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Show SENATORS HEAR OPPONENTS OF PROHIBITION Prominent Citizens, Investors Invest-ors and Merchants Urge Committee Not to Force Measure on State. SPEAKERS PREDICT RUIN OF BUSINESS Assert Empty Stores and Houses, Stagnation in Building and Tax Increase In-crease Will Follow. Lobs of revenue to the community government, loss of property and property prop-erty values, loss' of rentals (meaning many vacant stores), loss of wages and loss of personal rights by hosts of citizens cit-izens who do not believe in prohibition prohibi-tion were among the arguments against a statewide prohibition law advanced in the senate chamber last night, when ; the agriculture and irrigation committee commit-tee of the senate conducted a hearing on the negative side of the question. Four hundred persons thronged the ; chamber, giving their support to these arguments. "The city of Salt Lake will be set back ten years if this prohibition bill is enacted into law,"- said W. J. Hal-loran Hal-loran to the committee. ' ' With the vacant houses and stores we already have, it will not be necessarv to build a dwelling or a store or an office building in this city for ten years. ' Predicts Stagnation. "If this bill is passed," continued Mr. Halloran, "you, might as well say to every contractor, carpenter, painter, bricklayer, stone mason, paper hanger and building laborer here: 'Go away, for there will be no building work for you here for ten years to come. "The prohibition law would depreciate depre-ciate real estate values of this city $15,000,000. Taxes will be increased from 25 to 30 per cent." Sober economic appraisal of the question ques-tion as set forth by Mr. Halloran in his address was the keynote of the arguments ar-guments advanced against the bill by other representative citizens who spoke last night. They were all as well known as Mr. Halloran, and included John Dern, M. H. Walker and Charles Tyng of Salt Lake and A. P. Bigelow and C. A. Boyd of Ogden. Among other arguments against the , bill presented by these speakers was that residents of the two largest cities in the state did not want prohibition, for business reasons if for no other, and that the legislature should not in justice force them to adopt it. ' The Utah Pharmaceutical association, I representing the druggists of the state, , presented a written protest against terms of the prohibition bill which provide pro-vide that druggists dispense liquor under un-der certain limitations. The association uriied an amendment . of the bill to prohibit druggists from selling liquor for aDy purposes. "If a prohibition bill is passed, we do not , want the liquor business passed off onto the druggists." said Joy H. Johnson John-son of the committee from the pharmaceutical pharma-ceutical association which presented the petition. All Members Attend. AH the members of the senate committee commit-tee on agriculture and irrigation attended at-tended last night's hearing. The three who absented themselves from the negative nega-tive hearing last Friday, necessitating a postponement, were on hand. The committee com-mittee comprises Senator "William Seeg-mi Seeg-mi Her, cha i rma n, o nd Sena tors D. O. Rideout, Frank Evans, Joseph Chez. Joseph Jo-seph Eckersley, John W. Thornley and John H. Wootton. Chairman Seegmiller announced that there would be no more public hearings on the prohibition hill, hut that his committee com-mittee would Immediately take It up with the idea of reporting it back to the senate. sen-ate. Chairman Seegmiller did not offer a prediction as to what the recommendations recommen-dations of his committee would be. The hearing was set for 7:30 o'clock, (Continued on Pasre Three.) See Paga Tour, 2 ' SEIffllS HEAR 1 DPPDNEMTS OF PROHIBITION Prominent Citizens, Investors Invest-ors and Merchants Urge Committee Not to Force Measure on State. (Continued from Pago One.) .ml at thru hour every available seat-in the sen a to clianiher had been taken ami the public overflowed into the space allotted al-lotted the a-rm tors' desks, the aisles and doorways. Man v. unable to find other space, stood in the main entran?es. It was a representative audience. Bankers, lawvers. merchants, laboring men, trades- i-ien "f a H lines, were seen In the V crowded galleries. Also there were many witntm there. Frequently the audience broke in'.o prolonged applause. At other times, when figures were presented showing show-ing possible financial effect of prohibition, prohibi-tion, there was tense silence, indicating how' these figures impressed those who listened. "If I did not believe that