Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-19
BETTER DRINKING HABITS.
Decrease in Number of Saloons, in
Drunkenness and in Consumption.

Boston Transcript.
Persons having opportunities for judg-
ment have for some time maintained that
there is a gradual but certain improvement
in the drinking habits Of the people OF the
United States, but as they had no data to
prove to others what was so evident to
themselves they were often unable to make
head against the wild assertions OF the
prohibitionist, that the license system is a
failure and that there is more drinking and
more drunkenness than ever. Fortunately,
there are now at hand official returns, both
state and national, which show that there
are fewer arrests relatively to the whole
population for drunkenness than was the
case twenty, or even ten, years ago, that
the consumption of spirits has perceptibly
declined, and that while there has been an
increase in the consumption per capita of
all liquors, it has not been large enough to
Offset the decreased per capita in distilled
beverages.
This tendency Of our people to substitute
light wines and malt liquors for distilled
beverages naturally increases the quantity
Of all liquors drunk per capita, a drink Of
beer or wine being bigger than a drink of
rum or whisky, so that the fact that there
has really been an increase per capita in
all liquors drank, does not initiate against
'HS Nt"'a' NN'N wa pSol'S NV LNh''h5 80
their drinking habits. This fact is evident
in it's effect upon the number of saloons in
the country. Under the enumeration of
1892, the first year following the promulga-
tion of the last federal census, there were
0,259 saloons in New York SALOONS, ho-
tells, %taverns, restaurants, beer gardens and
picnic resorts), ~, 700 in Pennsylvania, 49,
400 in Illinois, 16, 200 in Ohio, $500 in Michi-
gan and 800 in Massachusetts. At that
period the average number of saloons in
the United States was 1 to each 27S of the
population. In Illinois the ratio was ! to
2O5, in Ohio 1 to 226, in Michigan 1 to 24S,
in Pennsylvania 1 to AL, in Massachusetts,
l to 436 and in New York / to $50.
Notwithstanding the steady increase of
population, in 1895 the number of saloons in
Ohio had been reduced from 16, 900 to IL, 900,
but in Pennsylvania the number had been
increased from ~, 900 to 1900 and in New
York from 10000 to Al 900. At that time
the total number of retail licensed saloons
in the whole United States was POS, 1888. The
present number of licensed saloons, as re-
ported on the first OF July last, was only
1876, 1854, a reduction of 5000 In six years.
BY the official treasury report just issued
the number of retail saloons in New York is
go, 1888, a reduction of nearly 5000 from what
II was a year ago. In Pennsylvania the
IOtdl NUMBER OF ShlODIS Is lfbJUO, d bHldll
increase. In Illinois there were ] 200 sa-
looms fewer on July 1, 1898, than six years
before. In Ohio the number was down to
14,73G, or nearly 1000 less than six years
ago, while in Massachusetts, the number had
decreased from 800 to 200, i'm Michigan
from s, 400 to 5000, and in Indiana from 1900
to 1900. The latest treasury figures show
that the number OF treasury licenses in
force in South Carolina, the dispensary |
state, is only 625, while in the territory of
New Mexico they number 677. In Oklahoma
there are 1866 and in Alaska 1873, while in
the territory of Arizona there are SCI, as
against 442 only in the state of Florida.
While the number of saloons In the United
States is apparently 1875, 600, the actual
number is nearer 175, 900, for the rea- |
son that for the sale of liquors for however
brief a period in a year one government tax
is issued, and when for any reason it is
surrendered or returned or revoked or lost
or cancelled or made imperative the is
suance of a new one, either TO the same
place or to the same party, counts as an ad-
ditional saloon for that year.
While the decrease in the number Of sa-
looms is no doubt due In part TO prohibitlve
legislation and to heavy license fees, the
reason, we are convinced, is to be
found in the voluntary change in public
sentiment, which has been rapidly growing |
in the last twenty years. The total alb
stainer is as common now as he once was
rare. and a public dinner without wine is
no longer regarded as an anomaly. We are
surely headed in the right direction and
are making good progress. The prin-
cipal danger is that the over-earnest reform
ers may obstruct the way by the i~nterpo-
sition Of laws that are calculated to arouse
opposition in men who do not mean to be
driven even along the path in which their
are already set 4