The American issue., 1922-06-02
BOOzERS IuGGLE FIGURESf
TO MAKE FAIR SHOWING
Two Dry Years Compared Rather
Than Wet Year With
Dry Year
SEEK TO CONCEAL FACTS
Buckeye Sheet Trys to White
wash Ugly Death-Rate
of Saloon


Bureau of Vital Statistics, Department
of Health OF Ohio, resorts to that old
trick of the liquor interests now in
these Prohibition days very much in
vogue, of comparing figures for two
years both dry rather than figures for
a wet year and dry year, if the COM
parison of two dry years seems to
make out a case against Prohibition.
The figures in question were issued
by the Bureau of Vital Statistics, De-
partmcnt of Health, and showed big
slump in the death rate in the Buckeye
state for 1921. The death rate in fact
is the lowest since 1913. The rate
for 1921 is ia per thousand popula-
ton which according to DR.. Eugene
Murrell, was the lowest since the Bu-
reau of Vital Statistics was established
in December 1908.
The Enquirer in giving the report OF
the Bureau OF Vital Statistics, says:
Statistics given out by the Bu-
reau of Vital Statistics, Depart
ment OF Health of Ohio, today
combat the figures. of the Anti
Saloon League on deaths caused
by alcoholism. The Prohibition
organization issued figures con-
tending that there had been re-
duction in deaths from alcoholism
in New York and claimed credit
in behalf of Prohibition for the
general mortality reduction. The
Ohio Bureaus figures, however,
show that general mortality rates
were lower, but that alcoholism
more than doubled in 1921 over
1920. In 1920 there were 81
deaths attributed to alcoholism
but in 1921 there were l2S.
But why did the Examiner stop
there? Why did it compare the rec
ord for 1921 with 1920, between dry
years and not with the years prior to
If Prohibition did not lower the
number of deaths from alcoholism how
does the Enquirer explain the figures
from the same state department on
the same subject for the years before
1t is true that in dry 1920 there
were 54 deaths from alcoholism in
Ohio while in dry 1921 the number
was l28, but in wet 1915 deaths from
alcoholism in Ohio numbered 222; in
1916, 355; in 1917, 42o; in 1918, 25S;
and in 1910, the first FIVE months wet
and the last seven months dry, there
were 172 deaths from that cause.
So it will be seen that in wet 1917
there were more than three times as
many deaths from alcoholism in Ohio
as in dry 1921, and almost three times
as many in wet 1916 as in dry 1921.
How strange it is that the Enquirer
never though to tell its readers these
facts.
But why were there more deaths
from alcoholism in 1921 than in 1920
both dry years?
There were more deadly and poison
Gus liquor connections consumed in
1921 than in 1920. By this it is not
meant that more liquor was consumed
but that it was more deadly in its OPP
Grafton. Increased efficiency in Pro-
hibition enforcement in 1921 had re-
duced the bootleg traffic to small
gang of criminals whose wares con-
sisted principally Of poisonous substi-
tutes. The few alcohol victims who
were willing to take a chance were
simply flirting with the undertaken.
Keep in mind this fact, however
alcohol and not Prohibition was the
cause of these deaths. Prohibition
saved at least three times as many
from deaths from alcoholism as died
in wet 1917
Another thing to remember is this,
in the old saloon days many man
died from alcoholism who was not re-
ported to the authorities as having
died from that cause. The death of
many alcoholics was charged to heart
disease, Bright's disease, apoplexy or
some other cause. Now when alcohol
kills man the truth is blazoned to the
public.
Why did not the Enquiref-give the
figures from New York City instead
of merely referring to them? Evi-
IDENTIFY because these figures do not
satisfy the wet propaganda in which
the Enquirer is engaged. In wet 1910
there were 68T deaths from alcoholism
in New York City; in wet 1917 the
was 500; in dry 1921 the num-
Der was 119. 1t is readily seen why
the Enquirer did not reproduce these
figures.
And again, the Enquirer passes over
in silence the fact that in the hospitals
for the insane in Ohio, of the total
admissions in wet 1911 the per cent at.
tributed to alcohol was 11.8. while in