100 years ago in The Saratogian

Sunday, Nov. 4, 1917

Saratoga County has far fewer saloons than it did last year, but local religious leaders are hoping to further reduce the number on Election Day next Tuesday.

Many saloons have been forced to close their doors by a state law limiting the number of liquor licenses a community can issue to only one for every 750 people. At the same time, municipalities have the “local option” to deny liquor licenses to anyone within their borders.

While most political campaigning for city and county offices, or for the women’s suffrage referendum, ended yesterday, “no-license” advocates get an extra day of campaigning in local pulpits.

The Town of Ballston went “dry” two years ago by voting no-license. A “union meeting” at the local Methodist church tonight is for all intents and purposes a no-license campaign rally. Irving Seabury tells the gathering that “every organization in the town that has for its object the betterment of conditions” supports the no-license cause.

Local businessman Fred J. Rooney addresses the subject “from a standpoint of a layman and an employer of labor,” The Saratogian reports, “showing how much more efficient the man is who abstains from intoxicants and citing concrete instances within his own personal experience.”

Rooney equates the no-license movement with the federal government’s Liberty Loan campaign to finance the war with Germany. “This fight is to save our country, save our home and save our families,” he says.

“Citizens should stand for what they believe is right regardless of the dollar,” says Lester V. Steever. While opposing the liquor trade, he cautions against demonizing those who take part in it at the business end.

“He said that from his experience the men in the liquor business measured up to the average and that it was the business and not the men that should be fought,” a Ballston correspondent writes.

Saloon supporters argue that excise taxes support the local economy and help keep property taxes low. Dr. James T. Sweetman Jr. tries to refute that argument.

“During the past year all the twenty-seven men at the county almshouse from the town of Milton were there because of drunkenness,” Sweetman claims, “and ninety-two out of every hundred in the county jail is a drunkard. The cost to the town of the support of these paupers and criminals is three times more than the town receives from the liquor tax.”

“No-license has never been successful in the town of Milton,” the reporter notes, “but many believe that conditions are such this year that it may go dry.”

License votes will also take place in Clifton Park, Corinth and Wilton.