Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-09
LIQUOR TRAFFIC ASSAlLED
Reasons Advanced by Anti-saloon League
in Favor of Prohibition.
Statement Showing the Number of
Licensed Bar Rooms and Their
Relation to Crime.

At a meeting of the board of managers Of
the proposed anu-saloon petition canvass
held In the hall of the Spencerian Business
College Saturday evening Mr.. Jas. L. Ewin.
chairman, reported that since the last meet
ing of the board and the publication of its
intentions and plans for the canvass he
had received letters from several persons
and personal calls from others. expressing
approval of the purposes and plans of the
board and rendering personal and financial
assistance. He also reported that I.ir John
B. Slemen, jr., general secretary of the Y.
NJ. c. A, and Mr.. A. L. Dietrich, late presi-
dent of the Christian Endeavor Union of
the District, had consented to act as men,
bers Of the board of managers. and their
names had been added to the list
The press committee presented the follow
ing report:
We are asked every day by people whose
opinions are worthy of consideration and
whose questions should be answered why
we are attempting to destroy the business
of the retail liquor dealers. We answer
that question with the statement that we
are attempting to destroy the retail liquor
traffic because it is responsible, directly and
indirectly, for a very large part of the pow
erty, degradation and crime in our midst
In support of that statement we present a
table compiled from the annual reports
OF the superintendent of police and the ex-
else board, respectively. showing the num-
Der of arrests made by the metropolitan
police in the District of Columbia and in
each police precinct in the order of the
relative number of licensed bar rooms to
the population in each.
Statistical Showing.
From these figures given it will be seen
that, while the whole number of arrests
in the District, with a bar room for each
AL of its population, was equal to one ar
rest for every II of its population, the
number of arrests made in the first pre-
cinct. with bar room for every 113 of its
population. was equal to one for every 3 of
ITS population; and in the ninth precinct,
win a bar room for every 1,oiS of its pop
ulation, the number of arrests was equal
TO only one for every Is of its population
1T Will also be seen that in all the pre-
clncts the relative number of arrests in
creaSes with the increase in the number of
bar rooms in such a way as to leave no
doubt that it, the licensed bar ROOM is the
most potent factor In the criminal record
or our city. and that it must be DESTROYED
ished.
NO person believes for a moment that
one-third of the population of the first pre-
cinct.men. women and chidren-were ar
rested in one year, as the figures would in
dlcate. The fact is that in the first pre-
cinct there are institutions which attract
the idle, the weak, the vile and the vicious
from all parts of the city and from other
cities, and there are other institutions there
which excite and incite those classes to
commit disorders and crimes which result
In their arrest in that precinct.
Effect of Bar Rooms
Many of the large business houses are
In the first precinct but the people who
work in these houses, or who go to them
and who do not stop at the bar rooms on
their way to or from them do not become
disorderly or commit crimes and are not
arrested. The theaters are in the first pre-
cinct, but the people who attend the thea
tiers and who do not stop at the bar rooms
going to or from the theaters do not be-
come disorderly commit crimes and
they are not arrested.
1.-The disrepucable district, The Dvis-
ion,' with its whole squares of houses of
prostitution,is in the first precinct. but even
the people who live in or who go to those
places, and who do not stop at the bar
rooms going to or from them, and who do
not drink Intoxicating liquors while there,
are not arrested, and are not counted in
the record of criminals
There is no other explanation of these
figures. There IS no other answer to the
question. The only way to reduce the Grim
NAL record of the city is to abolish the re-
tail traffic in intoxicating liquors."