The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-17

may be seen, but they are now few and growing scarcer. Most of the for mer saloons of the joint type have turned into pool halls, serve soft drinks instead of liquors, but other wise appear to the passing observer to be the same old joints, with the same class and seemingly the same number of habitues.
 In one outstanding particular they have changed radically. in that the broils and disorders that were com mon and pretty constant in some set dement's in the hard liquor days are noticeabIy diminished and drunk and disorderly charges before the magls- trates are growing to be distinctly rare. Even the most prejudiced would scarcely deny this benefit, which a good many Alaskan people regard as prohibition's greatest ac- omplishme That prohibition in Alaska has materially and generally
 affected business either favorably or otherwise is disputed. A few ind1vid- uaIs, who formerly wasted their in comes in bar rooms, now invest them more advantageously no doubt, but the number who have diverted their spending to grocery or clothing or SuPp1y OOSlnGSSSS StAS1d411, 1AcS 1Ae-o no appreciable or noticeable effect on trade according to leading dealers in those lines of merchandise. It Is but fair to say, however. that despite an abnormal depression in l business throughout Alaska beginning long before prohibition went into ef- ] feet, there has been considerable | increase in bank deposits, particularly rd 7a9 rticT11qT10
 in savings accounts. Drys, of course, claim this to be a direct result of pro- hibition. The vets explain it as due | to an era of rigid economy induced l by the high cost of living.
 As an argument intended to gain 1 support when they needed votes the vets told us that with liquor banned
 the population would early fsl vic
 tims to the drug habit; which would inevitably lead to moral, physical and
 mental degeneracy. It has not So | transpired. Druggists declare there
 has been no noticeable increase in the | demand for narcotics, and physicians are authority for the statement that the number of drug addicts has moi l increased, and police officials also | confirm this view of the matter.
 In point of fact we Alaskans, tC whom the wet or dry issue was largely l an academic question, or more ac'
 curately a rather impersonal matter | were badly advised. Our disappoint
 ment was considerable, and it is jus possible a good many bear a trif1e 0. resentment, that of all the mass O.
 unbearable disasters and immeasure ble advantages promised us not on' Il has materialized of sufficient import
 ance to stir ripple upon the surface
 of public interest.
 As to the enforcement of prohibi
 ton in the states, if the experience o Alaska is a fair criterion by which t
 judge of probabilities, it might as wei be recognized now as later that it vii be enforced. despite all hopes of hay , | ing the Costitution declared uncon
 stitutional, or of other projects in genious lawyers may devise. Ther
 will be no abateTn ent of the universa 1 drouth during this present incarna | ton, and those who expect one ar
 inviting a disappointment equal t
 that suffered by those A1askans wh
 thought the coming of prohibitio, 5 would start something worth seeing l It never bent a limb and scarcel | moved a leaf