The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-27
4OOO PEOPLE GATHER ID
 HEAR THE ABLE SPEAKERS
President Dickie Presents Argument on Crime Caused By Liquor, While Mayor Rose Answers With
 Disputing Figures.

remarkable debates ever held was that tonight on the question. Resolved, That Prohibition as Applied to the Manufac- | ture and Sale of Intoxicating Beverages 1 Is Right" with Mayor David S. Rose | of Milwaukee defending the negative and Dr. Samuel Diekie, president of Albion l college. Albion. Mich, as the speaker for the prohibitionists. The great hip 1 podrome, with seating capacity of 4Oo0 was damned to the doors and although admission was by card. great throngs of 1 people were turned away. This was the first of three debates, l the second to be given at Chicago and l the third at some city in the south. Mayor Rose, at the recent Louisville l convention of the National Model Li- cense league. challenegd the national pro- hibition party to produce its best orator | to meet him on the question debated to- night. No decision was rendered
 Dicke's Argument. 1 Dr. Dckie was the first speaker. | He said in part:
 l "The prohibition of the liquor traffic is right if considered only from the eco homie standpoint. The saloon is the foe of capital, but pre-eminently the
 
 of the working man, shortens his life, 1 excludes him from many lucrative call ings. decreases his power as a producer and throws into the labor market d vast mass of debased and unintelligent laborers who compete dsastrously with
 the sober and industrious workmen No line of manufacture gives employment to
 so few men in proportion to the cap l ital invested as ba f{c
 The liquor business breeds erimin- als The testimony of prison chaplains.
 of wardens, sherffs and judges of the criminal courts warrants the assertion
 that from 80 to 90 per cent of crime
 is directly or indirectly traceable to the use of intoxicating liquors
 Not only is the liquor traffic a breed l CT of criminals, but it is, itself, large i ly composed of men who do not hesitate to violate the law. The great majority of retail liquor sellers are open and notorious lawbreakers.
 "The friends of the liquor traffic are such as to condemn it by their own char acter and conduct. Conceding that a few men of fair responsibility are it's apologists, it nevertheless remains true that the lawess classes, the thieves, the gamblers, the thugs. the blacklegs. the outcasts, the harlots, the low and ] vile of both sexes can be depended upon to the last man and the last woman to stand with Milwaul1ee's mayor in op- posing prohibition and advocating the saloon."
 1 Roses Argument. In arguing that prohibition is wrong. ] Mayor Rose treated the subject from three l viewpoints, the Biblical, ethical and ma terial.
 He claimed that while in ancient times the evil existed, when the Ten Commando
 
 to inject prohibition, and he challenged anyone to find one word in the Bible ad- vocating the theories of prohibtionists.
 Treating the subject from the ethical side, he took the census figures of the gov ernment and records of cities and states to prove that prohibition increased crime, insanity deaths, domestic infelicty, paul persm and stagnated business. He took the criminal records of Milwaukee, a wide l open town, and showed that the arrests here per capita were less than in the pro- 1 hibition states of Maine, Kansas and 1 Georgia. He showed that more drunken ness existed in Maine than Wisconsin. 1 He quoted census figures showing that more insanity existed in prohibition states than in neighboring wet states, and that the death rates in Maine and Kan sas were higher than in the wet states adjoining.
 Deaths From Alcoholism. Much was said about thousands of drunkards dying every year. but the may or again quoted census figures to show that more people died from whooping cough and measles than alcoholism. of the latter disease GA persons in every 10o coo died, while of digestive diseases. 23l-3 in every 900 died. He quoted figures to show that there were more divorces in Kansas and Maine than in Wisconsin, wet state: that prohibition states also had more paupers
 He said the bank deposits of dry states i were smaller than in wet states, and l claimed that prohibition had been a fail | ure wherever tried because it inn 1 possible to correct the ills and weaknesses | of men by laws. In the south he de- l clared the theory had failed, that liquor 1 was to be had not only by whites, but 1 by blacks and that marked increase in l the drug habit was noticeable. l Nationwide prohibition. he said. would | mean a loss of $215. .903,0 900 of revenue a 1 year to the government, would seriously l affect the farmer and laborer of the coun- 1 try because the brewers and matters and ] distiers consume $l09 100000 of grain i year. It would, he said. paralyze busi- ness. cripple railroads be felt In every walk of life and deprive people of per l sonal liberty, "all for no purpose except l the fanatcsm of the prohibitionists." l The mayor urged sane regulation" as 1 the true solution of the drink problem.