PROHIBITION BANISHES CRIME
Naturally, I am not a prohibitionist. Nevertheless, I dispute the
contention of the brewers that they did not oppose but, instead,
actually approved the enactment of the recent "bone-dry" prohibition
legislation forbidding transportation of alcoholic beverages into
states which prohibit the sale and manufacture of intoxicants, on
the ground that its drastic measure would have a "reactionary effect"
and thus result in the return of a number of the present "dry" states
into the "wet" column. Vaporings of this sort sound very much like
the old sour grape story and have their origin in the fertile brain
of the publicity manager of the beer trust.
Absence of drunkenness, law and order, and the reduction of crime
to a minimum, have invariably followed the "dry" wave.
Prohibition has emptied the jails, and the people are gratified
with the new order of things. Everybody is happy except the
liquor interests.
A town in Georgia, having no further use for its jail, not having
had an occupant for a long time as the result of the bone-dry law,
has rented it out for another purpose.
The most remarkable proof comes from the national capital. Washington
became saloonless on November 1, 1917. During the month of November--the
first dry month--official figures made public by the commissioners,
comparing arrests for drunkenness during November, 1917, and the same
month a year ago, show that during November, 1917, 199 arrests for
drunkenness were made, as against 838 for November, 1916, a reduction
of 639, or 76 per cent. The greatest number of arrests for any one
week in November, 1917, were 61, while the greatest number for the
same period a year ago were 218.
In Decatur, Ill., which went "dry" four years ago, the population
has increased from 25,000 to 45,000. It is claimed that the criminal
cases have lessened 90 per cent, that the building of factories
and houses has increased 30 per cent, that 2,700 savings depositors
in banks were added and that there were 37 per cent less cases of
public charity yearly.
Nor will the loss of revenue permanently affect conditions. The
enormous wealth of the country will soon adjust that phase of the
situation.
Authorities assert there is no license city that keeps within its
budget, whereas there is no dry city that is not financially
improved by the ousting of the brewers.