The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1874-10-17
A Startling Exhibit.

De well Tor them to examine the SUBJ
ject in the light of experience, and ac-
cept the facts as they actually exist.
No one can doubt that the efforts made
by the prohibitionists are zealously in
tended for public good, but the results
prove that prohibition, SO far from hav-
ing served to further the interests Of
temperance, has really operated the
other way.
Maine has prohibitOry law, forbid
ding both. the sale and the manufacture
of liquor. 1t was passed In 1851. Port
land, which at that time had popula-
tion Of $4,000, with 200 places where
liquor was sold, has increased less than
80 per cent. in population. while the
number of places where drunksrds are
made has increased 200 per cent. Ban
gor, with 5000 inhabitants, has 800
drinking saloons, or one to every 80 Of
its inhabitants. .4nd Dio Lewis says
Of the consumption of liquor through
out the State: ut is enormous
Massachusetts has strict prohibitory
law. In the report for 1870 of E. H.
Savage, Boston's Chief Of Police, we
read the following paragraph:
"In 1856 the population of Boston
was i64, 900. In 1870 it was $50 900,
showing an increase Of about SO per
cent. In 1856 the number of arrests
for drunkenness was 6,780. In 1870
the number of persons arrested for the
in fourteen years of over 175 per cent,
and that too for the last five years, at
least In defiance of the untiring effor Is
Of the executive, officers, whose special
duty 1t was to check and prohibit this
evil. aided by the strong arm of the
law"
In his official report for 1871, Mr..
Sawyer shows by the following table
the number of men made drunk in Bos-
ton during the year:
Number Of hotels, TO; drunken men, -. 81
Number of groceries, LAS; drunken men, l,425
Number Of fjug.rooms, 327; drunken men; 3,5l1
Total ........ l'4lS
In his next report he says /:
Certainly a great many prosecutions
have been made under all the provisions
OF the law by both local and state of.
ficers but yet drunkenness has not d-
minished. Our reports show 2,768
places In our city where intoxicating
drinks are sold. From the best infor-
nation to be obtained II 1895 persons
were committed for drunkenness during
the year, $3.50 were recorded as disols
derly, and IT'S were helped home from
the streets All those recorded disOr-
derly, and those helped home, were un-
the influence Of strong drink"
This makes the total of drunken cases
In Boston In o year, as far as the police
are able to know, 1880. Now Brook
lyn has no liquor law; and st. Louis is
a German city with restricted license
low, while the city government there
has been for twenty-five years In the
hands of the beer-drinking element.
Yet in 1878 Boston had $40 times as
many drunken cases as Brooklyn, and
st. Louis, 1895 times as many as St..
Louis. The arrests In Boston were 300
per cent. more numerous than those in
Cleveland, Ohio; ass per cent. more
numerous than those In Cincin-
nati-another beer drinking city
with o restricted license law l38 per
cent. of those in Detroit; 122 per cent.
of those In Washington, where every
body drinks whiskey; and 85 per cent.
of those In New York, with its popula-
ton of 100000, its miles of liquor
shops, and no liquor law but the dead
letter of 1867. These are facts that are
worthy OF serious attention on the part
of enthusiastic prohibitionists. Here
are others hardly less significant:
Boston has an average OF one arrest
for drunkenness In every 10 Of her in
habitants; Providence has one in 20;
New York has one In 81; San Francis
CO has one in 30; Rochester has one in
81; Washington has one in 80; Detroit
has one In "a; st. Louis has one in AZ;
Cleveland has one In AZ; Brooklyn has
in "a; Cincinnati has one in SO.
These figures are from the official re-
ports Of 1879. The reports OF the cur
rent year will only exhibit in more re-
markable degree the startling differen-
ces In the matter Of drunkenness be-
tween those cities governed by prohib-
itory law and those In which the sale Of