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Show H OGDEN CITY IN ACCOUNT WITH H SALOONS. M That saloons are a financial burden H to this city Is very clear when we H consider what they cost the city In the H . way of expenses and policing; tho H prosecution and punishment of crime; H and the support and maintenance of B the insane and the poor H Speaking at the National Prison con- H gress at Seattle, August 17, 1909. War- H den Helstrom of the North Dakota 1 state prison said that his experience Hf as a prison director had made a pro- Hl hibitionist of him, for ho bad found Hl that "95 out of a hundred convicts H owed their downfall to drink." It is Hi generally conceded that 75 per cent H of all the crimes in this country aro Hl chargeable to tic liquor traffic. H tTpon the relation of the liquor traffic 1 to insanity. Prof. M. L. Groves, M. D., H of the University of Texas, formerly H superintendent o'f the a&ylum in that H state, estimates that 90 per cent of the H Insanity is caused directly, or through H hereditary transmission, by drink. The H auperintendent of the Austin asylum H places the figures at CO per cent and H other authorities nt from 45 to 60 per j cent Therefore, 50 per cent would bo i a conservative estimate, j Fifty per cent of tho pauperism j which we find in this city and county H is also a conservative estimate of what j should be charged to the liquor traffic 1 or saloons. Hj It Is impossible to ascertain exactlv 1 the costs incurred In tho prosecution j and punishment of crime, tho mainten- anco of prisoners, the expenses in- H curred on account of Insane, and tho H poor, including Interest on the capital H Invested In the state institutions and H the county Infirmary, but from a very H careful estimate drawn from official H and other reliable sources, the follow- j ing Is, we think, a conservative estl- j mate of Ogden City's proportion of j these expenses: H Criminal prosecutions, pun- H Ishments, maintenance of H prisoners, etc., stale coun- m and city $49,236 77 Juvenile court and Industrial H.' school 8,351 25 1 County infirmary and main-K main-K " tenance of poor not at In- H' flrmary 12,869 43 M Insane, maintenance of hoa- H plial, etc 4,882 50 H $75,339 95 H In 1910 the citv received for liquor j licenses $61,199.68, and refunded $824, H leaving net balance received 560,375.65, L or $14,967.27 LESS than the liquor M traffic cost tho city as shown by the H foregoing figures. 1 That these figures are conservative 1 conclusively appears from the fact that the accepted estimate of the cost H of crlmo In this country, by the Na- 1 tional Prison congress, which is com- l posed of persons who have for many T years made a study of the question, H and the cauaea of crime, is $10 per capita of the total population. M This, of course, Includes not only the M maintenance of prisons and prisoners, l but loss by the theft and destruction M of property, but a very large percent- H age of the latter is chargeable directly H to the liquor traffic, as every Intelli- H gent person knows. 1 The population of Ogden is in round H numbers 26,000. At this accepted esti- H mate the total cost of crime in this H city would be -$260,000. If 25 per cent H only of this loss is charged to thp H liquor traffic, we have the largo sum of H $65,000, which is more than the total Hl amount Tecefv-ed by the city from the H 8aloonsrlea-ving all the eotpenses of M the poor and the insane, chargeable H against the liquor traffic, to be raised 1 by taxation. Therefore, from a purelv H economic and business standpoint, the ML saloon iri a public burden, i Add -to this the suffering, distress H. anfl yro th!lt We saloons cause, and M one cannot sec how ny good citizen H can vote to legalize this- business.-Lnst H year there wore four suicides in this H city known to be duo directly to the H lienor traffic, and there were two cases of accidental death also known to be due to the same cauBe, and many more there were, no doubt, which did not become known to the public. If any one would attempt to engage in any other business which would produce pro-duce such an appalling harvest of loath and destruction, how long would his business be tolerated? |