The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-05-27
HONORS REST
NEARLY EVEN
NOn-COmbatant Tells
of His Experience in
Dry Town

country. Both sides are flooding the
country with literature and it is prob
able thst in their zeal to present their
case in the best light possible many
statements are made that are not strict
ly accurate. In the following article
Marlen f. Pew, n correspondent for the
United Press. writes of conditions as he
found them in Decatur, ILL.,, Il city
about the size of Everett, after being
dry for a period of twelve months:
"There is a deal of 'fibbing" going on
these days about whether prohibition is
a good thing for IA town. Advocates OF
the saloon, driven by financial motives,
and anti saloon men, altruistic but
sometimes extreme in their statements
and often even fanatical. are battling in
almost every state and their press bu-
reaus are issuing enough highly season
ed propaganda literature to wad the
guns of history. Their claims are con
Trajectory.
The situation seems to call for an
impartial statement based upon actual
conditions as found in city which has
been dry for at least one year
Here's a Sample.
Decatur has $4,000 people and a little
of almost every kind of life known to a
city 1t has been dry for a year and
the people have Just elected new dry
mayor, whose instruction is to see to it
that the local option law is rigidly en-
forced
The town is normally republican, but
the new mayor is a democrat. His re
publican adversary was an avowed wet,
and for that he fell. This seems to
show that Decatur likes to be dry.
This is not dead town. finan
ciallv, industrially or socially. The fac
tories are running, every one seems to
be busy, and the writer does not re-
member of having visited town where
in there are more pleasant faced people
to the city block, where the people seem
to be having a better time in whole
some ways, and where so few ragged
people are seen.
Dead Town" Socially.
"This is dead town socially, if
sporting town may be called live one.
1t is 10 o'clock at night and the writer
is looking down upon the main bust
ness street
ut is deserted.
There are no sounds, there is no
ribaldry there or in the hotel. Some 3D.,
600 people are somewhere; | suppose
they are at home, many of them asleep.
In an hour few hundred people will
leave the theaters. Ben Hur' and vaude
vile are the rival attractions. There are
a few score people attending the moving
picture shows.
THE morning newspaper scheduled
social, musical or religious meetings at
the various churches for every night this
week. The town is baseball mad.
Drinking Somewhere.
81 suppose 800 men are at their clubs.
Those who drink may drink there. Mem
bers keep bottles in lockers. In one club,
at least, it is possible to take a warm
bottle from a locker and exchange it
for cool bottle to be found in an ice
box
"This local option works no hardship
on tippling club members or people
who can buy booze in quantities and
drink from sideboards. The mail order
houses in Louisville, St Louis, Chicago,
send spirits in, while beer, shipped in
potato or flour barrels or unsuspicious
boxes, comes in from nearby wet towns,
such as Springfield, Bloomington and
Peoria. The poor man who cannot af-
ford to buy bottle Or case may go
without or take a trolley ride.
The "Booze Special"
The train arriving here on Saturday
nights, IL o'clock, is called the booze
special because it brings into the city
from Peoria packages, boxes or barrels
unmarked and consigned to 25 or 30
Decatur citizens. These people meet the
special and cart their packages home
for Sunday or week consumption,
There are % soft drink parlors in
the town, converted saloons, where pop,
ginger ale and water wagon beer are
dispensed. The latter tastes like the
real thing, but it is said to contain
less than one-h half of per cent alcohol,
the alcohol having been evaporated at
the brewery.
"The drys object to this, because it is
a malt beverage, and they have taken
their case into court. There have been
in a year nearly 100 arrests for illegal
selling bootlegging (peddling from a
bottle or solicitingl, blind tiger or sell
ing in soft drink parlors. The booze
sold thus, like some that is imported,
is said to be of poor quality. Jim Sheets,
a farmer, drank one two finger smile
in blind tiger and in an hour fell
dead. The local newspapers declared that
the smile did the business.
Gains in Population.
The city is said to have gained in
Population during the year; there are