The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1931-03-01

reproducing center IN the United States.
Woeful prophets made the same predic-
tons of disaster for the Illinois city that
we're made for Louisville when distillery
fires were smOthered b. the Eighteenth
Amendment Perhaps even friends Of pro-
hibition were uneasy as to Peoria's future,
but the experience Of the past ten years
has proved that these forebodings were
gfoundless
Mr.. + C. Read in telling the story OF
Peoria's growth OF the past ten years
quotes figures which were compiled by the
president Of the Peoria board of trade,
Nj Homer II. Dewey. Nj Dewey gave
these figures to Mr.. Read with the eXpla-
nation that when he first compiled them
they seemed so startling TO him that he
himself could hardly believe them. Con-
sequently he went over them again and
again. always with the same result.
He read this report to one of the Peoria
luncheon clubs and members could scarce
" believe the astounding figures Of the re-
port However, after several months of
publicity, no one has been able to dis
cover any flaw IN the calculations.
Mr.. Read says that it must be remen-
bered that in Peoria practically every
large fortune has been built up on liq-
uor foundation. Even the citys philan-
thropies have been largely financed from
the same source.
When prohibition closed Peoria's half
dozen or more big distilleries, it was free
~ predicted that the death-warrant of
the city as a grain market had been
signed. Mr.. Read then quotes from Mr..
DeWey's report the following:
I'm 1914 these distilleries used a total of
between 100000 and 100000 bushels of
corn for the manufacture Of both whisky
and commercial alcohol. In 1929 the Com
mercial Solvents plant alone used eight
million bushels At the same time, the
Corn Products Refining Company, which
in 1914 used 3,279500 bushels, used in
1929 14,525 1893 bushels. So that, at the
very lowest calculation, The use OF corn
for manufacturing purposes an Peoria is
not less than ttOo or three times as great
as before prohibition.
"As to the alleged increased employ
ment the manufacture of liquor would
give" says Mr.. Read, "a former resident
of Bloomington who was for some years
in charge of the government liquor CEN
sus in the Peoria district, informs me that
the two largest distilleries Of Peoria gave
employment to no more than eighty men
each The same amount of capital in
vested in almost any other industry would
have given work to ten or twelve times as
many men. The corn PfOdUctS company
is DOING that right non. And when We re-
member that a very large percentage of
the money once spent for booze now goes
for the comforts produced by these other
industries, is it not clear that, instead OF
increasing employment the renewed man
ufacture of liquor would actually de-
crease it."
But not satisfied with the figures pro-
duced by the president of the Peoria
board of trade, Mr. Read quotes the fol-
lowing from an article in the wet Peoria
Transcript, written by the editor, Fred A.
Stowe This editorial was in the issue of
June 81, 1880.
After comparing the unemployment sit
uation in Peoria with some other cities,
which comparison was favorable to Pc
oria, Mr. Stowe says:
Perhaps no city in the country was
harder hit by national prohibition than
Peoria. Metropolitan newspapers of ten
years ago pities Peoria as distilling GEN.
ter which probably would be unable to
make economic adjustments and which
would fall by the wayside.
"On the contrary, with the advent of
prohibition, Peoria went into high and
closed the decade with a population in
crease of more than 38 per cent. OF
course, it was not prohibition, in the mar
row sense, that wrought the miracle.
perhaps the new factor was the elini-