The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-04-17
PROHIBITION IS WORKING ELL
 IN FAR NORTH

Seward, Alaska, April 17-A pro- hibition law of the bone dry variety has been in effect in Alaska two years past. It may be that, as our wet element maintains, that the local sit uation yin Alaska is no fair criterion by which to judge the probable effects of prohibition enforcement, or at tempts at enforcement, in the states. It is truthfully and logically pointed out that Alaska is an isolated region and thin1y populated region where the habits, practices and affairs gen. orally of each citizen are apt to be known pretty thoroughly to a ma jority of the residents of his partic- ular district, and therefore, the en- forcement of the dry law is relatively less difficult than in the United States proper under constitutional prohibi- ton.
 In this connection it is also pointed out that Alaska had no dstiIling plants, and no brewing plants of sufficient size or capacity to supply more than a negligible proportion Of the local beer trade requirements, serve stocks of liquors on hand when prohibition became effective two years ago.
 
 quors, even before prohibition be- came effective in the states, was vir- tually impossible, both because the ships refused to carry it on account of the terrific penalties involved and also because its Importation under our peculiar trade and traffic cond1- tions made it more or less a public matter despite all precautions and all subterfuges
 These arguments are advanced by our wet element with the dual, and i somewhat obscure, object of explain ing the success of prohibition law enforcement in Alaska, and it's prob able failure in the states.
 There are still some violations ot the dry law in Alaska as proved b! the occasional arrests and convic, tions of law violators, and, probably 1 a great many more violations that gt undetected; but even admitting al ! this, prohibition in Alaska in it's ad ministrative phases, in the sense O i legally suppr ressing the traffic in alec 1 holic beverages, is in every sense i success as measured by the enforce ] ment of all other criminal statues 1 and Alaskan criminal administration 1 is notoriously effective in all case save only where women are involved l and, so far, women have not becom i offenders against the prohibition lav excepting in two instances that are o ! record In both cGSes the evidenc 1 of guilt was conclusive; and, indeed i in the Ketchikan case, the woman frankly admitted the illegal sale o | whisky, while the woman tried a Brooks, in the interior, told tn jurymen it was none of their busi ! ness what she sold. Pursuant t | custom both juries brought in a yer 1 dict of not guilty based on the un 1 written Sourdough tradition: 1 The woman is always right; l The man is always wrong; It is the law of the North
 The prediction claims of the wet l that prohibition law in flask ! could not, and would not, be enforced
 was based on insufficient grounds, 0 else, and more probably, was pur
 bravado- In either case the judgmen
 has been revised.
 1 During the earlier period of prohl
 bition in Alaska a number of 'Fblock
 ade runners,' as they were callec
 endeavored to slip through with Cal
 goes of illicit liquors, and possibly good many succeeded, but the nun Der who suffered arrest, fine and im prisonment in addition to the fol feiture of their wares, must have reI
 resented a heavy percentage of thos
 engaged in the dangerous enterpris | The ~blockade running busine:
 soon came to an end, and with it tt
 end of liquors imported from tf
 states. Since then the only outsit liquor getting in has been the occs sional bottle or so carried in the be or trunk of traveller.
 Broadly speaking, the only liquor i
 Alaska these days is a home-ma6 . product; hard liquor that only | a. long stretch of courtesy could l designated as merely bad. It has r l single attractive nature as a beve age, and no other merit, and in t great many cases no other purpo: l particularly, than that it's nIanufa, s ture enables the maker secretly l ffatter himself he is outwitting an oI
 noxious law.
 l This "hootc4a,'' as it is designate g is unpalataoIe, unwholesome ar
 nauSeatng to any normal w5dte ma , but still there is a certain amount = Gafhcdng in it through tlfe m fdiu . of bootaeggerS, as indi cated by u 5 occasional arrest and conviction . !. offenders The claim may be tru probably is, that only a small De : centage of such offenders are caugh c but assuming that even ten escape $ every one that runs foul of the la a still the total amount of liquor di - trIbuted in this way would be ve
 small indeed as compared to the vc - ur1e dispensed by open bars in t ;- old days
 ' The claim of some or the e1-saloo F. ists tf.at vast quantities of booze a !. stiA being sold and consumed
 Alaska has no other foundation th9 :. pique, and hostility to a law they lo v, upon with peculiar aversion
 Considering the other side of the H sue, it may be said that before pr
 hioH, ion became the law of the ia1
 the drSs were eNtraxagant, in pr
 dictions of it's benefits, as certain tf
 the advantages to the territory wou
 be incaEculafble as the vets were tt
 it's injury to the community would
 irreparab1e. Experience of the p5
 two years under prohibition fails
 sustain the predictions of either pal
 to the controversy, but does prove,
 it proves anything, that the wet