Evening star., 1926-04-13
Women Tend Stills, Children,
8 and 4, Drink, Declares
Father KaSaczun.
DRUNKENNESS MOUNTING,
SENATE COMMITTEE TOLD
Already Has Passed Pre-prohibition
Level, Moderation League In
vestigator Testifes.
BY G. GOULD LINCOLN.

young and old in the anthracite min
ing district Of Pennsylvania. due, he
said, to the VolStead act, were graph
ically described today to the Senate
committee holding wet and dry hear
ings by Father Francis KasacZun, a
parish priest in Sugar Notch, Pa, for
the last Is years.
Every other family, Father Kasac-
zun said, has a still in the home. Men.
women and children, even as young
as or years old in some cases,
drink the liquor made in these stills.
The drinking among the women and
children, he said, has been steadily
on the increase. Indeed, it Is the
women who tend the stills while their
husbands are away at work. The
witness described wild parties in the
homes and the small lake resorts to
which they so in the Summer months
Civil Service Bill Approved.
While the Senate subcommittee
was conducting it's hearing there
were two other developments in the
prohibition issue today.
The House bill to put prohibition
vorably reported to the Senate by the
civil service committee, and Repre-
sentative La Guardia. progressive
Socialist. New York, said he had been
advised by Attorney General Sargent
that $50 cases of liquor held under
court order by the United States mar
shall at indianapolis, Ind, had disap-
peared and that the Department of
Justice is investigating the matter.
Stanley Shirk, research director Of
the Moderation League, Inc. Of New
York. laid before the Senate commit
tee the result of q national survey
covering arrests for drunkenness dur
ing the prohibition period and COM
pared the mounting number of such
arrests with the arrests in pre-pro-
days.
Drunken Children Increased.
Mr.. Shirk told the committee that
drunkenness generally has already
increased to the pre-prohibitton level.
and that drunken drivers and drunken
children have increased far above
ever known before in this
country"
I'VE cannot escape the conclusion
that the Volstead act has utterly
failed" said Mr.. Shirk, "to do what
1t was intended to do. namely, promote
and sobriety."
Speaking particularly of Washing
ton, Mr.. Shirk told the committee that
Of persons under % years of
age had increased very greatly under
prohibition as compared to what they
were.
ARRESTS of persons under 20 years
old averaged Al a year for the four
pre-prohibition years 1914-1917," said !
Mr.. Shirk. "A bone-dry law was
enacted before national prohibition be- |
,ame effective, and Immediately youth |
full drunkenness increased. In 1918 |
1t rose to 73 and by 1925 had reached |
297, an increase of SIS per cent above |
the pre-prohibition level.
Pre-Prohibition Level Reached.
Arrests for drunkenness of all ages |
in Washington merely rose to the pre- |
prohibition level, thus demonstrating |
relatively as we'll as absolutely, |
among young people in |
creased enormously. This condition |
In Washington merely confirms what |
Is known to exist in the rest cf the |
The "wets" were given the right of |
way again at the hearing today. They |
still have six and three-quarter hours i
eft, following the hearing, which end |
ed at noon today. They will resume |
1t 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. |
When they have concluded the "drys" |
will go ahead with the presentation of |
he case for prohibition.
Father Kasaczun said that prohi-
oition was corrupting the morals of |
the families in the mining COM
of Pennsylvania.
I'm the old days." he said, "the
1ead of the family drank and some
lines came home and quarreled with
1is wife. But the women and chill
lren were not drinking. Today all !
Of the IL saloons in Sugar Notch |
are open and selling liquor and soft
drink and candy stores are selling
t, too. Stills are to be found in prac.
tically every other home. The peo-
pie make liquor, drink 1t and sell
1t at prices from $1.25 to $3.50 a |
quart.
Women Tend Stills.
"The women take care of the stills
while the men are away. They
drink the liquor they make and
the children drink II.
Never, before prohibition, did / see
children drinking liquor, and I have
lived among these people for wears.
Now children have been found drunk !
in the schools. Boys and girls have !
been found drunk on the streets. The
teachers In the schools complain that
they come in with the smell of liouor
,n their breath
The women, he said, drink and run
away with the star boarders." leav-
ing their homes and their children
The number Of children in the orphan
asylums Is on the increase. Often. he
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