The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1917-02-08
OLICERECORDSOF
OHIO TELL STORY
Drunkenness and Crime Show
Big Increase.
LICENSE PROVED A FAILURE

Arrests In Wet Censcrs Last Year
Eclipse Al Eacords and Booze
Leads All other causcs-Taxpay-
ers Are Footing the Bills and Are
Concluding That 1t is Good Eusi.
ness Policy to Vote Out Saloons
and BE Relieved From the Care of
Their Product.
Columbus, o. Especially - Drunk
enness in Ohio is on the increase un-
der license. This is proved by police
records of wet cities and towns. In
some of the larger cities, an intoxi-
Gated person is not arrested unless
he is utterly helpless or becomes a
public disturber. In most Of the dry
communities when a man is under
the Influence" even in a slight de-
gree, he is locked up. A comparison
of the number of arrests in wet Ohio
towns last year with the number ar
rested in these same towns in 1915
shows the increase not only OF drunk
enness, but Of crime generally.
East Liverpool had 1858 arrests in
1916 against 2O43 for 1915. More
than three-ffths Of all arrests last
year were on charges of intoxication
and 247 others were arrested for dis
orderly conduct growing cut Of in
toXicatio7.
The report Of the chief Of police
OF the city Of AshtabaIa for 1916
shows total OF cjtG arrests for all
causes. OF these, 2lO1 were charged
with drunkenness. This is a monthly
average of IT'S drunks arrested in a
city of 10000. There were $50 more
arrests for drunkenness in 1916 than
in 1915. IN 1914, when Ashtabula
was dry, there were only 2O5 arrests
for drunkenness.
There were 1116 arrests for drunk
and disorderly in Springfield in 1916
against 979 in 1915. Add to these,
239 arrests for disorderly conduct
and 48 for vagrancy, and the police
records point to the licen~-7 caloorq
as the prolific source of practically
all the crime an3 lai- " in the city.
In one of the years Springfield was
without saloons, there were $50 ar
rests for drunk and disorderly.
OF the $3.50 arrests in Alliance last
1dOS -.
This is far in excess of arrests made
in previous years.
While the city Of Akron is grow
ing rapidly, arrests for crime an
drunkenness are increasing muc
faster than her population. Last yea
the police made 1866 arrest
against 1888 in 1915. A large pro.
portion of these arrests are trace.
able to the city's licensed saloons.
There were 2510 arrests in We
Steubenville last year, an increase OF
1900 over 1915. All crime recorda
were broken in the city and country
There were 13 murders in Jefferson
county in 1916.
In wet oungSt0Wn last year, all
previous arrest records were eclipsed
by the police department on whose
blotters cases of 14,619 culprits were
written. The number in 1915 was
1908. The number of murders broke
all records. Licensed saloons were
the cause. of most of the arrests.
Taxpayers foot the bills.
Kenton would have been quiet last
year had it not been for her Home
Rule saloons. The police locked IN
$50 persons during the year and Of
these, 504 were arrests for drunken
ness.
q In striking contrast with these we.
cities and towns is Firdlay. Findlay
has not had saloons for eight years.
With a population Of $4,000, her total
arrests last year were 321, with only
90 arrests for drunkenness.
Findlay and Alliance are about the
same size. Uncle Sam makes little
difference in the population of the
two places. La3t year dry Findlay
had 321 arrests and wet Alliance had
$3.50. Tha1e were 98 arrests for
drunkennes7 in dry Findlay and 1926