The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-01-23
NATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON RACE RETIREMENT
Tackles Liquor QueStiOn-PeOple Drink
More Spirits and Less Beers
Prohibition a Failure

The aDleSt SoclologlStS IN the country
were present. The liquor question,
eugenics, euthenics and the steriliza-
ton of the mentally weak was elo-
quently advocated.
Since state wide prohibition is to be
fought out at the ballot box inside OF
two years in Washington, what Mr..
Henry Smith Williams said on the
liquor question will be timely reading.
The per capita consumption of al
cohol is increasing; people drink more
spirits and less beer, the use of drugs
is growing and prohibition is failure.
These are assertions by Mr.. Williams,
who declared that the only solution is
to make the sale of liquor govern
ment monopoly. Private profit must
be eliminated altogether from the traf-
fic, he declared.
The per capita consumption Of al
cohol has increased steadily year by
year in spite of vigorous efforts to COM
bat it both by educational propaganda
and by Legislation" said Mr.. Williams.
The increase in matted liquors has
not quite kept pace. 1t would appear
that there is a general tendency to
supplant mildly alcoholic beverages
with those that are strongly alcoholic.
There is also an enormous traffic in
morphine and the use Of these drugs
increases in proportion as it becomes
difficult to secure alcohol.
The ultimate solution Of the prob
lem must be found in the education OF
the coming generation to complete
understanding Of the DISQUALIFICATION
the standpoint of physical health, mind
and morals-of total abstinence from
alcoholic beverages.
AT present our treatment of the
dipsomaniac is grotesquely irrational
We arrest him and send him to Jail
for a week; and then release him,
knowing that he will Immediately be-
come again a disturbing element in
the community. Segregation in a
proper institution for term of years is
the only solution that at the moment
can be depended on. All question Of
punishment should be eliminated from
the judicial mind; but the absolute
necessity Of segregation for long per-
iod should be fully recognized.
"Well-meant efforts to control liquor
traffic by sumptuary legislation have
signally failed. Prohibitory legislation,
local or statewide, has nowhere been
effective in reducing the amount of
alcohol consumed by the individuals
to whom it is most harmful. Illicit
stills spring up in prohibition states;
liquor Of the worst quality is every
where dispensed surreptitiously; aud
morphine and cocaine supplement the
effects Of the bad liquor. Either in
Maine and Kansas, or in Georgia and
the other southern states that have re-
Gently come under the alleged dry
regime, the results are the same-the
evil effects Of alcohol are demonstrably
more in evidence in the prohibition
territory.
The most rational attempt that has
ever been put into practice to control
the liquor traffice is known as the Co.
thenburg system, because it was first
carried out in Gothenburg. Sweden.
In slightly modelled form it has been
tested successfully in England. The
fundamental principle of the method is
that no private concern can profit by
the traffic in liquor under the opera
ton of this system.
Nor should the profits OF conduct
ing the sale of liquor be used by the
government as ordinary revenue. All
such profits would be applied to public
utilities-reading rooms, amusement
halls and gYmnasia-intended to serve
as substitutes or as counter-attractions
to the saloon. In my opinion there is
no other proposed line OF action that
gives such good promise of stemming
the tide Of alcohol and leading to its
complete control"