Prospects of Selling Liquor Found Unwelcome By Square Stores---Cost and Atmosphere Bad

A pronounced disinclination on the part of dispensaries around the Square to sell hard liquor after December 6 was revealed in a survey conducted yesterday by the CRIMSON. Of a dozen prospective taverns visited, less than half showed a disposition to offer intoxicating beverages for sale after Repeal and many of those which did doubted whether the Legislature would permit them to sell it.

Five of the Cambridge merchants declared that they were not going to renew their licenses, nor were they going to deal with liquor in any form, pointing out that the majority of their customers came in for food, and knew where they could get their liquor else-where. The Harvard Square merchants also held that the cost of licenses would make the sale of liquor impossible for them anyway.

The former ruling forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquor near churches, schools, and colleges has not been included in the currently proposed law. When asked for an explanation of this move, James P. Reilly, confidential clerk of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, said that the majority of hotels, drug stores, taverns, and inns, were at present within the forbidden area, and that it would be impractical to prevent them on this ground from selling liquor. Many of Boston's largest hotels are practically next door to the churches and schools, he pointed out.

A study of the report of the Special Recess Committee shows that all existing licenses for the sale of light wine and beer will be revoked at the legislation of the proposed law. Reilly explained the widespread unwillingness of merchants to renew their beer and ale licenses by pointing out that many of them are rapidly going into debt.

Other objections to the sale of alcohol presented by the Square merchants included a marked dislike of converting their places of business into liquor dispensaries, and the impossibility of handling the equipment necessary for operating such a tavern. The owners of one shop avowed too great an affection for Harvard boys to allow them to procure hard liquor in their tavern, thereby harming them. "I'd sooner shoof you than sell you any liquor," the manager said she had remarked to one student, adding that his replay had been, "Sell me the drink first and then shoot!"