New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-03-30
DRINKING AND PROHIBITION
Difficulties of the Alcoholic II
North Carolina.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.


Sir: il The Tribune of March l6 note a
news item. from Albany under the heading
Links Drinking with Prohibition giving
extracts from an address by Mr.. Gompers, in
which he makes the claim that more men
are drunk in prohibition territory than
where saloons are licensed.
have just returned from the prohibition
State of North Carolina, which has very
stringent prohibition law and where the Of
fcias and the constabulary are very efficient
in the enforcement Of the law. l made some
very careful Investigations as TO the effects
of the prohibitory law, talking with one state
Senator, many merchants, prominent farm
ers, hotelkeepers, railroad men, educators
and clergymen. and without exception every
man spoke enthusiastically of the benefcent
effects of the law. Prohbitory laws are di-
rected against the traffic in liquors, not
against its consumption-the one being a So
cia problem in which it is proper for the
government to interfere, the other an indl-
vdual problem
The North Carolina Law permits the i'm
portation from outside the state for personal
use Of one quart of liquor in every fifteen
DAYS. The persons who so import liquor
have TO be registered, and the express COM
panies keep a record OF all shipments. This
law has practically eXterminated the traffic,
as an express agent told me that before TINS
regulation, when it was possible TO import
any quantity for personal use he handed
large quantities Of liquor every day IN gal
lon Jugs, but now he does not handle quart
a dav on an average-this in town Of
800 inhabitants. with large outlying popu-
lation Of lumbermen. cotton growers and
their employees | saw the transfer made
from an Atlantic Coast Line express train 70
the Conway branch and counted eight quart
packages of liquor, being the entire days
supply for a large region with nearly score
OF towns. some Of them having population
of from 1000 to 1000 inhabitants.
Nobody can get drunk if they do not get
liquor in sufficient quantities, and certainly
the quantity that was going into this large
district would not be enough to give more
than a smell TO each OF the population. One
man was pointed out to me as an habitual
drunkard, who would get drunk every time
he could find any alcoholic liquor 70 drink,
but he has been sober for months, not from
choice, but because he couldn't get liquor.
Everybody agreed that the negroes were abb
solutely sober because they could not get any
liquor It would be a very unusual circum-
stance for negro to be forehanded enough
or 70 take the trouble 10 write to Baltimore
or Richmond inclosing money order for a
quart bottle of whiskey and then paying SO
cents express charges for its delivery.
A gentleman who was introduced to me as
the owner of the largest plantation in the
neighborhood informed me that prohibition
had solved the labor problem for them. For
merly they could not depend on their colored
help. The men would work for two or three
DAYS and then go off on drunk. Now they
are putting in full time and doing better
work and getting nearly double the wages
that they formerly received. This farmer
remarked that not one farmer in twenty-five
would vote 20 have the saloons returned 10
North Carolina. SAMUEL WILSON.
Jersey CITY. y. j.. March 81 1916.