The Wrangell sentinel., 1922-12-07
Studying the Effect of the Dry Law from
 The Bench
Judge Herbert Utterback Des Moines, Iowa

the judges or our courts, DeSlHulHS as a municipal judge in 1911. For the first three years had full charge of our police court work. Since then I have been one of the judges of our District Court and as such I have had charge of the Criminal Equity and Law division of said court at differ ent times during the eight-year period. In addition to my other work, I have had charge of the Juve- nile department of our courts for the past three years. During the time was municipal judge, handled 1S, 4G1 cases, over seventy per cent of which, 1 estimate, were arrests for intoXication. In 1919, I had charge of the Equity division, and in that one year alone I disposed of, in one way or another, 1,426 divorce cases. As judge of the juvenile division have had hundreds of cases having to to with dependent, neglected, delin quent and defective children. Last year alone, disposed of 1925 differ ent children.
 In trying and disposing of the thousands of cases which have come before me, think I have had an un- usual opportunity of studying the ef- fleets of prohibition and I am glad to give it to you as my judgment, that the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was the greatest step forward that has ever been talk en in this country since the adoption of the original constitution.
 There is some agitation looking toward the amendment or repeal of the Volstead Act. The liquor forces know that it will never be possible for them to secure the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendmnt No other amendment to the Constitution in one hundred years was adopted by so large per cent of the States of the Union-forty-siX out of forty-eight states have ratified the prohib tory Amendment. Their only hope is to nullify the Eighteenth Amendment by securing the repeal of adequate enforcement legislation; by eiecting Congressmen who will not appropri- ate adequate funds to enforce the law and by electing, if possible; To- cal officials who are not In sympathy with the enforcement of the law.
 In my judgment they will not sue ceed, to any considerable extent, in their plans. The public generally in all of our communities knows of the benefits of prohibition. While there is some bootlegging, the truth is, it is very small per cent in pro- portion to the amount of liquor form erly sold. I have made the assertion many times in public addresses that Bob King, who owned and operated one of the eightysiX saloons formerly in our city, sold more booze in one night, than all the bootleggers in Des Moines and Polk county together. in an entire month. under prohibi- tion.
 Many men who formerly spent considerable portion of their wages for Intoxicating liquors are now buy ing homes and paying for them; their wives and children are better clothed. More of their children are in school and in church, and hun dreds of families whose homes were formerly poorly furnished are now living under much more favorable conditions, not only as to material things, but also as to moral sur roundings and influences.
 Many people have thought that the best way would be to let each person have liberty to drink or ont as he or she saw fit, but I have long since
 learned that we cannot solve the problem in that way. If all the evils from the use of liquor could be visit ed upon the man or woman who uses it, still better upon the man who sells it, it might be different; but when one realizes that there ar many oth- CTS who must suffer even more than the one who uses the liquor to excess then we realize the dangr of leaving tine matter to the judgment of the one who drinks.
 Much of poverty, most of the strife, at least three-fourths of the chime. a large part of the divorce cases, much Of the neglect of wife and children is directly or indirectly traceable to the use of intoxicating liquor.
 When our prohibitory laws are enforced, the future manhood and womanhood of America will be clean