prohibition would make conditions in our state worse, I would not be here tonight protesting apainst this bill," said A. P. Bigelow of flu-uen. the first speaker of the evening-. Prohibition does not prohibit. It merely drives the liquor traffic under cover. It brings about contention, spying, evasion of the law and contempt for the law, and at the same time ft takes away revenue. It would reduce Ogden's revenue 2S per cent. This Is not the time to try a financial finan-cial experiment of this kind." Dern Makes Speech. John Dern was the next speaker. He said he felt with manv other broao-gauged broao-gauged citizens that taking a drink of beer and wine was not a crime. He added that more people die from over-eating than over-drinking. A great many citi-ztns citi-ztns do not want prohibition, lie said. He continued: In days past we have had more strife than most states, probably due to religious questions. Now wo are living happily together. We are friendly with all our neighbors. If you enact a prohibition law, you will confiscate much property and take i away the livelihood of many citizens. j Naturally they would resent it, just ! as farmers would resent any legisla- j tion against their business. I fear ! that this law would bring strife back to our state. To illustrate the sort of tolerance of a ' neighbor's views, which every citizen, every legislator, ought to have, Mr. Dern related an incident which occurred some years ago when members of the capitol commission were in Chicago. The day had been extremely hot and Mr. Dern Rethought himself of a cooling glass of beer with his dinner. Seated next to him was John Henry Smith of the first presidency presi-dency of the Mormon church. Fearful that a member of the' party ordering beer might embarrass the ecclesiastical dignitary, digni-tary, Mr. Dern asked President Smith if he would be annoyed If he (Mr. Dern) drank a glass of beer. "This good man put his arm around my shoulder," related Mr. Dern, "and said, 'Certainly not, John. Order what-y what-y ever you like. You know what you like and I believe that every man should be a judge unto himself.' " "That," concluded Mr. Dern, "is the spirit I shouid like to see among all the people of this state, and I believe, gentlemen, gentle-men, that ft should be the spirit of this legislature." The audience applauded. C. A. Boyd Applauded, C. A. Boyd of Ogden said he believed lie represented a good majority of the citizens of the Weber county metropolis who did not want prohibition. He said that several years ago Ogden voted against going "dry" and the question had , ceased to be an issue there. He said: Our town draws something like $50,000 from the liquor business. But there are considerations other than financial. When a man has spent fifteen fif-teen or twenty years in a business we have made legal and lawful, what right have you or I to destroy his business, take away his livelihood and interfere with his welfare? His boy goes to school with your boy, his daughter goes to school with your daughter, and I believe his wife, .the i mother of his children, has as high a regard for the morals and virtue of her daughter as your wife has for yours. Here Mr. Boyd was interrupted by tumultuous tu-multuous applause from the men and women in the audience. The speaker resumed: re-sumed: I was raised In a strict community, but not in a prohibition community. I have never been Intemperate. I feel like a fellow citizen of mine remarked re-marked on the way to this meeting: "I can rear my boy with as strong a regard for right and clean living as my father raised me." The main thing about prohibition is supposed to be education, but if fathers and mothers will train their children I right you won't need prohibition. j Mr. Boyd sat down amid a gale of ap- 1 plause. M. H. Walker, the well-known Salt Lake banker, said prohibition would give titles a serious setback; would be unfair, in fact, to cities of the first and second class in the state. J Charles Tyng presented figures showing the probable effect of prohibition upon business conditions in Halt Lake City. f. All his estimates were low, he said, and, no believed, very fair. Mr. Tyng said that there are now ninety-one vacant stores in a downtown area which lie named There are in tills district ninety-fit ninety-fit Saloons which would be closed by a prohibition law. He then proceeded to compute the loss in revenue to ui-opeit holders from rentals, and estimated the Keneml depreciation of business property income and value by reason of ud. Ins the saloon space to the vacant siore space already in existence He computed liuures showing the