare of the city is 300 per cent better than when wm had saloons. D. S. Kern, Grocer, Frankfort, Indiana. I can say without hesitation that the dry town is much better for the grocers. A certain class of men who before were very poor pay have become good payers. Many of them buy more groceries than before, dress better and their families are better cared for h many cases.

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A few evenings ago Mr. Gordon devoted considerable space to a lurid picture of conditions in Kokomo since the saloons were voted out. He gave the impression that there had been a large increase in the tax rate in order to make up for the saloon revenue and charged that a number of business houses were vacant. The Kokomo Tribune of March 19th resents this libel of Mr. Gordon upon that city. In more than two columns of space, devoted to the subject, the Tribune makes Gordon's charges look like thirty cents. So far as the increase in taxation is concerned, instead of it being due to the loss of saloon revenue, it is due as the Tribune says, "To the installment of an elaborate system of sanitary sewers, to the improvement on a large scale of public thoroughfares and the keeping of the same clean, and to such increases in the interest of public safety additions in fire, police and health depart

ments as the needs of a rapidly growing and remarkably busy city seemed to demand." Mr. Gordon says nothing about Richmond's high tax rate. Concerning the vacant rooms, which Mr. Gordon played up so prominently, the Tribune considers each case in a separate paragraph and shows that some of the rooms are now occupied, that others had three or four applicants after them and it was only a question of renting to the most satisfactory tenant; others were being remodeled preparatory for occupancy, while some others had just been vacated by firms which have moved into new buildings, giving them larger quarters. The Tribune further says, "While Mr. Gordon was about it, why did he not state that within the last five years not fewer than a half-dozen business blocks have been erected in Kokomo, in the

district which he so mischievously libels, and why did he not tell the truth about the business properties he saw fit to mention?" The Tribune finally closes with this paragraph : "Every legitimate line of business has increased since saloons were excluded ; bills have been paid with a promptness never before known; there has been a substantial addition of business properties; deposits in all banks and trust companies have increased; more persons own their own homes than ever before and there is more comfort in those homes; the population of the town has increased steadily ; more building materials were sold in Kokomo in 1913 than in any other one year in the town's history; no city in the state is enjoying a larger measure of prosperity right now than is Kokomo, and no city in the state could be harder to induce to return to saloons. If the people of Richmond are wise they will not wait to be handed a slice of 'dry prosperity' but will grab it.M

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