Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-07-06
"BONE-DRY" LAW
DISCUSSED AND
RESULTS CITED
nY aEozeE q. WATERS

by GEORGE q. WATERS
| WASHINGTON merica has had
| year of prohibition. Has it been q
| success?
| John F. Kramer. head of. the pro-
hibition enforcement division here
says it has been a marked success
But when called on him he didn't
] try to make me believe that he had
! all the saloons closed and all the
bootleggers in jail.
there are only about 500 saloons run
ming in New York." said Kramer
Beer seems to have almost disap-
peared, except in. Pennsylvania. In
! toXicantS are more plentiful In
Pennsylvania and New Jersey than
in any other states.
LAS to the greatest benefit brought
| by a years prohibition, L would
say that it has teen getting strong
| drink out of reach of the boys and
girls who have developed no appe-
titles for it.
"a topper with an insane appetite
for liquor will drink up his wife's
perfume, but one never heard of a
normal boy contracting the habit OF
! drink by attacking. perfume bot
tie. Nor is codliver oil and razo
containing alcohol, a substitute for
a roadhouse debauch by young men
and women, whereas many of the
| old drinkers are consuming all these
preparations they can get.
Leave the Volstead law on the
books two more years and drinking
will be a lost art"
The year preceding prohibition
| Americans spent $2,000,000,000 for
booze. The Anti-Saloon league claims
past year the drinkers have placed
81 ,09D, 100000 of this in banks, spent
$1O0,000,O0O of it for candy, and that
the other $900,000,000 went for soft
drinks, moving pictures, theaters,
tobacco, bootleg booze, automobiles,
clothes, shoes, groceries, furniture,
etc; But the bulk of this second
movies.
Kramer says most of his troubles
have come from former saloons
that kept hanging on to see what
the supreme court was going to do,
Only 5000 Saloons Left
Before prohibition there ware $780,
600 saloons in America, and perhaps
not 5000 now-speakeasies where
persons who are known, can drink.
The 100000 persons employed at
making beer and whisky a year
ago have gone into other trades,
and there is still labor shortage.
&C Probably Pre- ID the greatest gre economic
and rehabilitation Of 100000 men,
who in the wet days were either
incapacitated the day after" or in
jail or in hospitals. Many of these
were common drunkards.
The drys say that scattered fig
been increased Is per cent, crime
reduced SO per cent, drinking re-
duced IS per cent, that $4,000 per-
sons have been saved death from
alcoholism and that 60,000,000
bushels of foodstuffs were diverted
from strong drink to other channels.
At Baltimore a movie show was
installed this year at Central %
lice station to amuse idle policemen.
Prohibition cut down their work.
At II of the principal cities in
New Hampshire arrests for drunk
enness numbered 1860 for the last
six * months of 1919, as against
$3.50 in similar period of 1917.
No Prisoners, No Services.
The sheriff in Carbon county
Pa, quit holding Sunday religious
services at the Jail because there
were no prisoners to attend.
In Philadelphia arrests for drum
kenness were: wet July, 1918
1880; dry July, 1880 88.
prisoners in July, 1918, was $3.15l
and in July, 1919, reduced to S1,1S5,
despite rising prices.
Thomas w. White, Massachusetts
state supervisor of administration
says prohibition cut down court
maintenance by one-half. ~.
The government fiscal analysis at
worcester, Mass, shows savings
banks accounts show an increase Of
SO per cent since July l, 1919.
Enforcer Kramer says Kelley in
stitutes all over the country have
had to quit, the last one to throw uE
the sponge being at Columbus, o.
The commissioners OF ten Pennsyl-
vania counties had planned to build
a ten-county workhouse for prison
ers. Plans of financing it were
about ready before prohibition came
A meeting was held by the commits.
sioners Nov. 30 1919. and all agreed
that there were no prisoners to be
sent to it, and the joint organiza-
ton of commissioners was disband.
ed and the plans dropped.
Warden Lewis, Philadelphia Jail
says arrests for drunkenness have
decreased 80 per cent in his city
Warden Lee. Ba- more Jail, says ar
rests for all causes Aas been reduced
so per cent. :
In Connecticut the state farm for
drunkards has been abandoned.
In Boston the arrests from July
to December 1918, were 2S,86O and
the same period in 1919 only 1920,
reduction of 1890.
Sheriffs Can't Make Living.
Sheriffs all over the country are
resigning because they can no long
er make a living feeding prisoners
This used to be the principal source
of revenue to sheriff.
In Houston, Tex, the city farm
that formerly had from fifty to one
hundred prisoners all the time be-
came absolutely ,deqopulated when
prohibition hit 1t was finally rent
ed to Japanese.
Many jails over the country are
being converted into hotels and
apartments to solve the housing
shortage.
No, prohibition hasn't complete
ly prohibited. But it has ruined
John Barleycorn's business.
The enforcement bureau here holds
to the theory that the higher the
price goes, the more successful the
law is. At the Chicago convention
booze was selling at $3.50 to SIS a
pint, demand strong. Buying it by
the drink one pays about SIS a quart
in New York.
Woman Divorced Is Times
Mrs Alice Yocum, recently of
Boone, Iowa, and previously a resi-
dent in various other cities of the
middle west, thinks her record of
thirteen marriages and thirteen di-
Ic- al II ~