If a town taking in, say, $10,000 for liquor license, should go dry, how would they get this amount to run the city government? C. L. H.
The only way to do at first would be to levy a little heavier tax, distributed, of course, among the people in town, according to property involved, and meet the needs. It would really make it a little harder in a monetary way for the citizens at first; but if they regard men more than money, they certainly would be willing to meet that. It will be found in a little while that the business of the town will be enough more prosperous to meet the extra tax. That is to say, the amount of money — two or three hundred thousand dollars, say — which goes into saloons for drink, which does nobody any good, will be spent for furniture, for provision, for clothing; for houses and land, for a hundred different things which will help to build up, enlarge, and increase the value of the community. A dry town will also find this, — that there is less expenditure in the way of courts, crime, sheriffs, and constable fees, and so on. The first change may involve a little more, but the working of the thing out will pay in the long run.
