Show DISCRIMINATION IN LICENSES Some days ago we spoke in favor of a discrimination being made between the i county and city licenses for the sale of l liquor and beer and advocated that the license for beer be considerably lower than the license for liquor The more we have thought over the matter the more convinced we have become that it should f be done as it will be more of a benefit to the community at large and will greatly lessen the evils of intemperance the curse of the age Doubtless it will be urged that the drinking of beer but leads to the drinking drink-ing of liquor and that the one is an inducement in-ducement to the other This is in part true but is not the step from beer drinking drink-ing to liquor drinking oftener made because be-cause beer and liquor are kept at the same place now and from the fact that thelicense for either is the same than from any other cause 1 With the license for beer as high as the license for liquor there can I be no choice as to which will be kept and in consequence both are kept And then the class of drunken loafers who infest our streets are an entirely I different class from those who would go to a beer hall and yet would never go to a liquor saloon The whisky dives with which our town is infested would be fewer and those who kept liquor saloons would keep liquors that the common com-mon drinker could not afford to buy and would be much interested in the I as suppression sup-pression of an illicit sale of liquors as the county and city officials themselves The great majority of those who would keep liquors and wines would be of a class of more means and would not allow of such scenes of beastiality in their places as are now seen in the more common saloons It is not necessary neces-sary to name any particular saloons in town but all know the difference between the saloons by the manner in which vast crowds of men lounge around them those being the worst places where the greatest crowds are and where beer and poor whisky flow promiscuously The best 0 of saloons can never ba made places of great tone but they can be made decent and the way in which to do it is to keep the license high enough to crowd out the dive saloons Another reason for the discrimination L of licenses for beer and liquor is that in ill I i communities where beer predominates over liquor there is vastly less drunkenness drunken-ness Take as an example the beer gardens gar-dens of Milwaukee where all classes meet and where boisterous and rowdy conduct is not known Is this not attrib utable to the fact that they are beer gardens gar-dens and that no whisky is to be had in them If a man asks his friends to drink beer with him for an evening he intends to be social while if he invites them to drink liquor with him for an evening he intends as a rule to get drunk With the one there will be hilarity possibly while at the other there will probably be brutality The brewing interests of our city and I county are very extensive and furnish large markets for the surplus barley of the farmers and give employment to great numbers of men It is not so with the liquor business All the liquors of the town ar imported and if there were I as little harm in liquor drinking as in beer drinking still distilling is not a local industry while brewing is and should be encouraged as such as much as possible We would not be understood as favoring drinking saloons but we would be under stood as favoring a much lower license for beer halls and the sale of beer than for liquor salovins and the sale of whisky for the reason that we believe this discrimination dis-crimination would lessen intemperance in our midst and place the liquor traffic under better control The conflicts between be-tween the city and county authorities and the saloon keepers have always been started and kept going by the liquor men rather than by the beer men earnestly and respectfully invite the officers who i have control of the subject to give the matter their attention believing that they vill be inclined to make the discrimination dis-crimination we advocate |