Evening star., 1938-03-06
-Four Years of Leguized Liquor
Study the Record Under the A. Supports
of the Claims of BohW and Drys.
BY DON S. WARREN.

legal four years ago on March T.
~ What have the four years of expert
ment in liquor control shown?
Supporters of the Districts A. B. C..
plan point to evidence of its success, which
may be summarized as follows:
Bootlegging has been reduced to minor
evil: once well-patronized speakeasies with
their attendant suggestions of graft, are
no more; better drink is available at
cheaper prices than the toll collected by
the rum runner; there is greater respect
for law and order; liquor is freely dispensed,
but the old-time saloon still is outlawed,
and nearly $4,000 900 in needed revenue is
poured into the District treasury.
Critics of the substitute for prohibition
reply somewhat as follows:
There is no organized plan for promo
ton of temperance by any agency, although
Temperance" was an announced objective
of repeal: the plan has failed to produce
any great recession in drunkenness; ar
rests for drunken driving and the number
of automobile accidents charged to drunken
driving are relatively higher now than in
the last full year of prohibition, and the
Alcoholic Beverage Control Board started
out with a policy of .granting licenses to
any and all who could meet technical re-
quirements, with the result that the city
is plastered with liquor adjustments,
many of them in areas which, before pro-
hibition, were closed to saloons.
Much Liquor Sold Here.
Regardless of the merits of claims and
counter claims, it remains that the District
today, according to the figures, is one OF
the wettest spots in the country. 1t has
been figured that the consumption here is
3.6 gallons per person per year. The ma
tional average, according to an estimate
made by the District Spirits Institute, Inc,
is IL gallons. These calculations would
appear to indicate that the average con-
sumption of hard liquors in the District,
counting every man, woman and child, was
roughly three times the average for the
country as whole.
District officials promptly come back
with the contention that such figures do
not mean a thing" In the first place,
they say, the National Capital has huge
VI tlSlCOlS duu GdIlSlcIlJS.
These thousands, who may swell greatly
the total of liquor sales in the District,
are not reflected in census figures as resi-
dents. They say also that since District
liquor prices are somewhat lower than
in neighboring Maryland, much liquor may
be purchased here and taken beyond the
District boundaries.
The estimate of 36 gallons per person
per year for the District is based on a
calculation by the A. B. C. Board that
2,299,9l1 gallons of spirits were provided
with tax stamps during the past license
year. from February /, 1897, to January
81. 1898. The average per person was COM
last July l, nearly midway in the past
license year, or $4,000.
BY the same process the assumed Dis
trict's consumption" average for the pre-
ceding license year was found to be 81
gallons.
The Distilled Spirits Institute published
its calculation of the national average
(for 1886 to support an argument that
repeal Of the 18th amendment resulted
in heavy reduction in liquor consump-
tion nationally. It offered figures to show
that back in 1916, prior to wartime
liquor restriction measures, the average
consumption in wet areas of the United
States was calculated to be 2.O7 gallons
per person per year.
Arrests for Drunkenness.
A set of figures that cannot be set aside
easily deals with arrests for drunkenness
Records of the Police Department show
that no less than 19,081 arrests for drunk
enness were made in the District during
the past fiscal year. This is at the rate
of So per day, or one person out Of each
$4,000.
Such record would mean the arrest of
304 per cent of the population, for the
census estimate for that time was $4,000.
If the census figure for the middle of that
fiscal year is used-623,000 for January 1,
1937-the percentage is found to be 3.06.
The percentage figures are lower than any
of the three preceding years during which
higher than those for any of the other
years back to 1912, except for the last
three years under prohibition, 1881, 1892
and 1888. In other words, it may be argued
that while the trend is downward since
repeal, the latest figure still is far above
many Of those during prohibition, or dur
ing the old saloon days.
Such comparisons are challenged on the
claim that enforcement is better since re-
peal Reference is also made to the record
to show that while there was an enforced
reduction in the number of saloons between
1912 and 1917, from 513 to 269 places, there
was an increase in the figures for per-
centage OF population arrested for drunken
ness during those years from 80 to 2.35.
Here is the official record of the Police
Department for the past 10 years on arrests
for drunkenness, drunken driving and &C.
cidents caused by drunken driving.
Arrests Accidents
Arrests Per cent for caused BY
Fiscal for drunk of popu- drunken drunken
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