The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-04-02
ROSE AND DICKIE
LIQUOR DEBATE
Mayor and College President
Discuss Prohibition.
NO DECISION IS RENDERED

Dickie Says Saloon ParaIyzes Arm of
WorkingnaH, Shortens His Life and
Excludes Him From Lucrative Call
ings-Rose Declares That Where
Dry Territory Exists There Is Morc.
Drunkenness Than In Wet States.
Milwaukee, March 27.-One of the
most remarkable debates ever held
was that on the question:: Resolved,
That Prohibition as Applied to the
Manufacture and Sale of Intoxicating
Beverages Is Right" with Mayor
David S. Rose of Milwaukee defending
the negative, and pr. Samuel Dickie,
president of Albion college, Albion,
Mich, as the speaker for the Prohibi-
tionists. There was no decision. DR..
Dickie said in part:
Says Liquor Breeds Criminals.
"The saloon is the foe or capital, but
pre-emlnently the enemy of labor. 1t
paralyzes the arm of the workingman,
shortens his life. excludes him from
many lucrative callings, decreases his
power as a producer and throws into
the labor market a vast mass of de-
based and unintelligent laborers who
compete disastrously with the sober
and industrious workman.
THE liquor business breeds crimi-
nails. The testimony of prison chap
lains, of wardens, sheriffs and judges
of the criminal courts warrants the as
sertion that from 80 to 80 per cent of
crime is directly or indirectly trace
able to the use of Intoxicating liquors.
THE friends of the liquor traffic are
such as to condemn it by their own
character and conduct Conceding
that few men of fair responsibility
are it's apologists, 1t nevertheless re-
mains true that the lawless classes,
che thieves, the gamblers, the thugs,
the blacklegs, the outcasts, the low
and vile and degraded of both sexes
can be depended upon to the last man
and the last woman to stand with Mil
waukee's mayor in opposing prohibit
zion and advocating the saloon"
Mayor Rose treated the subject from
three viewpoints, the Biblical, ethical
ind material. He showed that, while
IN ancient times the evil existed, when
.he ten commandments were written
40 attempt was made to inject prohi.
;)ition and he challenged any one to
end one word in the Bible advocating
the theories of Prohibitionists. Treat
ang the subject from the ethical side,
he took the census figures Of the gov
eminent and records of cities and
s.ates to prove that prohibition in
creased crime, insanity, deaths, domes-
&c infelicity, pauperism and stagnated
BUSINESS. He took the criminal re-
lords of Milwaukee, wide open town,
snd showed that the arrests here per
.apita were less than in the prohibit
lion states of Maine, Kansas and
Georgia He showed that more drunk
snness existed in Maine than Wiscon-
sin. He quoted census figures to show
that more insanity existed in prohibit
ton states than in neighbOring wet
states and that the death rate in
Maine and Kansas were higher than
the wet states adjoining.
Says Prohibition Causes Divorces.
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 showed that the bank
deposits of dry states were smaller
than in wet states, and said that pro-
hibition had been a failure wherever
tried because it was impossible to cor
rect the ills and weaknesses of man
by laws. In the south the theory had
failed; liquor was to be had not only
by whites but by blacks, and that
marked increase in the drug habit was
noticeable. Nation wide prohibition,
he said, would mean loss of $215, $685.
900 of revenue year to the govern
ment; would seriously affect the farm
er and labor of the country because
the brewers and masters and distill-
ers consume $109,OO0,O00 worth of
grain a year.