Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-01-17
The Relations Of fIntemperance and
Crime.


few evenings ago there was meeting of
some of the most influential citizens of New
York to discuss the practical aspects of the
temperance question, and Chief Justice Noah
Davis, by invitation, made an address on the
relations of intemperance and crime. Some
of the facts which he presented are of more
than local interest, and have an important
bearing on the economic and moral princi-
pies which underlie the temperance reform.
Spoken by Judge Davis as the result of his
long Judicial experience and his knowledge of
the causes and motives of crime, they have
special weight and value. Judge Davis gave
it as his opinion that among all causes of
crime intemperance is ''the unspproachable
chief" and he proceeded to establish that
fact both affirmatively and negatively first
showing that wherever intemperance is most
prevalent, crime is most abundant, and then
that where drunkenness is repressed, crime
diminishes in the same ratio.
On the first point he cited the testimony of
judges of large experience More than two
hundred years ago Sir Matthew Hale, then
Chief Justice of England, said: by due OBJ
servation l have found that if the murders
and manslaughters, the burglaries and rob-
berries, the riots and tumults, the ad llteries,
foundations, rapes and other enormities that
have happened during twenty years, were di-
vided into five parts, four of them have been
the issue and product of excessive drinking
of tavern and ale-hOuse drinking" Lord
Chief Baron Kelly, the oldest Judge now on
the English bench, in a recent letter said
"Two-thirds of the crimes which come before
the courts of law of this country are occa-
stoned chiefly by intemperance." A commit
tee of the Canadian House of Commons, re-
porting in 1873, stated that 'out of 2S 2SO
commitments to the jails during the three
previous years, y, 236 were committed either
for drunkenness or for crimes perpetrated un-
der the influence of drink" The statistics of
crime in this country show a similar ratio to
that which prevails in the mother country and
in the Dominion. The report of the Massa-
chusetts State Board of Charities in 1869 says:
The proportion of crime traceable to this
great vice must be set down, as heretofore, at
not less than four-ifths." The inspectors of
State prisons in 1868 give the same proper
tion. Corroborative evidence from great
variety of sources might be cited to show the
same general state of affairs and these sta
tstcs, it should be remembered are not col
lected by temperance writers and speakers to
substantiate their theories, but are given in
the reports of officials whose sole duty it is
to note the facts relating to crime.
As to the second point, Judge Davis pro-
ceeded to show by facts equally well substan-
tiated that when, by any means, ntemper-
ance is diminished, crime falls off in the same
ratio. In Ireland, before the close of Octo-
Der, 1888, Father Matthew had enrolled more
than 2jO, 900 names on his pledges of total
abstinence. Now note the statistics of crime
as given by Lord Morpeth, Secretary for Ire
land. In 1897 the entire number or murders
and murderous assaults, and other crimes
against the person of various grades of yio-
lence, was II, 2,096 in 1888 it was IL 05S; in
1889 it was 1897, and in 1910 it was only 10.
The persons imprisoned in the Bridewell, the
principal city prison of Dublin, fell off in one
year from 1856 to %, and the Smithfeld pris-
on was actually closed for lack of occupants.
Similar facts are observable in this country.
In Vineland, N. j., where the sale of liquors
has never been allowed We hnd a community
of 10, 900 people with police force consist
ing of one constable, who, for his duties in
that capacity and as overseer of the poor, re-
ceives only S75 year. In some years its re-
ports show only single crime and poor
rate aggregating but 81. Greeley, Colorado,
has 1000 population and no liquor shop; it
requires no police force, and in two years eX-
pended only 81 from its poor fund Bavaria,
Illinois, a town with the same population and
absolute prohibition, reports no drunkards or
paupers and no crimes. The figures show
that under the prohibition law in Connecticut
in 1854, crime decreased II per cent When
license was restored in 1873, crime increased
30 per cent in single year. Under the ex-
listing local option law the cities which have
voted against the traffic in liquors show di-
minished commitments for crime. In New
London, for example, the arrests for intOxi- !
of havva 4 FrnV. 10
month, but in November under the new law,
there were but &. and arrests for other crimes |
have diminished cOrrespOndngly. In New |
York city year ago, during only spasmOd- |
ic and partial attempt TO enforce the excise |
law, arrests for crime other than for breaches |
of the excise law fell OFF, according to the |
of a police commissioner, from 30 |
to 40 per cent
The facts which Judge Davis cites-and We |
have given above only portion of them
clearly show that intemperance and crime |
move along together, and that whatever in
creases or diminishes the one increases or
dimnishes the other. This is only one as
pect of the Temperance question, but it is GER
tainly n very important one, appealing to ma
terial not less than to moral interests. There
may be, and are, diversties of opinion as to
the best methods for repressing intemperance
and diminishing the sale and use of liquors.
but as to the desirability of accomplishing
these results there is not room for difference
of view. Increasing attention is being given
of late to all phases of this question, and it is
to be hoped that there will be no abatement
of interest until the whole community is alive
to the necessity of sustaining every force and
agency which makes for the suppression of
the three great associated evils-intemper-
ance, pauperism and crime, To deal etfec-
lively with the last two we must aim our
blows at the last.-BOStOR Journal,