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THE STORY OF A BEAUTIFUL CITY
IN TWO CHAPTERS—CHAPTER TWO
By H. P. FITCH.
S stated in a former chapter, the
city had reached a population of
from 25,000 to 30,000, and had all
the appointments and conveniences
of the first-class. The people work
ed together for the common good.
Every branch of business pros
pered. Besides shipping their pro
ducts to other markets, the manu-
A
facturers supplied the retail dealers of their
own city. These, in turn, sold them to the two
thousand five hundred employes of the facto
ries, with the other consumers of the city. The
money thus received was paid back to the
manufacturers, and again paid to the employes
for labor, and thus kept in circulation along the
lines of beneficial and industrial trade. Many
of those employes had come to own their own
homes. Real estate was constantly advancing.
Everybody was happy and loud in praise of
their beautiful and prosperous city.
One day there called at the office of the
general manager of the City and Power Com
pany two well-dressed gentlemen, one from P—•
and the other from C —, both cities located in
a distant State. They said they were capital
ists, looking for a place to make investments.
They had read of this beautiful and prosperous
city, and were very much interested in it. If
they should decide to invest here, they would
bring a large amount of money, and would be
certain to aid largely in building up the city.
They would each erect a large manufacturing
plant, which would give employment to many
hands and put a lot more money in circula
tion, etc., etc.
On further inquiry it was learned that the
gentleman from P — was a very wealthy dis
tiller, who owned a large distillery in his home
city, and was looking for a place to start a
branch establishment. “He would employ
from fifty to one hundred hands.” The gen
tleman from C —, was a brewer; and wanted
to build a brewery. He also would invest a
large amount of capital, and employ a number
of men. (By the way: I called at the department
store of J. M. High & Co. a few days ago, and
I challenge successful contradictions, when I
say that they are employing more “hands” in
their store than are employed in any one of
two-thirds of the distilleries or breweries in
the United States. It takes but very few
hands to operate either one of those agencies
of the devil.)
Unfortunately, the plausible representation
of the men prevailed; and the general mana
ger was induced, so ra sufficient consideration,
to enter into a written contract, to allow them
to tap the race, and divert sufficient water
power to run their distillery and brewery.
“Certainly,’’ resoned the manager, “the em
ployment they will give to workmen, and the
market they will make for grain, can not fail
to be a great help to the city.”
In due time the buildings were erected, the
machinery installed, just outside the city lim
its —so that the city got no benefit from taxa
tion —and then the “race” was tapped, and suf
ficient water diverted to run both establish
ments.
Now let us see how it helped the citv:
The first disappointment was in the small
amount of grain used, especially wheat and
corn. The flouring mill had hitherto been tak
ing all of these the farmers raised, but the gen
tlemen Lad contended that it would largelv
benefit the farmers bv raising the price of
grain. So far from this the nrice of grain was
not increased, and the quantitv bought or shin
ned in by them was very small indeed. This
fact is easilv exnlained. The distillery had a
basement; and in the basement was a dark
room, where none but their most trusted ex-
The Golden Age For November 16, 1911.
perts were allowed to work. It was in that
dark room where most of the distilling (?) was
done. A few barrels of alcohol, with suffi
cient water, and a supply of the proper drugs,
not bought in the city—they were too cunning
to buy those poisonous ingredients at home
enabled their experts to manufacture every
kind of liquor, from the rarest old wines of
France and Spain—they claimed to be import
ers as well as manufacturers —down to the
meanest rotgut whiskey that would kill its vic
tim at forty rods.
The second disappointment was in the num
ber of men they employed. In this respect it
was found that the proprietors had greatly
overstated it. Instead of employing one hun
dred and fifty men, as they represented, they
averaged, at most, from forty-five to sixty
hands —in the whole business.
NOTE —This is a high estimate of the aver
age of these institutions.
Nor was this all. It was discovered, when
too late, thta, in tapping the race, they had
diverted from one-third to one-half the water
power ; thereby greatly damaging all the other
mills and factories, by allowing them to run
only from one-half to two-thirds of the time;
so that while they had brought into the city
from forty-five to sixty hands, they had thrown
out of employment the equivalent of one thou
sand hands or more. This injury extended also
to all the retail dealers; for, instead of the two
thousand five hundred workmen distributing
thirty thousand dollars per week among them,
they had only from fifteen to twenty thousand
dollars to spend at the retail stores. It is easy
to see how, in this respect, the distillery and
the brewery helped the city.
