The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-09-04
PROHIBITION SOLVES
MUNICIPAL PROBLEM
Cities of Western States That Have
Abolished Saloons Are
Prosperous.
"NEvER AGAIN" FOR BOOZE
Every Line of Business Improved Tn
der Dry Regime. While Social and
Morsh Conditions Are Vastly Bet
ter.

ST. Paul. MINI. Sept S.--Cities OF
the West have found that prohibition
solves the nrohIen1 OF methods 70
handle saloons. says the Rev. ". ).
johnson of this city. secretary for the
Middle West OF the Presbyterian board
of temperance whose services have
been lent ay that board TO the Nnlca-
20 dry federation in order thar he may
report on conditions III those e+t'e$
and Il is Hoped, to the Chicago C0u1I-
Gil at the same time that me Cpuhclt
committee. investigating conditions IN
wet cities Of the East makes us re-
mort. DIT. johnson has spent more
than a month In the West. going TO
Omaha. Denver, Portland, Spokane
and Seattle in order 10 learn al brst
hand what prohibition has done for
those cities in both moral and eco
monte ways.
DR.. Johnson. as FAR as possible,
made nIs Inquiries u fTTfFT1 III tf5- IL
les visited who had voted wet ~hen
prohibition was submitted st the polls,
and he went TO them as an Anony-
nous observer. He dld not confne
tfa researches to personal inquiries
but walked tne streets a. night-
streets that. under the old regime.
teenled with vice-to Gnd them, under
the new plan, orderly, quiet ana IRE"
from unseem}y characters.
Omaha. the first city visited, has
l,Aen dry only since July /. Or. 1ohn-
son was there ia the middle ~ AR-
gust. and called first or Mayor J. :.
Dahlman. who always had favored the
saloon,
mr.. Mayor. ] have come out hsre
from Chicago to see The hTm that
prohibition has done TO your city,
DR. Johnson announced.
The Wrong Place.
We'll sir Won We come 10 the
wrong place the mayor replied.
.'Yoau md a city vastly improved
both fronl a moral and q business
standpoint Prohibition has done
wonders for omaha, and ! am
thoroughly converted to the dry
cause
Dr. Johnson heard the same opin-
ION expressed in almost every place
he visited except in one or two hote-s
which had conducted harrooms under
the wet rule Business raen in de-
partnaent stores and other merchants
are especially pleased with resulta.
Sales Of grocery and department stores
in Omaha have increased from 10 70
90 per cent. An interesting sidedght
was the iTm ediate effect in one
Omaha store on the sales OF infants
shoes In the first week end under
with larger increases at the end Of
the second and third weeks. one wo-
man whose husband earned SIS a
week told a department manager that
when the saloons were open So weekly
Of the family earnings was spent Tor
liquor She now had bought Sill
worth OF cooking utensils, articles she
had needed for years, and proudly
showed a savings bank book with 4
SIS credit, ell saved in the few weeks
since the sale Of liquor was stopped.
Sales OF mems furnishings. dress shirts
and nec6ties and the like, also showed
an early increase. and have more
than held their gains since the, hrst
week
Stores Replace Saloons.
Six weeks after the initiation az
dry rule there were but two vacant
stores Of any size in downtown
Omaha where saloons formerly were
conducted, and none in the suburbs,
Practically all the buildings once de-
voted 10 the sale of liquor were then
occupied By clean business. according
to the testimony OF Mayor Dahhnan
and business men. The main depreGS-
ing effect there. as in other cities Wis
tied, was on the hotels and eating
places that furnished beds or meals
for 8. 10 or 10 cents--residents and
transients had more money and de-
manded better rooms and food.
Denver and other Colorado cities
are not strictly prohibition, but are
no-license the state laws permitting
the shipping in OF liquor Denver is
tourist city. OF course ana during
the no-!icense campaign feared the
loss OF trade from that source, Never
theless, the tourist business is better
than eSsT-NeE hotels have been
srected and the old ones enlarged in
g. - -E..-a
OF DenVer's former saloonkeepers have
bought farms outside the city ard are
prosperinF The city never had so
few vacant buildings. WheN fifty Or
sixty destitute men. Chief OF Police
Armstrong told DR. Johusoq. former
IL obtained IodGinEA- in t44a- l+4t4-- Hall
there arc now only one or two in
he first six months OF 1915, the last
wet" year. there were / 400 arrests.
while in the first half of 1915. under
no-ncenee, the police arrested $40
persons 4 stockade containing a
wood pile on which men who failed
70 support their wives were put at
work has been abolished because the
men formerly arrested for non-sup-
port are working elsewhere now A
rock pile on which Migrants work no
longer exists. and the city has 70 buy
It's crushed rock for roads. In the
Colorado mining camps sales AZ stores
nave increased 20. 80 and o per cent.
There has been g marked reduction
In the activities of the domestic re-
tat!ons courts
$1,000 New Savings Accounts
Deposits In the savings banks Of
Denver increased 20 per cent In the
first nine months under no-LcenEe.
and 20. 900 new accounts were opened
There was N increase OF Is per cent
IN the deposits OF all banks ana trust
companies. The Denver Gas company
estimated before the dry law went
INTO effect that ii would experience 4
loss OF 5000 4 month from its cid
receipts because Of the closing Of sa-
looms and some cafes Instead its
business increased $4,000 In the first
month In 1915. the first dry year in
Denver, county mortgages were lifted
at an unparalleled rate. The books Of
the transfer and realty companies in
5icated that for every family moving
out OF the city four moved in Sales
OF the grocery and department stores
Increased 70 TO IS Per cent.
The same story. with minor varJs.
tions. was told IN Portland and seat.
tie, In the Oregon city there had
beer three Institutions for men and
women who h@d no methods OF live.
lthooGt and these have gone o,,t "a