Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-05-01

Prohibition vs.. License.
No. 2.
In this paper I shall devote all my
space to showing that the law ''that is
almost a dead letter. has largely
decreased the sale and consumption of
liquors in prohibition states and
counties, while in all others the traffic
is steadily on the increase, The fol-
lowing figures are taken from the
reports of the Commissioner of Inter-
nal Revenue FOR the years from 1882 to
1890, comparing Maine, Kansas and
Iowa, three prohibition states, with
Illinois, Nebraska and Missouri, three
high license states, giving the number
of retail dealers in distilled liquors as
follows:
fo ans'' 1885, 1853 1885, sGs
Totals. :. .s,4s2 ......4sa1- ...I,5sl
Nebra.k. 1852. $50 1889 s.zse-. ::s.94s
sin 1887 Maine was consolidated with Vermont
and New Hampshire in the U. s: Int: Revenue
department, ana from that time the figures for
Maine alone are not obtained.
tin Missouri 81 counties were under prohibition
by local option since 1887 which largely accounts
for the decrease In dealers as they had increased up
TO that time but decreased again from 1887 to 1889
Senator Ingalls,, in the F0ru1s, Aug.
1889, makes this explanation of the
term Liquor dealer" in prohibition
states: 1.-The increase of the number of
Internal Revenue stamps sold by the
collector from year to year is explained
by the fact that they are required by all
druggists and many of them are repeti
tions and renewals for short terms.
The places where liquors are sold legally
and illegally lin Kansas) haye been
reduced from one for every 674 of pop
uIation in 1880 to one for every 1920 in
1885," A decrease of over three to one.
The following respecting the sale by
barrels of malt liquors in the several
states and territories is taken from
table prepared and published in a sup
plement of the Western Bresoer issued
June 18th. 1889, and verified by the
Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
and shows that in forty states and ter
ritories the sale of malt liquors has
increased IL ,439, O62 barrels from 1880
to 1889; that in three states-Maine.
Mississippi and Vermont--no sales are
reported; and in the other seven states
ARIZONA, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas,
Nevada, North Carolina and Wyoming
the sales have decreased 143 ,198 bar
rels during that time; and that of these
LA, 1913 barrels of decrease, 1873, $50 are
credited to Iowa and Kansas alone,
Iowa Ill ,248 and Kansas %, 1877 barrels.
Now to recapitulate-The decrease
of ,551 retail dealers in the three pro-
hibition states added to the increase of
l 1929 dealers in the three license states
gives a difference of $3.50 in favor of
prohibition, and it is shown in this
case that the decreased number of deal
ers actually means decrease in the
sale of intoxicants. This is fully
proven by the table of the Western
Bre,oer which shows decrease of
1873 $3.50 barrels of malt liquors sold in
Iowa and Kansas, while In forty license
states and territories there was an
average increased sale of 310,976 bar
rels to each of these forty states and
territories.
This demonstrates the fact that pro-
hibition has reduced the sale of liquors,
and therefore lessened the evils result
ing therefrom.
Since writing the above have read
your first article, and hope you may
be able to quiet your fears that you are
expected to assume the aggressive" in
this discussion. Oh, no, have not
'missed my guess" We are expected
to deal with solid facts, and guesswork
will fall short of the mark.
Respectfully,
81 JOEL MILLER.