Evening journal., 1907-09-07
Mr.. spaid Makes Reply.

Editor THE EVENING JOURNAL.
Permit me space in which to reply
TO the remarkable letter of Emil Engel
appearing in your columns, some days
ago.
First Not a single statement with
regard to Wilmington is accurate. He
gives the population Of Wilmington as
10000, whereas the year for which he
gives the number of arrests the same
census reports give It's population as
$1,000. He also states that we have
only 62 policemen, while every casual
reader OF the papers knows that we
have 90. His statement concerning the
business of the police court on each
Monday Is also false. lie says that
the present arrests for drunkenness are
due TO unlicensed yenders and Illegal
selling on Sunday. The truth is every
drunk in the court on the Monday he
referred TO was arrested on Saturday,
and I'm general this is true.
Secondly. He not only falsfies state
ments but makes unfair comparisons.
When he is comparing a dry city" he
says for drunkenness and disorderly,"
whereas when he cites Wilmington he
only gives those for drunkenness and
eliminates those arrests for disturbing
the peace which amount to more than
so per cent. of the number of drunks.
The comparisons of arrests for
drunkenness in Portland and Milwau-
kee is unsatisfactory and unfair in
that 1t took a city with one standard
pertaining to police court cases with
another city using an entirely different
classification for the same purpose and
that the two cities used as illustrations
were extremes OF their class into which
local pride entered very largely as
determining factor Portland, with its
prohhitory law, striving to keep its
drunkards off the street where the alb
sence of the saloon makes their pres
ence conspicuous and the violation of
the law evident; and Milwaukee, made
notorious by her beer, cares greatly for
the victims of the traffic and in the
disposal of the police court cases enters
them on the blotter as far as possible
as arrested for some cause other than
drunkenness. While Portland has ap
lproximately the same number of ar
rests for drunkenness as Milwaukee. il
has only three arrests for disturbing
the peace. Milwaukee on the other
hand has 115S for this cause, clearly
showing the evident custom of the
two cities Of entering the same crime
under different heads.
For purposes Of comparison it would
be fairer to take two cities of approxi-
mately the same size For instance,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Atlanta
Georgia, which rank respectively Al and
AZ IN the United States census reports.
Cambridge being slightly larger and
without saloons. having only 1900 ar
rests for drunkenness, while Atlanta
has 2700 for the same cause. Cam
bridge has only 262 for disturbing the
peace, while Atlanta has $500 for this
offense.
Owing TO these different standards
of classification, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics of Massachusetts holds that
the fairer test of the no-license system
is to take the same city under this
system and the license system in sue
cessive years with the same police
force 70 enforce the law and the same
method Of entering cases upon the
blotter and to show that no-license
does reduce crime / propose 10 give
statistics later on to prove that Engers
assertion Is not borne out by the facts.
Thirdly He makes a deliberate mis-
statement when he says that Fall River
is the same size as Wilmington with
no saloons and twice the number Of
arrests.
Fall River has 100 saloons and is
one OF the worst rum -cursed cities in
this country. 1t Is a high-license place
az that. Taking his own figures, there
Is one arrest for every 40 of the popu-
sets, a dry city Of the same state,
has only one arrest for every 81
Of the population. Kansas city, Kansas,
lalso a dry town, in 1902 had only one
ARREST for drunkenness 70 every 19S Of
the population; and last year made
/ even a better record, This city for
days In succession has no case on its
police court docket. Recently IL has
reduced It's police force by is. through
the elimination Of the saloons, but at
the same time it increased its teach
ling force by is.
But as Mr.. Engel wants some one
TO furnish the public with facts about
| the advantage OF no-license over H.
cense. I desire to submit the following
TO the thinking people of Wilmington
for their consideration. However be-
fore I do so l desire 10 say that those
who are working for no-license in this
State are not fearful sentimentalists'
or mollycoddlers. but men and women
who have some love for the welfare OF
their state, and who desire to protect