Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1915-08-31
GROUNDS GETS Prize
DALLAS YOUNG MAN LEADS
STATE IN w. G. T. u. CONTEST
Traffic in Alcoholic Liquors In It's Re-
lation to Government Ably Dis
cussed in Its Various Aspects.

Grounds of Dallas, which won tn,
Oregon state prize in the high schoo
contest, and which is full of strons
arguments against the liquor traffic
There is a probability that this essay
will win in the national contest, de
cision in which will be rendered il
the not very distant future. The es
sayist, who is well-known higf
school boy, having graduated las
spring, has written several temper
ance articles that have attracted
widespread attention among cold wa
ter advocates Of the country, but the
essay in question is especially meri.
torious, and worthy of wide publici-
ty:
Traffic in alcoholic liquors in its
relation to government presents q
problem of worldwide importance
Considered in it's social, economic and
political aspects, this criminal trade
is Americas most bitter enemy. The
saloon is the root of the social evil
Mary X. Regan, chief matron Of the
Chicago police department, says: "Of
all the ten or twelve thousand unfor-
tumate girls and wrecked women ar
rested every year in Chicago, among
those who tell their woes to me, nine
Gy-nine out of one hundred attribute
stbeir woes to the first glass Of wine
r champagne. The accuracy Of this
Jtatement has been corroborated time
Iand again by such authorities as the
official vice investigating committees
of Chicago, Philadelphia and Pitts
burg.
"The saloon is the church s most
aggressive foe. DR.. j. c. Jackson
made a very convincing comparison
between two Ohio cities. The first
had long been wet. Ten years after
it had gone dry the church member
ship had doubled in proportion to the
population. The second had been dry
for years. After it became wet the
church membership decreased one
half during the first ten years. Mr..
Jackson found that in seven wet Ohio
towns, of which the aggregate popula-
tion was 1857, there were only 3945
church members, as compared with
church membership of 10000 in seven
dry towns, of which the total popula-
ton was only 12,8OO.
"In this country rum is at present
the chief promoter of criminality. By
searching the Jail records of Massa-
chusetts it has been disclosed that in
1911, out of 33 cities, used as exam
Piles, in the license cities there were
73,771 crimes committed because of
drink, while 34,051 otfenses were laid
to other causes. In the same year
there were 1926 crimes committed in
the no-license places of the list be-
cause of drinking, while 9191 offenses
were attributed to other causes. The
city Jail records of Lansing, Michi-
gan, show that in 1910, when that
place was dry, there were only POS ar
rests, in comparison to 1895 in 1912,
when the town was wet. According
to the court records there were 9959
criminal cases filed in the municipal
court of Chicago in 1910; in 1913
there were 20,291. Judge Gemmill
considers this remarkable increase in
crime to be due principally to the sa-
looms.
Looked at from physiological
standpoint, alcohol has wrought hav-
oc throughout our nation. Insurance
tables of the United States give 92,-
794 as the total number of deaths re-
sulting from smallpox, scarlet fever,
diphtheria, Group, typhoid and cancer.
Yet this is insignificant when we are
aware that intoxication brought about
152,7S1 or 59,987 more deaths than
did all six of those diseases combined.
Drink destroys three times as much
life every year in America as did the
civil war,
"The indirect results of the liquor
evil on mortality are even more far
reaching. DR.. j., H. Killogg, of Bat ,
tie Creek, calls attention to the fact
that in Bulgaria, where intoxicants
are used but very little, one person ;
out of every thousand attains the age :
of 100 years, while in Germany, a ma ,
ton given to beer drinking, only one !
out OF 100000 reaches that age. In
surance tables indicate that the aver ,
age moderate drinker at 20 years of
age and after, loses 13 years of life
and that the average hard drinker at
the age of 20 years and after. loses
80 years. Alcohol makes the human
body more susceptible to disease. Sir
Andrew Clark, physician to Queen !
Victoria, found that seven out of ten f,
in the English hospital wards owed
their Affections to intoxicants. Drink {
is largely desponsible for the rapid /
increase in insanity. Within a per- t
iod of so years the popUlation of the J
United States has increased 800 per !
cent. During the same period the I
of insane has become $50 per /
cent larger, the latter increase being |
due almost entirely to the excessive !
use of alcohol and other narcotics.
in one form or another committee re- ,
port, American Medical association. |
New York;. In 1910 there we're. on i
an average. 11S.S insane to each 100.- |
600 population in the dry states. In |
the wet states the number of insane
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