The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-09-10
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS

BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Foreign Editor, scripps-HOward Newspapers
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 10.-Nobody
knows better than a policeman how
a nations liquor laws are working.
So I.called on Erik Hallgren, Stock
holm'S acting police chief.
Strictly as police officer
charged with maintaining law and
order" 1 suggested, which regime
would you rather work under, the
old saloon, out and out prohibition,
or your present system of liquor
control?"
In all candor," Chief Hallgren
replied, there can be but one an
swer to your question. Our system
is much better than any other I
have heard of. The police of Stock
holm and all over Sweden never
have had less to do than they have
now. Drunkenness steadily is de-
Ginning and so is crime.
During the war we had virtual
prohibition trust upon u.s." he went
on. 80 I can speak from expert
ence. In those three years crime
just about doubled. After the war,
when our control system again be-
came operative, both drunkenness
and crime fell off greatly"
American Situation Cited 1
Something of the kind seems to
be going on in America right now"
I injected. Il mean a crime wave.
Our murders, holdups, gang-Wars
and underworld doings seem to
be causing considerable comment
abroad"
Chief Hallgren did not change
expression at this as expected. 1
have discovered that foreigners are
inclined to smile when the subject
of Chicago and other rum war
fronts is mentioned, but here was
man who seemed to regard it all
from a purely professional point of
view.
THAT seems the universal exper-
fence in prohibition countries" the
chief resumed. 1T was so in Nor
way. in Russia, and elsewhere.
Take Finland for example, just
across the Baltic. 1t has prohibition
In Helsingfors, the capital, a city OF
about 100000, the police average
about sixty arrests a day, whereas
here in Stockholm, city of almost
twice the size, we average only
eighteen or nineteen"
Few Drunkenness Arrests
"Our population the chief con-
tinued, sis about double that of
Finland. Our arrests for drunken
ness have dwindled from $500 in
1913 for all Sweden, to $4,000 for
1927, a so per cent decrease.
Temperance among women and
young people, those between Is and
20 years of age, has shown an eS-
pecially happy trend. From an in
dex average of 100 representing
drunkenness among women during
the three years preceding liquor
control, the figure has dropped to
3d. while for young people of Stock
holm the decrease has been from
100 to II.
Making use of index figures all
along, DRINKS coming to the atten-
ton of the Stockholm police have
decreased under the control system
from 100 to 33 and for all Sweden
from 100 to 81.
Gases of alcoholism treated in
our hospitals have diminished from
100 to &c and those privately re-
ported by physicians from 100 to 81.
Deaths from chronic alcoholism
have fallen from 100 TO fourteen for
all Sweden and from 100 to sixteen
in Stockholm. The yearly average
of alcoholic insanity has dropped
from. 100 to thirty-three.
There is no comparison between
the present order and the old. FROM
the policeman's point of view, Of
from the wider one of citizen de-
string the best possible conditions of
law and order. the liquor control
GUS improvement.
THE policeman's job has been
made comparatively easy"
Next: A trip through Sweden's
IiuUor efnra