The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1922-01-10
RESULTS OF NATIONAL PROHIBITION
BY HELEN BARRETT MONTGOMERY

disturbed condition Reports from
chiefs of police in fifty-one largest
cities of the United States, including
New York, Philadelphia, St Louis and
cities of that size and former degree
of wetness and with a total population
of over 20,0o0,000, show a slump in ar
rests for all causes from 960,603 in
l1917 to S51. 108 in 1920 The total ar
rests for drunkenness in these cities
IN 1917 were 3o7.1o8. This was cut to
l10S,s35 in 1920. or almost sixty five per
cent of decrease
Police Commissioner Enright Of
New York City. shows that crimes like
declined from $4,000 in 1915. to 10000
lin 1920. Murders decreased fifty-one
I per cent, and burglaries ten per cent
in Chicago during 1920 as compared
with 1919. and the number OF disor-
derly cases from $4,000 to $4,000
The reports of the Massachusetts
commission on prisons shows that the
prison population of Massachusetts
has declined from 1881 in 1914 to
56,s32 in 1921, and that prison popula
j ton Of Boston has declined in the
same period from 5000 to 5000. a per-
centage decrease Of fifty per cent.
In Ohio four work houses have been
closed. and there are 10000 fewer in
mates under prohibition than under
| license. In Pittsburg Warden Lewis
reports that in 1918 there were 1864
prisoners committed to the Jail; in
1920 there were only 4,712 committed
to jail. In the city of washington
there We're $3.50 commitments to the
work house in 1914: 2.511 in 1919, and
in 1920, SS3 Mayor Smith of Louis
vile, Kentucky, reports a decrease of
eighty-four per cent in prison popula
ton in the first year of prohibition
In Milwaukee, the beer capitol Of
the United states there was de-
crease between 1915 and 1920 Of thir-
ty-eiglt per cent in cases of aban-
donment, sixty per cent in drunk and
disorderly. thirty eight per cent as
sault and battery and fifty-nine per
cent disorderly conduct. Governor
Brown of New Hampshire, reports in
July, 1921, that there are but forty
mond, Virginia, has increased twenty
seven per cent in population during
the years between 1917 and 1921, but
it's arrests for drunkenness and dis
order have decreased seventy-five per
cent.
Senator Jones then compares these
results under imperfect prohibition to
those in wet England and finds a
marked increase in drunkenness dur
ing the same period. The convictions
for drunkenness in 1920 showed an in
crease of 62.26 per cent over those Of
1919.
One of the most convincing exhibits
of this pulverizing reply to the claims
of the vets is found in the statistics
regarding inebriate asylums. B. E.
Neal, president of the forty-five Neal
institutes for inenriates, reports:
During the twelve years before the
yoistead act became effective we
treated more than I25. 600 drinking
men and women. Chicago and cisye
land institutes treated more than loo
patients a month; Los Angeles and
San Francisco averaged twenty-five
to fifty 4 month. Today Neal insti-
tutes still operating do not average
two patients month. Drinkers are
not turning 10 the use Of drugs
The Washington home for drunkards
report in the Chicago papers Of Feb.
!. 1891. that during the year 1910 10
1919 they treated an annual average
Of 1921. In 1920 they treated only rs.