In answer to the City Council's request for information, certain officials have declared that the sum of $7,200,000 which is being collected annually in license fees from liquor retailers is of vital importance to the city's economy under the present setup. This is undoubtedly true, and the Council is well advised in seeking correct information regarding all phases of the liquor question, financial or otherwise.

However, there is a tendency to overemphasize economic considerations and, important as they are, we do not think that the city of Chicago would face bankruptcy if it were deprived of the income from liquor licenses. Spokesmen for the Anti-Saloon League point out that the loss of this income could readily be compensated for by a tax on corporation stocks, bank deposits, and other property which is now practically tax exempt.

It should not be forgotten that the temperance movement aims at a reform which, if it could be realized, would be of incalculable value. It is a factor in our social evolution, and now that it seems to have escaped from the political strait-jacket, its economic significance as well as its moral and ethical aspect should receive more attention. It would be interesting to know what this income of $7,200,000 really costs the people of Chicago. Moral reforms almost always cause initial loss in dollars and cents, but they always pay in the long run. In a discussion of social questions of this kind it is important that one start from the proper premises, but this is often forgotten, and the real issue obscured by more or less irrelevant arguments.