Perhaps the saddest disappointment of all
was in the moral effect it had upon the city.
Os course, in order to make their business re
profitable, they must have a market for their
products. Their first step in this direction was
to go quietly over the city and buy up a large
number of good corner lots, especially in the
better parts of the resident sections. On these
they erected cheap, one-story, wooden build
ings, and in these they opened, through the
agency of others men they could trust, saloons
for retail business. This very largely lessened
the value of all other property in the vicinity.
Their agents then went before the City Council
and applied for “A license to sell wine, beer
and other intoxicating liquors.” They set
forth that the revenue received for the licenses
would go far toward supporting their schools,
repairing their streets, etc. By such argu
ments they succeeded in getting a majority of
the Council to vote in their favor, and the
saloons were opened. This further helped (?)
the other retail dealers, by diverting a portion
of the $15,000, or $20,000 per week the men
yet earned, into the tills of the saloon, and
through them into the pockets of the brewer
and distiller.
The result of all this was soon painfully ap
parent. Young men, hitherto sober and indus
trious, soon began to frequent the saloon.
Boys, who had never before known this tempta
tion. hung around them, and were often found
inside Men, whose appetites had been re
strained by their surroundings, ere long became
drunkards. The moral tone of the city was
percentibly lowered. The attendance at the
schools dropped off for the want of clothing for
many of the children.
The time was now rine for a nawn-shon; and
the distiller and brewer decided to still further
help (?) build up the city, by furnishing the
money, and hiring a man to open a pawn-shop
in his own name. At once, bedsteads, chairs,
clocks, watches clothes of men, women and chil
dren passed under “the three balls” of the
brewer’s and distiller’s pawn-shop, while the
bare pittance received from them passed into
those gentlemen’s salonns, and added to their
gain.
Why pursue the subject further? Have I
not written the history of ten thousand cities
all over this otherwise fair and beautiful land?
All that is necessary in the application of this
story is to let that water-power represent “The
river of currency or volume of money.” This
is sufficient in every town for every branch of
legitimate business, but every dollar paid into
the saloon is not only an injury to the person
who buys the liquor, but to that extent robs
the legitimate merchant of his rightful trade.
That is the way the liquor traffic helps a city
town or State. And yet we have men, high in
the councils of the State, who ought to be wis
er and better statesmen, striving to break down
those barriers of virtue which wise statesman
ship have erected, and vote back the saloon,
wherever by fair means or foul it can be done.
Reader, which shall we do? Bring back the
saloonns with all their attendant debauchery,
legalized degradation, poverty, lust and crime,
or shall we strengthen the barriers already
raised, close up the blind tigers, and, if need
be, clothe their keepers in stripes, and send
them out to honest work on the streets, and
herald it forth to the world that grand old
Georgia remains a prohibition State?
THE SAME OLD CAUSE.
“He had been drinking heavily for several
days.” That was what the daily papers said of
a man who last week in this city went to the
home of his divorced wife, shot her through the
heart and shot himself and fell dead across her
dead body. She had gotten a divorce because
of his drunkenness and cruel treatment of her.
Liquor drinking develops the criminal instincts,
and behind the liquor drinking is the liquor bus
iness, and behind the liquor business is the li
cense, and behind the license is a great company
of church people, and behind this great com
pany of church people is—what? —Word and
Way.
*s*
JUDGE RUSSELL’S ATLANTA SPEECH.
(Continued from Page 5.)
Says the Judge: I appeal to you, fathers and
mothers and young men, to help me. I intend
to batter down the barriers raised for your pro
tection —the only barrier that stands between
those noble, honest and manly boys of yours,
and drunkenness by law —and on its ruins I
will erect a law by which your husbands, sons
and brothers may become drunkards without
crucifying their manhood or honor. A law that
will justify and protect the liquor-seller, in
dealing out to them the body-slaying and soul
damning poison. Then, when they have become
drunkards through the operation of my law, I
will dress them in the garb of a criminal, drag
them from their home, from weeping wife and
shame-faced children, and through a long im
prisonment complete the degradation which has
already been begun through the laws that I
have myself enacted. Verily, verily, consisten
cy thou art a jewel!
No, no, fathers and mothers, we also make
our appeal to you to help us save those noble
boys of yours from this horrible fate. Instead
of exchanging a law prohibiting, for one legal
izing, this means of degradation and death, let
us strengthen the law we have, and make it
more effective.
In my next article I will show how wild and
visionary are his schemes and how it will in
crease, instead of lessen, the number of blind
tigers,
