New Britain herald., 1930-03-05
DECLARES
 LIQUOR MEN ARE
 BEHIND AGITATION
(Conlinued From First Page)

chamber caught glimpses of what was going on by peering through the doorway over the heads of the crowd.
 Savings account depositors, he said, had increased materially. The same was true, he added, with life insurance policy holders. He quoted E. J. Burlington, president of the Illinois Steel corporation, as assert ing the economic benefits of prohi- bition were evidenced in the home life of the thousands of mill work CTS, especially citing conditions i'll the big mills at Gary, Indiana. Ten labor supervisors of tho General Electric company, he went on, had reported that men were spending less for liquor. In the coal fields in the kanawha valley in West Eir- ginia, he continued, a similar im- provement was noted.
 Josiah keely, president of the Cabin Creek Consolidated Coal com- pany, he said had written him that the situation there was better. keely, he added. had said that now absenteeism after pay day still was considerable but it was because men were either hunting or shopping or "fivvering' with their families.
 The first of long list to be heard, | MT. Crowther, submitted a prepar- ed brief contending the country was more prosperous as a direct result of the prohibition amendment.
 q found," his statement said, that the net diversion of spending brought about by prohibition-that is money which now goes into good savings instead of over saloon bars amounts to between two and six billion dollars a year, and that at the smallest estimate the country has diverted around fifteen billion dollars since the amendment went into effect.
 "This diversion is of double i'm portance, for it has occurred in the lower income group where former ly the percentage expenditure for | liquor was the largest. Therefore, of the many factors which have contributed to the prosperity of this country during the past decade, pro- hibition, by it's diverting of spend ing money, has been perhaps the largest"
 The dry witnesses today were an- nounced by Mrs. Lenna Lowe Yost, legislative director of the Women's s | f
 T wish to state at the very be- ginning Crowther said, that l am not member of, and have no con- | nection of any kind with. any or | ganization either in favor of or op- posed to the eighteenth amendment. For mary years I have been writing upon economic and business sub Ejects. Because of that background, I was asked last summer by Loring A. Schuler, the editor of the Ladies' Home Journal, to make a survey of the economic effects of prohibition.
 Limit of Survey Narrow
 "The limits of my articles, and of my testimony, which is based upon them, gre very narrow. l am not concerned with any moral phase of the question and neither am I con- cerned with any legal phase or with any interpretation of liberty other than economic.
 q undertook the investigation solely in an effort impartially to an- swer the question: Is this country more prosperous as a direct result of the eighteenth amendment, or is it not, taking things exactly as they are and not as they might be?
 The answer which I arrived at is positively in the affirmative" Asserting he had arrived at his conclusion largely by searching for an answer to the question of whether or not the working men of the country were today spending moro or spending less for drink than they did before prohibition, he said he sent telegrams to 129 people, mostly large employers of labor, representing fair cross section of industry and finance all over the country.
 | 4AOSl oI HClll IAtDIltI
 "I received replies from all but a small percentage. Forty-two of them either did not answer or wired that they did not care to express any opinion. In S7 instances I had replies which were more or less able divergence of opinion on the whole subject of the eighteenth , amendment, but the important . point is that only one correspondent !, said that men were spending as much for liquor as they formerly , did. In large majority of the an- } swers it was said that the men were spending practically nothing for } drink. Here are several typical re- plies:
 "E. J. Burlington, president of the Illinois Steel corporation wrote: Evidences of the economic value of prohibition are found in records of increased savings accounts and
 in the higher planes of living con- ditions of working men in general! Improvement in the economic condition of employees families is evidenced by the fewer traces ol distress among employees reported from time to time undoubt- z edly since prohibition became ef,
 fective, many working men brew alcoholic beverages, principally
 wines, in their homes. This prac.
 tice of course, results in some eX. , pense to those who indulge in it i but certainly such expense is less
 than former expenditures in Sa.
 looms by working men.
 Gary Shows Progress , Merchants in Gary, Ind. where our largest steel mills are located
 report that since prohibition work. ing men are purchasing a much better grade of wearing apparel o.