Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1917-11-24
GOT THE HABIT AT
''DR|PP|NC WET TOWN
Reason For Thirst For Liquor Of
"Some" Men In Uniform.
THE DRINK EVIL
Its Cause up To" Everybody Here
Follow Example Of Washington
ID. c." Dry City.
lCommunicated.l
To the Editor. Evening Capital:

10 the Editor, Evening Iapltat.
Again the Evening Capital is right
In last nights editoxial entitled
Probe More Deeply YOU afe cor
rect in saying that the drink evil
among uniformed men has not been
remedied by the $4,000 reward offered
by the Liquor Dealers Association
The Evening Capital will render a fine
service il il keeps up this agitation
until the entire city of Annapolis is
aroused To agitate this matter is
not to reflect on the character of the
soldiers. sailors and marines in this
city. They are fine lot of men
Numbers of them are seeking out the
churches on Sundays and are regular
attendants at the services and Mems
Bible Glass meetings. While they are
a superior class of men on the whole.
nevertheless there are some of them
who drink liquor. They got the habit
in some dripping wet town like Anna
polls whore the open saloon fiourishes
at every turn of the ways. The gov
ernment recognizing this fact, passed
law to protect these men in the
service from their own appetites, and
at the same time conserve the effici-
ency of our army and navy.
1t is Up TO every city, town and
hamlet surrounding government reser-
vations to cooperate with the govern
ment in this matter as heartily as in
any other matter pertaining to the
Il - h. g..
world democracy. The churches,
newspapers, fraternal organizations
women's societies, as we'll as every
citizen and municipal official have a
duty here to perform.
That the law is not enforced in An
napolis IS very evident and the open
saloon, charge again. is responsible
in large measure for this state of af-
fairs. | am not saying, of course, that
the uniformed men buy it over the
bars, and are furnished it by the
liquor dealer, but | do say positively
after observing myself, and after talk
ing with probably fifty different SOL
diers, sailors and marines within the
past three weeks. that practically
every bootlegger, speakeasy, etc, in
this city secures the supply of the in
toxicating stuff from local saloons
Not all, but nearly all, the liquor con
sumed by uniformed men in Annapo
lis is purchased in the beginning from
some local saloon.
How much longer will Annapolis
play with this problem? Considerably
more than half Of the State Capitals
of this country are dry, the National
Capital Is dry, and more than half
the States are dry. Prohibition is no
longer an experiment. You can cross
the continent from the Atlantic to
the Pacific by way of six different
trans-continental railroads, and never
enter a vet State or city.
May / present the results that have
come to a near city which has put in
to operation another kind of method
for dealing with the drink evil 1t is
Washington, d. c., which now means
Washington, Dry City" BY an Act
of Congress Washington went dry
November l. The following figures
SBc1h lOf lnCu1cc4fCS. tut tue nlflc
days preceding prohibition in Wash
ington the arrests for drunkenness
were: October 23rd, II; Oct. gath. "a;
Oct. 25th, IA; Oct. 26th, 13; Oct. 27,
64: Oct. 2Sth, 6 Oct. 29th, 26; Oct
goth. 43; Oct. 31st, 64 The average
number of arrests for the past year
has been 81 plus. Arrests for the last
wet day. October 31st, were Ga Ar
rests for drunkenness the first dry
day, November 1st, were 2; Nov. End.
2 Nov 3rd. 6; Nov 4th, 2; Nov. 5th,
none. The total for the first five days
was II, little less than one-fifth of
the total for the last wet day, and
the days since have maintained the
good record of the first five days Of
absolute prohibition.
The offering of the reward has fail
ed. There is but one solution, and
that is a dry Annapolis Whenever I
am called in as spiritual adviser on a
mad dog case always earnestly advo-
cate killing the beast at once.
In closing permit me to sign myself,
not as a newcomer" but as native
born Marylander Annapolis is not
merely the county seat of Anne Arun-
del, but is the Capital of my State,
and have right to speak.