The Nome nugget., 1926-02-06
DECL ARES v0lSTEAD ACT
 FAILS ACCOMPLISH PURPOSE

New York (AP)-Thc conciuson that 'the Vol stead Act has failed utterly accomplish its pur. pose promote temperance and sobrety" has been reached by the Moderation League. lnc the basil Of survey Of conditions several hundred repre- sentative cities.
 The League composed of men from every waIl state for the announced object of "Restoration oi Temperance" It's survey collected statistics dealing with prohibition during the last eleven years from every city or town of than 5000 population.
 On the basis of this data, the League declares '''runkcness generally has increased to virtuall, the prprohbition levels and certain classes of in to>cation cases, among automobile drivers and m nors. especially. have increased far above anything ever known befor in this country"
 Since conditions have become worse, not better each year." the report concludes "and with mex, generation drinking before. there t0 be hope that the vostead Act In its present dras. tic form will accomplish its purpose in the long
 .From the experience, before national prohib. ,ion of the states which had restrictive iaws from the experience of the whole country during the strictvc period of 10is.i910, and from the cxpcr. fence of the Canadian provnces beiicvr that greater degree of temperance can be attained by a does command the respect of large part the propc."
 In replies from $50 places which kept records of ntoxication arrests from 1914 the report states that arrests this charge in these communities during 1914 had totalled 5Oe.737. In tho same placcs the total for 102O the year after voistea act b'c,me effective. had dropped to 220.O7O, hut 'n 1924 it had risen to total of 48S, ,752.
 \ corresponding increase noted in tho plies from 457 communities where records of arrests CT drunkenness had been kept only since 1920. the ,lort continues In 1920 total fos these places r's .5s,97i, while in 1924 1t shown have risen ,o 5G5O2G
 "A noteworthy feature" the report comments, "s that during the IO1s.I0I0 restrictions (which tuned sem -t,yncss, not bone-dryncss,) there
 an enornous decrease n drunkenness in spite the business boom of those years; and that there fer during the severe bonc-lry years of the Vol stead Act there such astonishing increase hat drunkenness just about reached the level the Id .:,'oon years by 102i."
 The increase in the number of drunken drivers.
 
 las. from thr general intoxicaton arrests, is cIass. the report "as perhaps the most curious result oe natioaal bonc-,lryncss."
 ''Thc number of drunken drivers before national prohibition" observes the report twas more or less constant from year to year. showing only slight huct uatioms wih Il tendency toward a gradual rise ronimf fnsuraic with the increase in the number Of automobiles. Concidcnt. however, with the ment of the Volstead Act, which effective the end of 1919, drunken drivers began increase amazingly, and the increase has continued year by year since then.
 "If this of thing happened only in n few in. stance 1t might be attributable purely local >es; hut the that 1t has occurred everywhere. almost exception, leads to the confident belief that it Is due to general cnuse-ihe VOlsteai Act with which ;t was co-incident.
 'To be exact motor vehicles in the United states have increased from 1919 1924 only f3: percent, whereas drunken drivers increased In the same period about 354 percent the average. The difference of 2. percent Is clearly attribu' abe the Volstcad Act.
 ''Thc for this enormous increase in drunken drivers seems fairly clear. After prohfbi. tion, could purchase intoxicants, Ut leas.