number of persons who would lose employment and the monetary losa in wages which would result. re-sult. Loss General. Tn .summing up. Jlr. Tyns; observed that not liquor dealers and property owners own-ers alone would suffer the llnanc.al e -fects, but that every citizen would be affected adversely. "The whole world Is pnylng the puce for the K-reat war in Kumpe." he said L and the whole state, hut particularly tne cities will feel the depressing nnancial effect of prohibition. What Is more, you cannot prohibit by prohibition laws. ou only take away the regulation and revenue reve-nue to the commonwealth. Mr. j yn, added that la: parents and not cabarets am the Haws in conditions at present. John M. Haves presented a petition from the Commercial club of Kinham -Canyon, asking the legislature not to pass the "bill "You cannot leuislati' morals into men." the petition read, "and you merely take t he liquor business out of the pale of law and order and put it In the hands of boollecers." Mr. Hayes compared lower Bingham, where there are saloons, with upper Bingham, where bootleggers peddle vile alcoholic concoctions concoc-tions to the miners. A Hitter, who said he represented the working classes, declared that wage-earners wage-earners did not want prohibition, but urged that the legislature turn their attention at-tention to many more imperative problems prob-lems of the workaday world. Although the chairman had announced that the hearing was only on the negative --ide of the question, the affirmative having hav-ing had its say, one of the prohibit ion zealots, a woman, pained the :h"or and t.tlked several minutes beioie she was. t-iiip.i out of order. All of the speeches made last night were against the passage of the bill. The Utah Pharmaceutical association did not argue against passage of the bill, but presented emphatic resolutions against thai provision of it which permits druggists drug-gists to sell IKiuor on physicians' prescriptions. pre-scriptions. A committee from the asso-clu asso-clu tion asked that all provisions of the bill permitting druggists to sell liquor on physicians' prescriptions, or under any restrictions and for any reasons whatsoever, whatso-ever, be stricken out. The petition follows: Our purpose in appearing before you Is to have you consider certain provisions pro-visions im tills bill relating to druggists, drug-gists, which proposes that after all of the saloons are closed certain liquors may be sold, under certain regulations and restrictions, by the drug stores of the state. Jf the bill passes in its present form it will practically w)rce the liquor traffic into the drug stores. The druggists of our association most earnestly ear-nestly protest against any such pro-; pro-; vision. They pride themselves upon the fact that they have carried out j t lie provisions of the local option law i wherever that law is Ui effect. At the same time we h-ve been greatly i annoyed, and at times considerably i embarrassed, by the practice of d(s-j d(s-j pensing liquor under a physician's pre-j pre-j seriptton. If there should he stale-wide prohibition, pro-hibition, as contemplated In this Mil, you can readily appreciate that attempts at-tempts to procure liquors from drug s tort-a would take nlnnt innumerable j forms. There are physicians, of j course, who would not give a pre- scription except id case of need, but. we are sorry to say, there are other j phvg'cians who at least would re-i re-i solve the doubt in favor of the ap-I ap-I rlicant if the lattter wire Known to j he badly in need of a drink. Will Hurt Trade. 1 Furthermore, thre woidd be drcsr ' stores whose principal business wo;:M j !e that of dispensing intoxicating liquors. A ereat many persons now ! en-ad in tlie liquor traffic in this and other states would promptly en gage in the. drug business in "Utah, and new stores, under the guise of drug stores, would spring up at street corners ami crass roaus under the stimulus that would thus be offered. We most earnestly protest against any such degradation of the drug business. The effect of this would be to force mamy druggists to engage almost exclusively ex-clusively in the liquor traffic, and we know of no reason why they should be singled out and called upon to ' serve the public in a way that, to them, is distasteful. Po we petition your honorable body that that part of the bill regulating the sale by druggists on prescriptions by physicians be stricken out. Respectfullv yours, COMM1TTKE OX LEGISLATION, UTAH PHARMACEUTICAL ASSOCIATION. AS-SOCIATION. ; Chairman Seegmiller ad jounned the hearing without taking any action on the bill. |