The Alaska citizen., 1916-07-03
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date of December 1915, and written by man who knows what he IS talking about as regards the city referred to- Frank C. Moorhead has added much to the columns of facts that Is doing the cause valiant ser yice)
 You, Mir Average Man, confused by the conflicting claims Of the "wets" and the 'drys,' do you want to know what actually hap pens when the saloon goes? You have had both sides of the contro- Yersy dinned into your ears until you are at a loss to know what to believe. You have seen demon rum" scourged up one side of the street and down the other. You have been told that open saloons were preferable to blind pigs" and holes in the wall" You have heard the vets say, Don't close up the saloons, your taxes will go up" and the dIys retort, Close up the bar rooms, your increase in taxation will never be felt Which is right? What does happen from aa industrial financial and economical standpoint when the saloon goes?
 Let us consider the case of one of the largest eff not, in fact, the largesp cities in the United States that Is REALLY dry, the only city to close its saloons by a council manic yote-Des Moines. Iowa
 Other cities have gone dry by the enactment of state legislatures, by the order of the county courts, by the vote of the people at regu- lar elections. Des Moines went dry because it's City Commission of five members voted the salons out of existence-the first time this has been done in any large city. Four years ago Des Moines had one hW.- dred saloons, in round numbers. Then the legislature passed a law limiting the number to one for each one thousand population. The 1910 census gave Des Moines S6,36S souls, so the number of saloons was limited to elghty-sX and four teen places closed their doors. On February l5, 1915, the doors of all these eighty-sx saloons were locked by order of the Commissioners, never to be opened again.
 The commission had a united pub lie sentiment behind it; the saloons did not even wage a court fight. but took the count and were down and out for good. A few weeks later the state legislature passed 8 statewide prohibition law. clos ing the doors of every saloon in Iowa. January l, 1916
 AS 1t turned out, the Des Moine7 saloons were closed only ten and one-half months ahead o: time, but while saloons flourished forty miles away, throughout the greater part of 1915. the Capital City was as tight as the proverbial drum. With what result?
 The first effects were evidenced in the reduced number of arrests The millennium had not dawned ill Des Moines, but conditions were undeniably better. The police rec o1ds show that in the first five months after the saloons were closed (from February 16, 1915, to July 16, 1916) there were 939 ar rests for intoxication. an average of six day. In the corresponding period the year before there had been 1881 arrests for intoxication an average of eleven day With the chief of police enforcing the Law diligently, ordering his men tc arrest anyone showing the slightest trace Of intoxication-wherea before the police had been extremely leni ent--the number of plain drunks' was reduced almost half.
 Nor did this tell all the story The misdemeanors attributable prin cipally to drink are larceny. assault and battery, disturbing the public quiet and vagrancy. In February 1914. there had been 35 arrests fol larceny; in February. 1915 (with th' saloons closed half the month) tho number was reduced 10 l9 h tn, first seven months of 1915 (witt the saloons closed three-fourths 0 the time) the number was reduced to "A, less than onehalf In th' same period Of time the numbe of arrests for assault and batter. was reduced from IA to s9; for dis turbing the public quiet from 2S to 132: for vagrancy from PIP t l26. The total arrests for thes four offenses were reduced, afte the saloons were closed from Il to 4al.
 The showing by months is evel more conclusive. In March. 191 (the first month after the saloon were closed) the total arrests to these four offenses were 57; i March 1914, the number had bee 90; here was falling off in crim of 37 per cent. April made a stil better showing; the total fo- th