Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-03-31
HOW PROHIBITION WORKS IN A
LARGE CITY.
(From the Kansas City Star.)

(From the Kansas City Starr
The world is watching Seattle tc
see how prohibition works in large
city. Seattle is the largest city tina;
has ever had prohibition. 1t and the
whole State of Washington became
dry January of this year.
The strongest single force that
worked against prohibition in the
State of Washington was the Times
the leading newspaper of Seattle. In
its campaign against the passage OF
the prohibitory law it used all the
familiar old arguments such as "Pro-
hibition doesn't prohibit" that it
would force down rents, that so much
property used for saloons all at once
made empty and nonproductive in one
day would have bad economic effect
and so on.
Why He Fought Prohibition.
The editor Of the Seattle Times,
Maj. c. B. Blethen, the man who made
the fight against prohibition, was at
the Gates house yesterday. He was
asked how prohibition was working
and if all his prophecies had come
true. He said:
NlN paper louSHI us uuIllilueSL
against prohibition. We fought it on
ed that in great city with Il popula-
ton Of upwards of 100000 prohibition
would be destructive; it would bring
on economic disaster. We believed
that under our system of licensing
saloons we had the liquor traffice
about as well controlled as it could
be and we wanted to let it alone, and
so we fought as hard as we could
fight. But, in spite of all we could do
against it, prohibition carried and it
went into effect in Washington Jan
l. We have had a month of it now"
"And how has it worked out?"
Business Expanded Quickly.
ave already know that it is a great
benefit, morally and from an econom-
ic standpoint. It's moral benefit has
been tremendous. Seattle had 260
saloons and we had an average Of
1900 arrests month for crimes and
misdmeanors growing out of liquor
drinking. In January we had only
four hundred arrests and sixty of
these were made January and were
the results of hangovers from the old
year. That in itself is enough to con-
vince any man with conscience that
prohibition is necessary. There can
be no true economy in anything that
is immoral.
"And on top of that great moral
result, we have these economic facts ::
In the first three weeks in January
the savings deposits in the banks in
Seattle increased Is per cent. There
was not grocery store in Seattle
that did not show an increase of bus
mess in January greater than ever
known in any month before in all
the history of the city, except in hol-
day time. In all the large grocery
stores the increase was immense. In
addition to this, every dry goods store
in Seattle, except one, and that one
| have no figures from, had wonder
full increase in business. Each store
reported the largest business ever
done in one month, except in holiday
time.
The Women and Children Profit.
81 wished to know in what class of
goods the sales increased so greatly,
and so l sent to all the grocery and
dry goods stores to find that out And
to me it is pitiful thing, and it
makes me sorry that we did not have
prohibition long ago-that the in
crease in sales in the dry goods stores
was in wearing apparel of women and
children, and in the grocery stores
the increase was made up chiefly of
fruits and fancy groceries. This proves
that it is the women and children who
benefit greatest from prohibition.
Money that went formerly over the.
bar for whiskcy is now being spent
for clothing for the women and chill
dren, ad in better food for the house
hold,
at isjust like this: When you
close the saloons the money that for
merly was spent there remains in
the family of the wage Garner, and
his wife and children buy shoes and
clothing and better food with it. Yes,
sir, we have found in Seattle that it
is better to buy shoes than booze
The families and wage earners in
Seattle are going to have more food