ALTHOUGH I'm not a drinkin' man myself, I mourn with the poor liquor
dealers of New York City, who are taxed and oppressed for the benefit
of the farmers up the state. The Raines liquor law is infamous It takes
away nearly all the profits of the saloonkeepers, and then turns in a
large part of the money to the State treasury to relieve the hayseeds
from taxes. Ah, who knows how many honest, hard-workin' saloonkeepers
have been driven to untimely graves by this law! I know personally of a
half-dozen who committed suicide--because they couldn't pay the enormous
license fee, and I have heard of many others. Every time there is an
increase of the fee, there is an increase in the suicide record of the
city. Now, some of these Republican hayseeds are talkin' about makin'
the liquor tax $1500, or even $2000 a year. That would mean the suicide
of half of the liquor dealers in the city.
Just see how these poor fellows are oppressed all around! First,
liquor is taxed in the hands of the manufacturer by the United States
Government; second, the wholesale dealer pays a special tax to the
government; third, the retail dealer is specially taxed by the United
States Government; fourth, the retail dealer has to pay a big tax to the
State government.
Now, liquor dealing is criminal or it ain't. If it's criminal, the men
engaged in it ought to be sent to prison. If it ain't criminal, they
ought to be protected and encouraged to make all the profit they
honestly can. If it's right to tax a saloonkeeper $1000, it's right
to put a heavy tax on dealers in other beverages--in milk, for
instance--and make the dairymen pay up. But what a howl would be raised
if a bill was introduced in Albany to compel the farmers to help support
the State government! What would be said of a law that put a tax of, say
$60 on a grocer, $150 on a dry-goods man, and $500 more if he includes
the other goods that are kept in a country store?
If the Raines law gave the money extorted from the saloonkeepers to the
city, there might be some excuse for the tax. We would get some benefit
from it, but it gives a big part of the tax to local option localities
where the people are always shoutin' that liquor dealin' is immoral.
Ought these good people be subjected to the immoral influence of money
taken from the saloon tainted money? Out of respect for the tender
consciences of these pious people, the Raines law ought to exempt them
from all contamination from the plunder that comes from the saloon
traffic. Say, mark that sarcastic. Some people who ain't used to fine
sarcasm might think I meant it.
The Raines people make a pretense that the high license fee promotes
temperance. It's just the other way around. It makes more intemperance
and, what is as bad, it makes a monopoly in dram shops. Soon the saloons
will be in the hands of a vast trust' and any stuff can be sold for
whisky or beer. It's gettin' that way already. Some of the poor liquor
dealers in my district have been forced to sell wood alcohol for whisky,
and many deaths have followed. A half-dozen men died in a couple of days
from this kind of whisky which was forced down their throats by the
high liquor tax. If they raise the tax higher, wood alcohol will be too
costly, and I guess some dealers will have to get down to kerosene oil
and add to the Rockefeller millions.
The way the Raines law divides the different classes of licenses is
also an outrage. The sumptuous hotel saloons, with $10,000 paintin's and
bricky-brac and Oriental splendors gets off easier than a shanty on
the rocks, by the water's edge in my district where boatmen drink their
grog, and the only ornaments is a three-cornered mirror nailed to the
wall, and a chromo of the fight between Tom Hyer and Yankee Sullivan.
Besides, a premium is put on places that sell liquor not to be drunk on
the premises, but to be taken home. Now, I want to declare that from
my experience in New York City, I would rather see rum sold in the
dram-shops unlicenced, provided the rum is swallowed on the spot, than
to encourage, by a low tax, "bucket-shops" from which the stuff is
carried into the tenements at all hours of the day and night and make
drunkenness and debauchery among the women and children. A "bucket-shop"
in the tenement district means a cheap, so-called distillery, where raw
spirits, poisonous colorin' matter and water are sold for brandy and
whisky at ten cents a quart, and carried away in buckets and pitchers;
I have always noticed that there are many undertakers wherever the
"bucket-shop" flourishes, and they have no dull seasons.
I want it understood that I'm not an advocate of the liquor dealers or
of drinkin'. I think every man would be better off if he didn't take
any intoxicatin' drink at all, but as men will drink, they ought to have
good stuff without impoverishin' themselves by goin' to fancy places
and without riskin' death by goin' to poor places. The State should
look after their interests as well as the interests of those who drink
nothin' stronger than milk. Now, as to the liquor dealers themselves.
They ain't the criminals that cantin' hypocrites say they are. I know
lots of them and I know that, as a rule, they're good honest citizens
who conduct their business in a straight, honorable way. At a convention
of the liquor dealers a few years ago, a big city official welcomed them
on behalf of the city and said: "Go on elevatin' your standard higher
and higher. Go on with your good work. Heaven will bless YOU!" That was
puttin' it just a little strong, but the sentiment was all right and I
guess the speaker went a bit further than he intended in his enthusiasm
over meetin' such a fine set of men and, perhaps, dinin' with them.