The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1916-09-04

oNouFEWu- III Tic ONuSE mana, STA .
tie has prospered wonderfully.
am not attempting to say That
prohibition. when enforced makes
prosperity. have my own opialons
about that, which have no possible
value in an article of this kind. But
do say that certain wonderfully
prosperous and gratifying conditions
have followed the enforcement of the
law regardless OF what caused them
to happen. and that the diss sters
which / personally believed would oc-
cur, have not happened. nor 30 now
believe they ever can happen.
The interview concerning prohibi-
ton which / gave the Kansas ,'iyS
Star was almost accurate as IL APP
peared in print on February =. Ger
tain small mistakes which crept In
became difficult to correct as
travelled farther East. so l determined
not 10 take up the subject in the
columns of the Seattle Times until
! had returned to my own city and
gathered evidence covering the first
six months OF the operation OF the
law. Here. corrected in minor places
only, is the Kansas City interview:
The world is watching Seattle to
see how prohibition works out IN a
large city Seattle Is the largest ci.y
that has ever had prohibition. 1t
and the whole State OF Washington
became dry January /. OF tids YEA.
The strongest single force that
worked against Prohibition In tho
State of Washington was tho Times.
the leading newspaper OF Seattle. In
its cam paign against the passage of
the prohibitory law IL used all the
familiar old arguments. such rs pro-
hibition doesn't prohibit that 4.
would force down rents. that 30 m,sch
property used FOR saloons all at once
made empty and productive In
one day. would have bad &c economic
effect, and so on.
"Why He Fought Prohibition"
THE editor OF Tho Seattle Times
Major c. B. Rlethen. one of rho men
who made the fight againrt prohi-
bition. was at the Coates House yes
tcrday. He was asked how prohiDi-
ton was working and II all his proph-
ecies had come true. He said:
My paper fought its damnedest
against prohibition. We fought II on
economic grounds alone, We he
lieved that In a great seaport city
with population OF upwards Of $780,
600. prohibition would re destructive.
II would bring on economic disaster.
We believed that under our system
of licensed saloons we had the liquor
traffic about az we'll controlled as IT
could be and We wanted to let 1t
alone, and so We fought as hard as
we could fight But in spite OF all
we could no against it, prohibition
carried and II went into effect In
Washington January !. We have had
Il month OF II now
And how has II worked outT
business Expanded Quickly"
1--WE already know that It Is a
great benefit morally and from an
economic standpoint. Its moral bene-
At has been tremendous. Seattle had
$50 saloons, and we had about 1900
arrests q month for crimes and mis-
demeanors growing out of liquor
drinking In January we had only
7e5 arrests and sixty OF those were
made January l. and were the re-
suit OF Hangover from the old
year. The year previous there wers
1850 arrests In the same month. That
in itself is enough to convince any
man with a conscience that proht-
bition 10 necessary. There can lie
no true economy In anything i'm
moral
land ON top Of that great moral
result. we have thAse economic facts:
In the first three weeks CT January
the savings accounts in the banks of
Seattle increased greatly in num-
bers. There was not a grocery store
in Seattle that did not show an in
crease of business in January greater
than ever known in any month be-
fore in all the history of the city. ex-
cept in holiday time. In all the largo
grocery stores the increase was I'M
m Tn addition tn thtu n, ~
goods store in Seattle. except one
and that one l have no figures from.
had a wonderful increase In business
Each store reported the largest bust
ness ever done In one month except
In holiday time,
The Women and Children Profit"
"T wished to know in what class
OF goods the sales increased SO greatly
and so / sent to all the grocery and
dry goods stores to find that out. And
10 me II Is pidful thing. and it
makes me sorry that we did not have
prohibition long ago-that the in
crease IN sales IN all the dry goods
stores was in wearing apparel OF
women and children, and in the gro
Gerry stores the increase was made UP
chiefly Of fruits and fancy groceries
This proves that ii is the women and
children who suffer most from the
liquor business and Il is the women
and children who benefit greatest
from prohibition. Money that went
formerly over the bar for whisky is
now being spent for clothing for the
women and children. and in better
food for the household.
Tt Is just Nike thiss When you
close the saloons the money that for
rnerly was spent there remains in the
family Of the wage Garner, and his
wife and children buy shoes and
and better food with it,
Yes, sir. we have found in Seattle that
II is better to buy shoes than booze
The families Of wage earners in Seat
tie are going to have more food and
clothes and everything else than they
had before
1T Actually Prohibits"
And is the prohibition law en-
forced?'
" Absolutely. Prohibition does
prohi BIT
And how about the empty ga
looms and the landlords who own
Them
Many OF them have already been
made over and are occupied by other
business. / viii venture the prophecy
that IN one year from today you
won be able to find a place in Seat
tie where there was a saloon They
" III tg accounted by at har bpaina.sa~