The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-02
ALABAMA NEXT
!. TO DRIEST STATE
WITHIN COUNTRY
Tennessee Leads Nation
In Percentage OF
Whisky Control

Here's news from Washington that
prove as startling to Alabamians as re.
cent revelations in the oil scandal:
With the sole exception of Tennes.
see, Alabama is ty far the dryest state
in the south and one Of the most law.
abiding in the whole country, in an al
coholic way.
This is made known in a survey just
completed by the prohibition section Of
| the United States department of JUS
tice, copies Of which have reached Biz.
mingham.
"I'm not surprised" said A. w. Har
gett, federal prohibition director for
Alabama. 81 have been contending for
months that we had the situation well
in hand and that things were getting
dryer and dryer"
The survey was begun about Janu.
airy /, as national prohibition entered
its fifth year. The idea was to ascer.
tain if John Barieycorn really died in
January, 1920, or whether dummy
was buried in his place.
None Bone Dry
1t was found that no state was bone
dry and that the degree of prohibition
enforcement ranged all the way from
95 per cent to as low as per cent.
In the south, Tennessee was found
to be between 80 and 95 per cent dry.
Enforcement in Alabama was found to
be So per cent or better.
| Arkansas came third with dry rat,
ing of so per cent, but in all other
southern states there is a different
story to tell
Georgia, South and North Carolina,
Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana are
given the lowest rating possible--from
to 40 per cent dry.
Funny, isn't it? Georgia, on one
side Of Alabama, is just 10 per cent
dry, and Mississippi, on the other side,
has an enforcement percentage of 40
yet, Ole Alabam' gets a rating that
compares favorably with that of any
state in the nation.
New York Leads
The report shows the saturation to
be heaviest of all in New York, where
the non-enfofcement record is 95 per
cent.
California, Illinois, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont. New
Hampshire, Massachusetts,, Rhode Is
land, Delaware and Connecticut are
other 'black sheep" on the list, with
non-enf0rcement records of from 60 to
90 per cent.
States in which the dry laws are en-
forced 90 per cent or better are those
far from the coasts, Idaho, Iowa. Kan
sas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Da.
kOta, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming.
A ''ffty-ffty" situation is prevailing
in number Of other states, says the
survey report.
More than half the people of the
| United States live in the states where
the enforcement records are listed at
between 8 and 40 per cent, it is shown.
Survey By Government
These figures reflect the situation &C.
curately, it is said, according to the
survey, which was conducted by the de.
partment of Justices prohibition sec.
| ton under supervision of Mrs. Mabel
| Walker WillebTandt, assistant attor-
ney general. The district attorneys in
the various states furnished most of the
data on which the survey was based.
After the figures for the various
sEcasIt,Ss have been studied by Alabama
bootleggers, federal agents forecast a
sharp advance in curb market prices
throughout the state, for the reason that
| "hOotch is scarcer than we thought"