The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-06

IL PAY LESS FOR IT AT K hibited, but in abolishing the legal ized saIoon and in compelling indivld- ual families to buy liquors by whole sale, it has brought about an increase in the use of alcoholic beverages that is giving grave concern to thinking men, who are keeping in touch with this question.
 Let me quote from the able paper by Henry Smith Williams, M.D., L.D.. the great advocate of teetotal1sn, which was published in a recent 1s- sue of the Ladies' Home Journal. pr. Williams article is the most ter rife indictment that has ever been made against the prohibition move ment and the article contains noth- ing stronger or more conclusive than the following: It is claimed that 41,- | 000,000 people now live in nominally 1 dry territory.
 If we were to seek evidence as | to the actual 'dryness' of these re- gions, statewide or local, we should l get devious testimony according to the bias of the reporter. There is, however, so it seems to me, a source of conclusive evidence that lies en- tirely without the bounds of person al prejudice. This is found in the bad statistics of the liquor produc- tion and consumption in the United States. These statistics are unequiv ocal. So far as they err at all they underestimate the amount of liquor through not being able to include the products of illicit. stills.
 "Now, what are the facts of li quor production for, let us say, the past twenty years, during which time the prohibition movement had made such spectacular advances?
 ''In 1890 the amount of liquor con- stunned in the United States aggregat- ed less than a billion gallons, the per capita consumption being 1858 gal Ions. In 1907 the amount of liquor consumed had risen above the two- consumption being 23.5S gallons. And this, be it recalled, is the very decade which the prohibitionsts point to with such enthusiasm as wit messing the rapid spread of local op- tion.
 "It may be worth while to illus trate on a wider scale the futility of the temperance movement, as hither- to prosecuted, in checking the con- sumption of alcohol. The figures are no less than appalling, and should command the attention of every we'll wisher of the race, whatever his tenn perance proclivitieS. It appears that in 1850, at the time the first great prohibition movement was just gain ing headway, the annual per capita
  in the United States was 4.08 gallons In 1860 it had risen to GAS gallons; in 1870 to ITO gallons; in 1880 to 10.0S gallons; in 1890 to 1858 gal Ions; in 1900 to 17.6S gallons; in 1910 to more than 23 gallons.
 ''It appears. then, that the aggre- gate net result of sixty years of tenn perance legislation is that the aver age American of today consumes al most six times as much liquor as did the average American of 1850.
 ITO me at least it seems obvious that the only thing which has kept the prohibition movement before the people of the United States is the simpIe fact that prohibition does not prohibit. Prohibition that did not interdict the sale of liquor over large territories would quickly sound the death knell of the prohibition move ment laS a national issue.
 Tn his article Dr. Williams eX- plains the fact that this tremendous increase in the consumption of a1- cohOlic beverages has largely consist ed of an increased consumption Of mat liquors on the part of the Am erican people, but he says that this tendency cannot be credited to the prohibition movement because in prohibition territory the tendency is altogether towards the consumption of the more condensed and, there
 
 such as whisky, brandy, sc.
 This, then, is the result of the great campaign of the AntiSaloon League, aided by the churches, which has spread over a period of about seventeen years, and which has cost this country hundreds of millions Of dollars, and which has done more to dlsturbe the peace of communities and to destroy the standing of the ministry in the minds of the people than any other movement that ever passed over the country.
 This is the result of losing faith Tn moral suasion, in example, in re- l1glous teachings, in personaI liberty and in the individual sovereignty of man. This is the result of departing from the admonition of Christ to go and teach mankind. It is the re- suit of an effort to compel men not to do things that they have a right to do.
 If prohibition would wipe. out in- temperance and save our nation from the evils that follow eXcesses in the use of alcoholic beverages and in wip Ing out 1ntemperance in the use of alcoholic did not increase this evil in this use of substitute, I would not raise my voice in protest, but in view Of the fact that prohibition reflects upon the teachers of the Bible, and destroys persOnaI lberty, and destroys private property and revenues and the peace that should exist in all communities, and that in return for such immense sacrifice it gives us on- ly an enormously increased consump ton of alcoholic bevera geS, it seems to me that the time has come for common sense to call a halt and for wise men to take a reckoning.
 This nation consumes vast quanti- ties of wine, beer, whisky, tea, coffee Sc, and it will continue to use these beverages regardless of opinions and