The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1906-09-14
FACTS CONCERNING THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
by DIR. s. A. Smith, Superintendent
Louisiana Anti.SalOOn League.

by DR.. s. A. Smith, Superintendent
Louisiana Anti.SalOOn League.
The licensed saloon in this country
will in few years be "Only a thing
of hateful memory" The dawning of
the day that will see the end of the
liquor traffic in this country has now
come. That all this and more is true,
let facts be submitted to a candid
world.
First-The strides made by the Amer
lean Anti-Saloon League in the past
few years toward putting down the
legali2ed saloon is almost incredible.
In Ohio every man in prominent po-
litical life six years ago, who OPP
posed the advanced local option legis-
lation proposed by the League, has
been forced to retire, with a single eX-
ception. The Legislature and Cover
nor were in the last election chosen by
the influence of the League. More
than half of the towns and cities of the
state have gone "dry.' and three
fourths of the territory of the Estate
has voted out liquor. In Indiana,
under the Nicholson law the saloon
forces are dem0ralized and the State
is rapidly getting rid of saloons. In
Kentucky under the new law 50 out of
119 counties are to put legalized liquor
under the ban. In Tennessee it is
lawful to sell liquor in only fourteen
places in the State. In West Virginia
- counties out of 55 in the State grant
no license to sell liquor, and eleven
others have saloons in but one town
in the county. In the entire State of
Iowa there are four hundred less sa-
looms than in the city of New Orleans.
There are about $1,000, 900 of people
living in our Southland and l9,000,-
600 of them now live in prohibition
territory. Liquor vendors of all
kinds stand in dread of the Anti-Sa-
loon League as is shown by their ref
erence to it's work against their bust
/ ness ia every meeting or convention
they hold.
Second-The places that have put
out the liquor business and kept it
out long enough to test it's effects do
not want it back. In Maine, where
the liquor traffic has been outlawed
for years, there is no disposition to
return to a liquor license system. The
statements of fifteen leading papers in
as many different cities and towns of
that State have recently been pub
lished declaring this with great un-
animity. In Kansas every tendency
is toward strengthening the prohi-
bition law now twenty-five years old
in that State. No political party and
no politician in Kansas would think
of facing the future with decla-
ration of hostility to this law.
What is true of states is true also
of cities and towns everywhere. Take
Hancock County, West Virginia.
where there has been no saloon for
sixty years, and nobody thinks of de-
string such acalamity. AskLaGrange
or Danville, Kentucky. where saloons
have been kept out for years; ask
Union City or Springfield, Tenn,
where prohibition has obtained for
some time: inquire of Ottawa, Kan,
or ParagouId. Ark, after long ex.
perience without saloon, what they
would do. These cities and long
list of others like them answer with
one mighty voice against the curse of
the open saloon. We have 'sutticient
testimony here in Louisiana. There |
is Ruston, Leesville, Bunkie and |
Cheneyville. EvenEthe men who 60
from these places to Monroe, Lake
Charles or Alexandria to Stake their
thirst, protest with all their might
against having iliquor sold Iagain in
their towns. No one thinks seriously
of ro+nrninu To the vomit from which
;heY came.
Third-The open saloon is the direct
producer of crime. When the saloons
we're closed on Sunday in Kansas
City crime decreased Al per cent in
thirty days. Almost the same rate of
decrease was found in ISt. Louis when
he law was enforced against the law
ess, legalized saloons. Saloons are
he we'll authenticated sources of de-