The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1922-12-07

| ABOUT pfOnlD1tlon should be carefully
read by everyone
| Glenn Frank in the Century has pun
gently discussed the various fears,
psychologist fears, economic fears, etc.
which like smoke screen are shutting
off light and hope from the minds of
men today. In these days of Smyrna
horrors and financial perils and good
raisOn d'etre for fears, it is balm to the
soul of the discouraged citizen to learn
that there is radiant light in one quar-
ter Of the heavens. Despite Governor
Edwards declaration that the Volstead
act and all attempts at its enforcement
are making us the laughing stock of
the world and that Prohibition is a
pest" the careful, detailed testimony
of an Australian scholar sent here to
study the question for year demon
StrateS beyond a doubt that Prohibition
/ is laughed at only by the uniformed
|
trust the cabled dispatches sent out
from here by those who want Prohibi-
! ton to fail.
Mr.. Clifford Gordon of Melbourne.
arriving July, 1921, has traversed the
country from ocean to ocean and from
north to south to CLEAN information
that might help his country of 5000,
600 people to cease spending annually
S147 100000 on liquor, l. e., nearly $50
per capita for every man. woman and
child. He has travelled $4,000 miles, vi
sitting almost every large city and many
smaller ones and investigating rural
regions. He talked with great employ
ers of labor, criminologists, labor lead
ers, physicians, alienists, federal, state
and city officials, as well as the man
| in the street and he studied newspa-
pers and magazines. He declares that
prohibition has succeeded though it
ha not had a fair chance and though
ism many places it is not we'll enforced.
He found at the start much pessimism
among the movement who simply knew
nothing of the actual facts and had
taken the reports of stills discovered
and raids made as being typical rather
than exceptional. Bootlegging is always
news for editors and soberness is com
mon and does not get reported on the
front page.
Realizing finally that his discoveries
amazed his American hearers, he has
published for Americans as well as for
his own countrymen the results of his
investigat tons Omtting the odd hun
dreds from his statistics, some of his
figures are here given. Arrests for
drunkenness in New York In 1919 were
30 600 and in 1927 they were 5000. San
Francisco's arrests in two years de
creased from 1000 to 5000; those of
Los Angeles from 1900 to 5000; De
troit 1900 to 1000. Judge Gemmill of
the Chicago Municipal Court says that
lin most of the largest cities of the
United States the decrease is from 100
10 400 per cent 20 per cent OF the lahs
in the United States have been without
prisoners since Prohibition went into
effect and in so percent the prisoners
have been reduced from Is to so per
cent
The common notion that dea hs from
alcoholic poison. wood alcohol and al
cohol are increasing is refuted by the
records of The Department of Health OF
New York. In 1916 there were G90 such
deaths. bit in 1921 only al. In the
pbiladelphia General Hospital the al
cobolics were IN 1918 2326. and in 1927
barely two. The Is Neal Institutes
in the twelve years before Prohibition
treated $4,000 patients. Now they are
all ont of commission. The largest
Keelv Cure establishment has heen
Turned into a soldiers hospital. There
are now no Institutions in this country
simply for inebriates.
Prohibition has lessened crime. Inc
new Jail in Birmingham, Ala, costing
500. 1000, nj now used for other pur-
noses. In Pittsburg, Pa, the warden OF
the iail which once was overcrowded
saws he now has 80 cells empty. In the
Chicago Bridewell, which in 1917 had
II 600 prisoners. there were five years
later 5000. Larceny. assaults, adultery
all decreased and the arrests for wire