New-York tribune., 1920-02-18
Prohibition Proues Case
Against John BarIeyc0r.n
Benefits of BoneDry Law Reflected After One
Month by Increased Prosperity in New York
Tenement Districts and Cain in Theater Receipts

A casual investigation of the effects
Of one month of bone-dry prohibition
in New York City seems to build up an
overwhelming and puncture proof case
in favor of the Eighteenth Amend
ment.
Exhibit A might be the famous alco-
holic ward at Bellevue Hospital. 1t
has been abolished.
zone year ago." said DR.. M. s. Greg
ory yesterday, 1--WE seldom had less
than two hundred alcoholic patients
here at one time. Frequently we had
four hundred. Now we have none"
And even among the earnest drinkers
who were engaged in establishing a
long-distance, nonstop, catch s-catch-
can record at the horizontal bar when
the Eighteenth Amendment interfered
one can find "ex-tanks" who. while be-
moaning the loss of certain bibulous
liberties, will admit that there are
some virtues to the non skid life they
have been leading since January 16.
Some Irreconcilables
The Tribune's investigation, con-
Quoted with severe neutrality, de-
veloped enough arguments in favor of
prohibition to wreck the white paper
market were they printed in detail and
with all their far-reaching ramifica-
tions.
The only persons Tribune reporter
could find who could see no good what
ever in one-hal fof / per cent ex-
istence were those whose pocketbooks
had been torpedoed and wilted by
John Barleycorn's banishment. These
are the irreconcilables who don't hesi-
tate to lay every woe, great or small,
at the door of the Eighteenth Amend
ment. Most of them are saloon keep
ers or ex-bartenders.
But even among these are excep-
tions. Hercules Fitzsimmons is worth
a paragraph, here. He is bartender
loted the foaming South Street schoor-
ers and mixed the delcately perfumed
clover club. He admits that if all the
bars he has affectionately tended in his
career were placed end on end they
would reach from the Five Points to
Scapa Flow Hercules, known to thou
sands of New Workers, is putting in
his spare time now selling cigars
81 wouldn't bring the booze back if
could" he said yesterday.' John put
many a good man away in his time and
had a lot of others on the skids when
the amendment hit him and knocked
him for goal.
"Of course, it's the living destruc-
ii IN of our personal liberty and all
that sort Of thing, but somehow or
other there seems to be more happi-
ness in the world to-day than there
ever was before. | never saw the like
Of it. | guess maybe some of them per-
sonal liberties was not so good for
u.s."
Rent Collecting Easy
blind man can go out and find the
happiness Hercules Fitzsimmons speaks
Of. One has only to walk through any
Of the city's tenement house districts
to become convinced. Prohibitions s
strongest argument can be heard from
the lips of the rent collector in these
districts, and from the women Of
many children whose business it is to
meet him when he comes around with
his hand out
Morris Abrams, agent and collector
Of rents for various tenement proper
ties in Rivngton, Cherry and other
East Side streets, has an enlightening
story to tell.
"Prohibtion has completely revolu-
tionized my business" said Mr..
Abrams. "Rent collecting in the ter
ritory l cover used to be the toughest
job in New York. 1t was continual
battle, and you either had to have a
heart of stone or 60 out of business.
Life used to be one dispossess notice
after another, and I guess some of our
1aft bo in
tough circumstance with their furni-
ture on the sidewalk and no place
to 20. .. :.
to say that 95 per cent of these evic-
items could be traced to drink. Primar-
lily they were because there wasn't
enough money in the house to pay the
rent. The money wasn't there because
the old man didn't have job, and he
didn't have a job because he could not
take his mind off the corner ginmill.
~ began to notice the change in the
situation a month after wartime pro
hibtion became et-v-r:ve, although the
town at that time was far from dry.
My clients began to be little easier
financially, and as consequence my
work became pleasanter. Folks who
used to pay their rent in four install
ments began to deliver it in two and
there was less necessity for resorting
to the dispossess notice.
"By last December an eviction be-
came a rare event and last Christmas
was the most prosperous one | ever
saw on the East Side One month of
air-tight Federal prohibition has re
moved all the old difficulties from my
! business.
Easy Job These Days
collecting rents in the average Riv-
; ington Street tenement is as easy to- dav