Liquor Traffic in Chicago.
A LICENSE to sell liquor in the city of Chicago costs $52.00 a year. Four thousand saloons are enjoying the privilege on these terms. To these saloons can be attributed at least nine-tenths of the crimes which come under the cognizance of the police courts. The very insufficient police force cannot be increased, we are told, because the income now yielded from the heaviest tax on real estate and personal property which the law permits is inadequate to the demands upon it. Meanwhile, crime is rampant. Hideous cases of "sand-bagging" have been frequent of late, and in nearly every instance the robbers have escaped arrest. The expenses of charitable institutions of all sorts have increased largely, in consequence of the squandering of earnings in drink at the "respectable saloons" which the Staats Zeitung informs the public "are for the laboring classes a positive necessity." The easy conclusion is that the liquor-sellers should share the enormous burden which their business imposes upon the community by paying a higher license, and a popular demand has been made for a uniform license fee of $500. After long consideration, the Common Council have at last shamelessly recognized the dram-sellers as their masters by refusing every proposition to raise the license, voting down even the modest demand that it be fixed at $104. But we are not without a remedy. The subject is now before the Legislature, and it seems probable that a bill will pass which fixes the license fee for cities at not less than $500, while the Nebraska rate, $1,000, finds many supporters. It will find more, when the news comes of the disgraceful action of our City Council.—"Canute," in Examiner.