The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1933-09-07


Congress and a large number of state
legislature during the current year,
and with the terrific drive for the re-
peal of the Eighteenth Amendment in
full swing, brief, superficial survey
of the record of the thirteen year per-
iod of Prohibition prior to 1888 should
be of interest to those who are per-
picked or misled by the anti-Prohibi-
ton propaganda so nearly universally
promoted by the wet metropolitan
press, the movies and the radio; and
should be carefully considered by all
those of whatever persuasion who
seek to know the truth.
The Significance OF Beer
1t must be kept in mind, in this
connection, that prior to the adoption
of the Eighteenth Amendment, about
ninety-three per cent of all intoXicat-
| ing liquors consumed by the American
people was in the form of beer which
has now been brought back under
legal sanction, and that the proposed
repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment,
i if contaminated, would thereby re-
store by legal action the remaining
seven per cent of the quantity of in
toxicating liquors previously con-
sumed throughout the nation.
The comparative record of these
thirteen years under the Prohibition
policy of the government may be cas-
lily verified by the average citizen
with a good memory and old enough
to remember the situation during the
Prohibition years and who may
easily refresh his memory by official
reports of the United States Census
Department available in practically
every public library in all the states.
Vital Statistics and Liquor COnsump-
! ton
Prohibition did not prevent all
deaths from alcoholism and other
causes in which alcohol played an
important part, nor did it stamp out
disease and ill-health, but it has made
a real contribution to this end by
changing the official death rate from
alcoholism to a much lower figure
than in any similar period in the his
tory of United States Vital Stats
tics, which vital statistics also show
for the Prohibition period an unprece-
denied public health record.
Prohibition did not prevent the con-
sumption of Intoxicating liquors, but
according to Government and other
official reports dealing with both legal
and illegal intoxicants, it did de-
crease that consumtion to about thir-
ty-fve percent of that of pre-Prohi-
bition years; it did reduce the Kelley
Cure business by more than seventy
five per cent and it did almost entirely
eliminate from public view that pa
thetic figure of the saloon era known
as the 'old soak"
The Saloon and the Speakeasy
Prohibition did not eradicate from
society the ancient lawless speakeasy
and the bootlegger, but it did drive
the traffic in intoxicants from the
principal streets and public places;
it did withdraw government sanction
from Intoxicating beverages, making
the traffic and traffickers therein fugi-
tives from justice with a price upon
their heads, and it did make the high
ways and thoroughfares safer fol
men, women, and children.
Liquor and Crime
Prohibition of the liquor traffic die
not put an end to crime any more thar
the prohibition of murder, theft anC
arson put an end to those lawles;
acts; but in a remarkable degree ir
the postwar period in which crime
greatly increased in every other coun.
try involved, Prohibition in the United
States affected the American record il
such way as to make better show.
ing in that respect than any other