The national prohibitionist. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1907-1911, 1908-03-19

law, or, as they contend grows worse because OF
its disobedience of the law which was intended
To put it out of existence
The Prohibitionist, far as he discusses the
question: merely contends that the facts regard
ing Maine and Kansas show, first, that those
states are not in worse condition because of their
prohibitory laws, even if those laws much
violated, and, second, that, in small degree, i'll
spite of the general notification of the law, ia
vorable results are shown.
The whole question of comparative statistics,
specially as relating to crime in comparison of
states needs to be viewed in the light Of remarks
made in the Special Report of the Census on
prisoners (see page 15). The report says:
"A comparison of the ratios of prisoners in
the various states, as shown for 1904, places it
beyond doubt that such ratios furnish a most
unreliable iHdet of the prevalence OF crime.
"a community 70ith large number Of PRISON.
erS IN proportion to its population may be tar
more la70-dbiding and orderly than one 70Hh
l07V ratio. 1t is not merely question OF how the
laws are enforced, but what standards the courts
follow in imposing penalties, and what facilities
the community provides for combining consider
able number of prisoners.
In Analysing the table which is presented by
the circular the attention of the reader is first
called to the fact that, according to the figures
presented by the liquor dealers, Illinois itself IS
in very large part free from the legalized saloon
According to the statement of this circular there
are 9,416 saloons i'll the state of Illinois. Since
there are 1920 of these in the city of Chicago
alone, follows that the rural districts of Hi
nois are very largely without saloons except as
that institution may exist under the admlnstra-
ton of the bootlegger or as a blind p1ggery; 1t
follows that Illinois is exceedingly favorable
state for the liquor to take as a comparison
Attention may next be called to the hgures
which profess to give a comparison OF arrests
for drunkenness in Maine, Kansas and Illinois,
The statement that these figures are compiled
from the United States Census Report of 1905
is probably not intended to cover this item, tor
no known census report OF that date covers the
question of arrests for drunkenness. 1t is prob
ably safe to say that there no statistics III
existence which give, with any completeness or
accuracy the number of arrests for drunkenness
in the various states. The nearest arrival that
can be made at these facts is probably to be
found in the Special Report of the Bureau of the
Census upon prisoners in Institutions" This
report was published in 1904 and in it, upon
page 1913, will be found the number OF prisoners
committed to prison for drunkenness IN each OF
the states during the year 1904, From the table
upon that page it will be that in that year,
in Maine S3S prisoners committed to prison
because of drunkenness, IL to each thousand
of the population of the state. In Kansas, AZ
prisoners were committed to Jail in the same
year. for drunkenness, or a little over two hun
dredths of prisoner to each thousand OF the
population of the state. The comparison is still
favorable TO Illinois, for that state shows UP with