The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1891-08-08
MoRGANTowN, VIRGINIA, SATURDAY.


To the Editor OF the NEW DOMINION:
As great deal of discussion has
been going on here about the effect
of prohibition on the business and
development of town, l respect
fully ask you to publish the follow
ing letter which furnishes striking
illustration from prominent town
in Iowa:
On recent visit to Des Moines
/ determined to investigate this sub
ject for myself, and am now ready
to speak from my own observations.
/ fully believe that the stories adj
verse to Prohibition were greatly
exaggerated, and that if there were
depression in business it was owing
to other causes. But / was not pre-
pared to find the facts so exactly to
the contrary of the statements circu-
lated by the whisky press. 1t is
about ten years since Constitutional
Prohibition was adopted in Iowa.
After the opposing tactics of its
enemies had been overcome, and the
law went into working operation, in
no city of the State was it better en-
forced than in Des Moines. Prior
to this time it had sixty saloons,
paying license of 1000 each per
year. These, as well as every thing
of the grog shop kind, are now gone.
During more than one week / trav-
ersed the city from one boundary to
another, eagerly looking for evidences
of clandestine rum trade. To say
that l could not find single saloon
is not enough. There is not only no
place in the entire city that a stranger
would recognize as drink resort,
but | did not see single man in all
that time under the influence of
liquor.
Now what are the effects of this
stringent suppression of the saloon
upon the business prosperity of Des
Moines? The government census
shows that this city in the last de
cade has increased in population one
hundred and forty per cent 1t now
contains sixty thousand people. 1t
is by all odds the most prosperous
city which l saw in the West. l
could not find one house for rent,
nor an empty store room anywhere
l was reliably Informed that not
less than thousand new residences
were already in process of construc-
tion, and that more than $l,000,000
worth of new business buildings
were under way. Despite its mis-
representations, Eastern capital
has recognized Des Moines as
solid, conservative city. The Equit-
able Life Assurance Society, of
New York city, is investing half a
million dollars in a new building
there this year The city's credit is
of the very best, and no city in the
West stands better with the Loan
and Trust Companies.
This saloonless city is thriving
exceptionally. While the news
papers of many Western cities, to
whose blooms the whisky men have
been accustomed to point with pride,
are now growing fat over legal
notices of foreclosures of mortgages
and sheriif's sales, you will scan the
city papers of Des Moines in vain for
advertisements of that class She
has steadily prospered under Pro
and is more prosperous to-
day than ever before. The transfer
report that the new arri-
walls alone are adding to the popula-
ton not less than one thousand peo-
pie per month. The weekly bank
clearances this year exceed those of
last year by from twenty five to fifty
per cent. Bank deposits have almost
doubled in the past year The man
ufactured products of the city in
1890 exceeded those of 1889 by ST.
100000. The wholesale business in
the same time gained $4,000, 900.
These are the undeniable facts in
connection with absolute Prohibition
in Des Moines. The falsehood and
fraud which restored the saloons to
Atlanta have failed here. Des
Moines is now the largest city in
the world free from the rum curse.
If sixty thousand people can thus
be controlled, why cannot the same
reign of law and morality be extend
ed to larger cities and to all cities?
Undoubtedly the phenomenal pros
perity of Des Moines would in like
degree follow Prohibition every
where. Rec. j. G. Jackson, D. d.,
Columbus, 0.