Evening star., 1925-12-25
GREAT CHRISTMAS
RUM TOLL|SSEEN
Dry Officials Expect Record
Breaking Number of
"P0ison" Deaths.
BY ROBERT T. SMALL.

While Government departments and
Government circles generally were
celebrating today what they consid-
cred to be one Of the happiest. most
prosperous and contented Christmases
the country ever has known, there
Christmas cheer failed to penetrate.
This was the Bureau Of Prohibition
Enforcement.
There the ofiicials professed them
selves to be in state Of dread posi-
lively bordering on terror. They were
thinking of the toll Of Christmas
deaths to be claimed by bootleg liquor.
1t is claimed that the toll from
poison alcohol this year will be
-Ha holiday season the total Of
deaths in virtually every area from
which statistics are received has
been higher this year than at any
time since prohibition went into effect.
Cite Figures in Case.
The prohibition authorities and the
"dry" leaders of the Nation avow
that the deaths are due to poison
in the liquor, and they have issued
figures to show that out of $4,000
samples of seized liquors fully SO per
cent were found to contain some sort
Of poison.
This statement is hotly contested BY
the ''wets" and by the chemists Of
some of the wetter cities of the coun-
try. They claim the deaths are not
mounting because of poison In liquors
consumed, but are due solely TO the
fact that tho people are drinking
harder than ever in the communities
where they are drinking at all. They
claim the hospital records will show
the great majority Of alcoholic deaths
due to the quantity consumed rather
than the quality. People drank them
selves to death in the days of gen
orally good" liquors, and, according
to the vets, they are resuming the
custom in even greater numbers with
each passing year Of inability TO en-
force the Volstead act.
Some of the prohibition authorities
believe that appeals to the drinking
classes, if not the masses, on the
ground of poison contained in the
available liquor today, are the last
| resort in an effort 10 uphold the
prohibition law. In other words
the authorities are trying at last
! to obtain an observance of the law
| as the one real means of enforcement.
Authorities Engulfed.
I During the first years of the Vol
| stead act 1t naturally was the aim
( of each appointed agent and each ap-
pointed director of prohibition en-
forcement, TO make as many arrests
as possible and thus point with pride
! to the record established. But the
offenders against prohibition have In
| creased far more rapidly than have
, the arrests and the prohibition au
| thorities have found themselves all
| but engulfed in the rising tide Of IL
licit alcohol.
With this rising tide of alcohol has
come the rising tide Of alcoholic
deaths. Always at Christmas time.
| the happiest season of the year. the
list leaps upward in a sort Of devils
dance of delight at the frailties Of the
| human race. This is particularly
true In the very wet centers. such as
New York. Boston, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit. San
I Francisco and other large cities.
| In New York it is said there have
been in the first Il months of this
year Sill deaths as against total OF
! only 81 in the entire year of 1918. The
year of 1918. by the way, was the
low-water mark for alcoholic consump
ton in this country. The Nolstead
| act had not then gone into effect, but
the manpower of the country was
either modified in the Army or in es-
| sential industries and there was a
spirit of win the war" abroad in the
land. The great outburst Of renewed
drinking came In 1919 and subsequent.
years.
| Claims Differ Widely.
The prohibition enforcement officers
| put the 511 New York deaths down TO
| ''poison liquor The vets put them
| down as just plain alcoholism.
The holiday rush for liquor has
been on for several weeks and the au-
| thorities are convinced the total OF
deaths this year will be staggering TO
the people Of the country as whole
The "drys" will use these figures as
an argument for still greater efforts
at enforcement: while the vets Will
use them as a demand for repeal or
modification of the Volstead act, tax
| ing the ground that as the people
cannot be prevented from drinking
some kind of alcohol, it is far better
to give them good liquors OF mini
mum of alcoholic content
| Copyright. 1925.)