The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-09-29
A "sTUDY" IN DETECTIVES.

zines wo notice 'study" of commu
nifty conditions alleged to be of com.
munity life in village in the Middle
West, which TO all appearances might
fairly claim to be clean American
community with unusual probabilities
Of raising a normal healthy stock of
human beings fully up to the American
standard. The "study" is entitled
IA Village of a Thousand Souls" 1t
is illustrated with photographs and dia-
grams, and sets forth the community
life in various forms of statistics. 1T
is claimed that this village is not cx-
ceptional among American villages,
but, on the other hand, ''it has every
appearance of being typical"
Tho village contains 900 families,
and, as stated, the total population is
thousand. The Objectionable portions
Of the population are classed under diff
ferent headings, as feeble- minded, in
sanity, alcoholism, epileptic, criminal,
eccentric, and tubercular The dia-
gram shows the houses in the village,
each marked according to the classifl-
cation as Indicated. The houses bear
ing the symbol which designates them
as containing feeble-minded members
of the community number 81 out Of the
220 families, or a proportion Of IL per
cent. Alcoholism is contained in 36
families, proportion Of 16 per cent.
Including three cases Of epilepsy, there
is found insanity in 10 per cent of the
families. Great elaboration is given to
the point Of one or both parents being
fee ble-minded, alcoholic, insane, and so
on. 1t is stated that cit has been
found that in homes Of inebriety. as
high as so per cent Of the inmates are
centric, the delinQuents, the undevel-
oped, and those that are below stan
dard for one reason or another, the
showing against that village is appall-
ing; and if it were true that this vii
lage is simply typical Of American vii
lage life, and that the showing is
faithful one, we would be obliged to
concede that the large majority of the
American population are Objectionable
on one account or another.
But we conclude that the stud"
is simply a "story," not real
Study" We come to this conclusion
because it is stated that in the village
indicated there are thirteen saloons.
Now, thirteen saloons in village Of
out thousand population is an absurd
ty. In Salt Lake City, where the de-
nand for liquor would naturally be
to be far greater than in a
peaceful rural community, we have just
passed an ordinance fixing the imita
ion on the number of saloons at one
% the thousand Of population; but in
he "study" indicated there is in a
Iuiet, peaceful village thirteen times as
many saloons per thousand Of popula
ion as we undertake to fix the limit |
t in Salt Lake, and ten times as many |
IS we have now. If this city had as
many saloons in the same ra-
10 of population as the vii
age treated Of, we would have
ver 1890 saloons here. This would be,
f course, an incredible number; but it
s more incredible in a country village,
s ratio, than it would be in city
ike this There would be no possible
leans OF supporting that number Of
aloons in Salt Lake, even though 1t is
cosmopolitan city and though drink
ng seems at times overdone here, es-
ecially as compared with a peaceful,
ural village. In that little village of
he Middle West there is claimed to be
saloon to every II Of the population,
nth So families only Sin which there
5 alcoholism But If there are 13
aloons in a place. with only SO fami
les in which there is alcoholism, it
ollows that the ratio of saloons to the
lcoholic families is rather more than
ne to three. That is, every three al
oholic families support saloon, with
be thirteenth saloon left over to be
Imported by the non alcoholic. Surely
here must be some mistake about all
his; and that mistake is so very gross
hat one is justified in refusing to ac-
ept the "study" as Of any value
7hatevcr,
We may fairly add that the conclu-
ion Of "studies" of this character
re often susceptible Of the same sort
{ disproof. There is something at
ome period Of the process which viii
ties the whole series OF alleged facts
nd utterly discredits the conclusions.
--------------------
rHE woR1.D,a C.oT.D pRoDITcTToN