Saloon Licenses After the San Francisco Fire
About two thousand saloon licenses had been granted in San Francisco prior to July 5, the date fixed by the mayor for permitting the saloons to open for business. Before the fire there were about thirty-three hundred. The price of license is now $500, a year, as against $84 before the great disaster. It was expected, of course, that much drunkenness would be the result; and as jail space was limited, it was planned by the chief of police to put offenders to work clearing away débris from the sidewalks. In proportion to the inhabitants there are nearly as many saloons now as before the fire. When prohibition was such a blessing, why, O why, was it not continued?