Amador Ledger-Dispatch, 16 December 1904 — THE LICENSE QUESTION. [ARTICLE]

THE LICENSE QUESTION.

(COMMUNICATION.')

The Ledger's late editorial on county license laws partly explains why' Amador county does not increase in population and prosperity as it should. Peoplo who reside in the undeveloped parts are compelled to quit their labor and walk 20 or 30 miles sometimes for a pair of overalls, a needle, a spool of thread, or some cough medicine, simply because a ridiculously high license prohibits peddling. Farmers in out of the way places are even prohibited from installing their own telephones, owing to the license ordinance. It would be interesting to know what cash is collected yearly for each of these county licenses, and if the law is enforced to the letter. It would also be interesting to know what it costs the out-of-town residents to be deprived of their regular visiting peddler with his handy little nick-nacks, and who bought up everything in his line the customer had for sale, paid for his meals, horse feed and blacksmithing, which is indispensable in these mountain ranges owing to road conditions. However, it is absolutely necessary to charge some license, not so much for revenue as to aid the police in protecting the public from crooks, and no license should be granted any one that is not well recommended by several wellknown, responsible residents of the county. It is to be hoped that these ordinances will be revised so as to make it possible for country folks to be visited by traders at their homes, and when they have a holiday to spare they need go no further than their nearest county town to hear good music, listen to a good lecture, or have the children onjoy themselves on a merry-go-round or safe swing. The money that used to circulate in tho north-eastern part of the county for wood fuel, saw mills and mining timbers now goes to the southern oil men, Oregon lumber men, steamship and railroad companies, and even Calaveras county is hauling and delivering timbers and lumber to the Standard Electric Company's ditch, a few hundred yards on this side of West Point bridge, only a few miles from the Whitmore and Amador Lumber Company's sawmills, which have been idlo for nearly two seasons. No tax is placed or license ordinance passed on the salesmen or peddlers of these industries, although we havo wood for fuel, mining timber and lumber enough right at home to last for the next hundred years. Make it possible for frontier folks to be called on by. the small merchant— it is more convenient than the mail order business, as no postoffice is near. They have neithor the convenience, time nor money to spare to go to the towns only at long intervals, and when their shopping requirements are heavy and numerous enough to warrant tho expense of a freight team. Chisholm MacPharlane.