, 1922-01-13
oRApUALLY BEcoMINc EFFECTIVE.

Acceptance of the fact Of prohibition Is still resisted
by quite a minority in the country, who base their
hopes of a return to some form Of liquor selling, upon
a change of sentiment among the people strong enough
to induce congress to exercise its power In q form to
annul the Eighteenth amendment. There is no i'm
mediate likelihood of such action and the future holds
no promise to the vets that it will ever occur. Rather
does it appear that as the supply Of liquor, left over
from the old day, vanishes, the people grow better
satisfied and more willing to settle down and abide by
the law of the land.
Sentiment existing among the people is better
Judged by what they say ON the subject Elwell Mead
Of Connecticut after considerable observation and in
vestigation has this to say:
when a boy on the farm, one of my chores was
to feed the calves. They did a lot Of 'benerin'' at
weaving time. Now that the people who didn't want
to be weaned by the Eighteenth amendment have be-
gun to stop behaving like calves, there may be more
chance to hear from the very large majority who
wanted prohibition. Figured by territory or counties
or population, the liquor business had been voted out
OF more than rs per cent of the United States before
the amendment, SO that the stute legislatures were
merely enacting the will of the people.
els legal prohibition effective? The Albany County,
NJ. Y, penitentiary receives prisoners from eight coun-
ties. In 1910 there were 1,120 commitments; in 1915,
l ,074; in 1920, 173. OF the commitments in 1910, 125
we're for drunkenness; in 1915, 1872; in 1920, 6.
''The commitments to Connecticut jails for drunk
enness in the year ended September 80, 1919, were
3,778, but n sne year ended September 80, 1920, they
we're only 943. In the city of Hartford the arrests
for drunkenness for the year 1916 were 6,973, but in
the two years ended June 80, 1921, they were only
5,219; that is, they were reduced more than three
hfths.
"one of the magazines in its December issue says
in an article by a supposed expert on Who's Drink
ing in American that of the Sc, 900, 900 adult males
in the United States, $4,000, 900 were teetolars be-
fore the amendment and $1,000, 900 were drinkers. OF
these, the article says, the payday night drinkers who
have stopped number 1000, 900, the occasional drink
os who have stopped $500, 900, and the regular sa-
loon drinkers who have stopped 100000. So that
of the 20,0o0,000 pre-prohibition drinkers only $780,,
600 remain, one-eighth of the former number. That
makes the amendment seven-eighths effective.
But that isn't all. The same authority gives the
total amount of liquor struggled, distilled and with
drawn from bond in the last year as so, 900, 900 quarts.
That means a little over a pint n week for the $780,
coo drinkers left. but the average amount of drink for
The 20,0u0,o00 drinkers in 1917 was about nine pints
a week.
"This proves the new Interpretation of the law of
supply and demand-that we can regulate the supply
and change the demand.
THE real spirit of people is revealed in their spon-
tEneous unthinking behavior. The big greeting card
publishing houses say that while the people spend
S22, 000, 900 a year for Christmas cards the Eighteenth
amendment joke cards are a drug on the market"