The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-03-25

the sun revolved around the earth or the earth reVolved around the sun, and I would suggest to him, that af- ter he has made up his mind which was right that he might come here be- fore this committee and the intelh gent audience who listened to him yes terday and give his views about it, and it would probably be as illuminat- ing as his remarks of yesterday.
 And so these gentlemen went on, all asking for this same thing. I do not want to appeal to sentiment or to passion, as they did. I want to ap- peal to the reasoning powers and the understanding of the committee.
 Then the ministers spoke of what happened in Maine and about the in sane asylums, and Professor Rice said that local option was the best, and it is true. We have local option in the State of Connecticut MT. Hubert of Hartford made the astonishing state ment that seventy-fiYe percent of criminals in the State prison are there through intoxicants and that the aver age age of the young men there was twenty-two. They must have done it all in a year. They couldn't go in a saloon in this State before they were twenty-one. That statement is on a par with other statements, incorporate statements, of men. who from the pull pit can say anything, because no one will refute them in church. But in a court where men discuss matters, dis passionately and fairly, their state ments must not go unchallenged- And SO these men without any facts. with out anything to back it up come be- fore this committee and make state mentS which will not bear the search light of investigation. I shall not ask you to take my word for it. becaus will show you, by statistics which ,4a17 ! 1AV I,of t1,1 ic true. I might suggest to them the sermon on the Mount, as related in St. Matthew. You recall that the great Galileean said And why be- holdest thou the mote in thy brothers eye but considerest not the beam in thine own eye" 'tOh thou hypocrtte.'' The Good Book says, first east out the beam out of thine own eye and then, shalt thou see clearly the mote in thy brothers eye" He said to them. First remove the beam from your own eye and then and not until them, can you see the mote in your brothers eye Now they have They say this present law increased crime
 I want to read from the statistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor U. s. Census Report, the last report. Arrests for drunkenness and for drunk or disorderly,-Kansas City Kan, CProh) the ratio is one to ff- ty; Portland. Maine. prohibition 1 to 36: Milwaukee, Wis. the wettest city probably in the United States one to 147; New Haven. Conn, one to 52 with 415 licenses: in Bridgeport with 370 li- censes to 102; Hartford l to 21 More arrests than Bridgeport by far more than New Haven by far yet Hartford has but 160 licenses, half the number that there are in the City of Bridgeport; less than half the number that there are in the City of New Ha- ven. Let me read you the list from Bridgeport The number of arrests for drunkenness for 1910. taken by me from the police blotter from Jan. 1St 1910 to Jan. 1. 1911, was 1925 in a City of 1o2,000 people. The ratio would be to 102.
 And in Springfield where they have one saloon to 1000 arrests for drunk enness in 1910 Were 2,512. two and a half times as many as in the City of Bridgeport and Bridgeport being at least one-third again as large. Now they talk about the insane. You heard them say that the insane aSylums are full of people who came there because of drunkenness. Let us again read from the special report from the Gen. sus Bureau on the insane and feeble minded. want to take states contiguous to each other, one prohibition and one licensed because the people would or dinarily be alike. Let us take Maine dry and New Hampshire wet and Kan sas dry and Nebraska wet. Now what is it? Maine's insane numbers SS5 to every one hundred thousand of it's peo- pie: New Hampshire 496: Kansas. dry, Kansas 2, 560; wet Nebraska 1436. That is what statistics show. gentl ernen of the committee-gOvern statistics, open to the inspection of the gentle men. as they are open to your in- spection.ss To go on further, they say the deaths from drink are enormous Let us see what the government says about that. And I am reading from the report of the United States Gen. sus office Number of deaths per thousand of the population.
 Whooping cough in the entire United States 1880.
 From Measles, 9,440
 From diseases of the digestive sys- tenn 1S4.040
 From Tuberculosis 123.040.
 From alcoholism 400.
 So it shows nearly twice as many -peo- pie die from measles as from alcohol and that mince pie. lobster and welch rarebit bring twice more deaths in one month than alcohol does in one year And that tuberculosis of the lungs takes off many more of our inhabi- tants. If these misguided gentlemen would devote. their energies to stamp ing out the great white plague they would indeed do something for suf- fering humanity. If they would minis ter to the sick as they ought to and devote their efforts to things as good then indeed, they would have the thanks and the greateful recognition Of this little commonwealth. But they say let US have one saloon to every one thousand of the population like they have in massachusetts, M That will stop drink: that will stop drunk enness; that will stop pauperism; that will stop crime. Will it? What are the facts? What the figures? What of the temptations? Do we want to go to the Massachusetts system? Open saloons, no screens and. as I saw it in the various cities of that State, men lined up two. three and in one in- stance, four deep at that bar waiting for a drink. The young men and the young girls going by, looking in. Do we want that system in Connecticut Do we want a licensing system, as they would say which would lead the young man and the young woman as- tray. Wouldn't you prefer a closed door. a screen, where the young man cannot look in? Does 1t decrea Sc drunkenness? That is the point. Here are the figures, from Massachusetts You want to bear in mind that the limitation law went into effect in 1888 in Massachusetts.
 We will take the States popula- tion, if you please. The State had a population in 1889 of two million. The arrests for drunkenness were 53, 900 and you want to bear in mind that in that time there were seventeen licensed