The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1923-12-14
TOTAL ARRESTS sWElED BY $50 PCT INCREASE IN TRAFFIC LAW CASES
Total Arrests Slightly Increased But Dry
100000 Population Per Cent for All Causes
Per Thousand Despite Traffic Law Violations

Has prohibition actually cut ar
rests for drunkenness and other causes
in the United States, or has it in
creased these arrests? Facts obtained
by Robert L. Corradini, Research
Secretary OF the World League
Against Alcoholism, from chiefs OF
police in one hundred American cit
les, lead Mr.. Corradini to declare that
there has been substantial decrease
in arrests for drunkenness and in ar
rests for all causes. and in the percen-
tage of arrests for drunkenness i'll re-
lation to arrests for all causes.
i Larger Cities of 81 States Report
Mr.. Corradini says that the cities
from which he obtained information
run in size from 5000 to 100000, in
Guiding New York, Chicago and Phil
adelphia, and that the statistics cover
thirty-one states, as follows Cali
fornia, Colorado, Connecticut, Della
ware, Florida, Georgia, illinois, Indi-
ana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Mary
land, Massachusetts,, Michigan, Min
nesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York,
North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Penn
+ sylvania, Rhode Island, South Caro-
lima, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,
Washington, Wisconsin.
Data Furnished by Police Chiefs
81 wrote to the Chief OF Police OF
every city OF $4,000 population or more
in every state in the Union said Mr..
Corradini. IF there were only few
OF such cities in any state | wrote to
the chiefs of the smaller towns in
such states, in order to get the sta
tistics of from three to five cities in
each state. -
4 %We Have received some material
for more than $50 cities, but we have
received everything we asked COM
plete for every year from 1910 to 1922
inclusive. This material was gathered
principally for the Commission from
Netherlands, consisting of p. Van der
Moulen and NJ. a. deNries, who re-
Gently made an inspection tour OF
America, and is being officially pre-
sented by them to their government.
However, the city officials in the same
cities have given the same material to
the World League Against Alcohol
| ism, which assumes all responsibility
for its publication in this country and
elsewhere.
License Periods Compared With Dry
"Pre-prohibition periods are COM
/ pared with post-prohibition periods in
all instances. The reports of the
chiefs of police for these one hundred
cities show that in the wet period OF
1914-l5-16 there were in the 100 cities
323,7o0 arrests for intoxication, or Us
per thousand persons. In the dry pc
Rod covering 1o20-21-22 there were
only 207, 800 arrests for intoxication in
the 100 cities, or 9.5 per thousand.
This is a decrease OF 10000. During
the wet period the population of the
cities was in round numbers lS,500000.
In the dry period it was in round num-
bers 2l,000,000.
Arrests for All Causes Decrease
"In the same years which we call
the wet period there were 54.2 arrests
for all causes per thousand population
in the 100 cities. In the dry period
OF three years there were only 52.8
arrests for all causes per thousand
persons in the one hundred cities.
Percentage of Drunk Arrests Com
pared With Total Arrests