The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1910-09-30
Facts About Prohibition
Favor Strict Regulation
To the Voters of Oklahoma.

10 the voters or Oklahoma.
: On November you will be called
: upon to decide by your ballots a ques
tion of tremendous Importance tc
: your state, namely, the question OF
prohibition VS.. legalized liquor traffic
and as | have given this question
some twenty-seyen years of the closest
study, | am sure that you will not re,
sent a few suggestions from me as
president of the National Model Ii.
cense League.
Prohibition is a protest on the part
of the people against certain evils
connected with the liquor traffic, but
as a remedy for what is known a. he
liquor problem it has invariably orov
en- to be a complete failure, and it has
been tried during the last sixty years
by such states as Maine, New Hamp-
shire, Vermont, Massachusetts. Con-
Inecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio. Iowa.
Kansas aad South Dakota, and during
more recent years by Oklahoma, Geor-
gia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee
and North Carolina.
In none of these states, and in none
of the innumerable counties in which
it has been tried, has it at any time
interfered with the purchase, posses
sion or use of beer, wine or whisky.
Where prohibition is adopted the
bootlegger, the moonshiner and the
mail order house Immediately supt
plant the legalized saloon or liquor
store, and in such communities the
supply of liquor is kept in the resi-
dences instead OF in licensed places.
Experience shows that where people
keep a supply of liquor at home in
stead of sending to the liquor store
for it as they may need it, the con-
sumption is very much greater than
1t is in counties and states where the
business is licensed
From a letter received this morning
from an attorney in Alabama, | would
like to quote what he says in regard
to the working of prohibition in that
state, as follows
Il have always been a strong advo-
cate of prohibition personally, and in
the past have done what / could to
that end, but since we have given it
a trial l have been forced to the con-
clusion that it is not what we want,
for prohibition as it now exists in this
state is stencil in the nostrils OF de-
cency. Being the prosecuting attor-
ney Of this county, /, perhaps, know
better than any one else the evils at
tendant upon the so-called prohibition,
and my Judgment is that to license the
traffic and surround it with every safe
better.
"The conditions of this section of
the state now existing are deplorable
In the extreme, and | am ready to rem
der what service | can for the benefit
Of existing conditions. So, after
careful consideration l have come to
the conclusion that your plan is much |
better than what we now have"
A reference to the reports of the |
commissioner of internal revenue of |
the United States government will |
show that during the last fourteen |
years-that is, during the time that |
the Anti-Saloon League has been in |
existence-the consumption of distill- |
ed and fermented liquors in this coun-
try has increased fully so per cent.
Fourteen years ago we were using
60,000,000 gallons of distilled liquors, /
but last year we used about 128,000,-
900 gallons, and while fourteen years
ago we used about 1,110,000,00O gal
Ions of beer per annum, we used last
year over 100000, 900 gallons.
These figures are indisputable, and
they show conclusively that while the
laws that have been ad-
opted in recent years to so great an
extent in this country have destroyed
millions of private property and hun
dreds of millions of revenues, and
while they have destroyed the peace
and good will that should exist in COM
and have turned father
against son and son against father,
and while they have destroyed that
+
the large amounts of
money going into private irrigation
speculation If these references have