The Cordova daily times., 1922-01-12
CLAIMS LIQUOR R LAW IS WELL
 ENFORCED

CHICAGO, Jan. l2.-PrOnlb1tlOn IS excellently enfirced in nine tenths of the country and in the remainder is sufficiently well enforced to be very great improvement over the li- cense system.
 This is the result of an investiga- tion covering several months, through official channels and direct inquiry as announced today by the Dr. Deets Pickett, Research Secretary of the Board of Prohibition Temperance, and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal church. The organization Of the church was used as one of the angencies of Information, which was obtained from 2O,UUO heads of churches and with numerous leaders of the 100000 lay adherents. The statement includes no figures not personally verified, Dr. Pickett states.
 "The investigation showed that there has been an enormous decrease in the consumption of liquor, a decrease not less than eighty-five and pos sibly more than ninety per cent, according to Dr. Pickett. This has the uumber of arrests for drunken ness and in very considerable in crease in the purchasing power of the poor and of the skilled and un- skilled laborers," says the report. m San Francisco, prohibition de- ul eased arrests for drunkenness in it's first year from 17,354 to 1,814. In | Los Angeles, from l5,830 to 2,589. In Boston, it was from 52,6S2 to 16,- 2S7. In Baltimore, in the last wet October, there were 1,165 arrests fOrl drunkenness and in the first dry Oc- tober, 119. We have similar reports from the heads of police of Wash ington, St. Paul, Lincoln, Galveston, St Louis and other cities.
 The fact of increased purchasing power is attested by signed state ments of the secretaries of chambers of commerce, real estate dealers, fur allure and musical instrument deal CTS and merchants of many kinds.
 There has also been large de- crease in petty crimes. In Boston, prohibition brought about decrease in the number of cases of assault from 2,127 to 1873 in one year. In St. Louis, petit larceny declined from 6,167 to 3,503.
 There has also been decrease in more serious crimes in many cities. The wet propaganda have spoken much of a crime wave in New York. I have it on the author ity of the commissioner of police of the city Of New York, that in 1918 there were 1,611 burglaries, and in 1920 only 6,S30 He makes simi- lar statements as to commissions of crime of serious nature on other charges.
 Even better results have been obtained in rural and small town districts.
 There has been startling de- crease in poverty and financial dis tress The hospitals have been re- lieved. In Philadelphia, in six months of the last wet year, there were LISA cases of alcoholism in general hospitals and in the same months of the next year, 276. Sim liar reports have been received from other cities.
 "It is frequently stated by alco- hol propagandists that there is in the United Etates enormous illicit distillation, that nearly every family makes alcohol. Obviously, this is simply an expression of opinion. In America. only few families of Ger man extraction know how to make palatable beer. Whiskey, illicitly produced, is so nearly non-palatable that only habitual alcoholics can con- sume it. Private distillation and brewing, while it worries the prohibi- tion officers by necessitating many arrests, is an insignificant factor.
 
 now, and Is on the road to complete success"