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Show THE CITIZEN 6 WHA T FIRST YEAR OF PROHIBITIOM HAS TO TELL US It as LC He who would pronounce for or against prohibition on the evidence of one years trial would be rendering a fools verdict. So many shifting elements enter into the reckoning that a definitive valuation is impossible until more stable conditions have been reached. The withdrawals of distilled spirits from storage since nationwide prohibition went into effect have been vast, but they give no clear indication of the status of prohibition in the period, some years henqe, when the spirits in bonded warehouses will be at a minimum. If they indicate anything at this time it is that the thirst for alcohol is still intense and of unknown limits. There is undoubtedly some reason for discouragement. The statistics regarding withdrawals, the seizures of stills and the steady increase in the number of arrests under the Volstead act are rather ominous. Then, too, we must take smuggling of spirits into account as well as the growth of Nor would our calculations be of a persuasive character unless home-brewin- g. V we took note of a form of inebriety which is not produced by alcohol and yet is even more destructive. If we have simply exchanged alcoholism for an equal amount of drug addiction we have not been the gainers. If we are to have as many drug addicts as we had alcoholics what, has prohibition profited us? When we compare alcoholism and drug addiction we must, of course, make some distinctions. The percentage of drunkards among those who use alcohol is small, but every drug addict may be described It is appalling, therefore, to hear that there as a drug drunkard. are 2,000,000 drug addicts in our population of 110,000,000. It is safe to say that at no time were there 2,000,000 alcohol inebriates in the country. Writing in the North American Review on alcoholism Dr. Pearce Bailey, an acknowledged expert, quotes enlightening statistics from the army records: There were 2,150 recommendations for rejection or discharge for alcoholism and alcoholic insanity at voluntary recruiting points. toThe local draft boards grouped alcoholism and gether under the term inebriety in a sum of 2,007. If 1,050 of this 2,007 were alcoholics, the grand total of alcoholics, among approximately 3,500,000 men examined, would be 3,200, or less than 0.1 per cent less than one in every thousand. This number is so astonishingly small and so far below previous estimates that it at once creates the belief that alcoholism must be more, frequent when observed in a population containing older men. Such a possibility receives certain support in two ways. First, the average age of alcoholism was above the average age of recruits; and second, a relatively long period of drinking. is necessary for the development of alcohol- drug-addicti- ism. on n The relation between prohibition and drug addiction is obscure, but we can glean some information from the statements of experts. Dr. Carlton Simon, special deputy police commissioner of New war on drug sellers, says that York, who is organizing a nation-wid- e the illicit traffic in drugs has increased 50 per cent under prohibition. Lieutenant Hughes, head of the Chicago Detective Bureau, says the increase in that city has been 50 per cent. Both say that 25 per cent of the men who formerly depended on alcohol for stimulation have turned to cocaine. Colonel W. G. Beach, head (5 f the Central States Narcotic Forces, characterizes the drug traffic as the most desperate criminal problem the government has to deal with today. The government has discovered that dentists, druggists, veterinarians and even florists arc involved in the business of dispensing dope. prohibition began July 1, 1919, and was superceded by constitutional prohibition on January 15, 1920. The withdrawals of distilled spirits in 1919 and 1920, if we may be permitted a pun, tell an absorbing story. In January and February, 1919, withdrawals for beverage purposes alone totaled 18,000,000 gal- War-tim- e 'i Ions because the bibulous believed that it was time to preparJJI drouth. Had it not been for this sudden increase 1920 woJPffi seen more spirits withdrawn than did 19.19. The increase in withdrawals of spirits fort.j is also informative. With the beginning of warVtime prohibit ' commenced to soar. In July they were a little above a million by October they had risen to nearly 2,000,000; in January, lr had passed the two million mark and by March they V;) 4,000,000 gallons. Throughout the remainder of the year.j mained close to that figure. Pu In June, 1919, the last month in which there was not natrtic - non-bevera- ge prohibition, 952,000 gallons of spirits satisfied the thirst forpii beverages; in June of 1920, with constitutional prohibitiomtic swing, 3,520,108 gallons were withdrawn for beverage purposed The governments statistics indicate that during the yejke included the six and a half months of war-tim- e prohibition Th five and a half months of constitutional prohibition 19,926,23:rb of wine were consumed, or more wine than was in the bonders r. m houses on June 30, 1919. Nor do we grasp the full significance of the situation rM recall that much of the alcohol consumed for beverage purposeied the foregoing period was in the form of cider. It was impossible to get exact statistics regarding tkih in moonshine, but some idea of the extent of the traffic j Jin obtained from the statistics relating to raids on illicit stills.1 p In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, officers seized 2Jsth In the next fiscal year, the number of seized stills was 5,909. TO war-tim- e prohibition no increase is shown, but in ten andfe I months of constitutional prohibition the number leaped to T&tei Before constitutional prohibition the moonshining toec fined almost exclusively to the southern states. Under constum prohibition, during July, August and September, there wpo of the forty-eigfiscations in forty-fou- r states. se I If there were no doubtful zone between beverage and nolit age consumption the statistics would be more illuminating, brgi it is certain that spirits obtained for purpose used in large quantities for beverage purposes the figures.W show in the official statistics. It is interesting, however, that thousands of quarts of champagne and other sparklinidk and hundreds of thousands of quarts of whiskey, brandy, $ti1 cordials have been imported into this country ostensibly tit beverage purposes. It is not only interesting but highly infos to learn that during the first eleven months of 1920, the ifo! for its medical needs alone, used 23,419 dozen quarts of cb'ot and other sparkling wines from France, 134,000 proof gHad Scotch whiskey, 428,589 gallons of still wines and unrecorded t tities of brandy, gin and cordials. pi Although the importation of spirits for other than inedknv as much whiskey was brought tl use was forbidden one-teniw in 1920 under prohibition as was imported in 1914, one-tenfe as much champagne. of still wines and one-fift- h But what about smuggled whiskey? Here is a traffic 4 not record its operations with much exactness, but it canndjlt re escape computation. Across the 3,500 miles of the United; Canada boundary line there has been a constant flow' of We have no means of conjecturing the total, but common ij enough to convince us that it must be estimated in si ; even in seven figures. Now take the record of seizures. Dc months of July, August and September officers in Maine seitfP two and a half gallons; in New Hampshire eighty-fou- r: none; in all New York state 9870 gallons of spirits and 7Kofat1 shine, and in Michigan 1,232 gallons of spirits and 74) of,r shine. For the great stretch west of Michigan no figusesara tor able. bou Across the 1,500 miles of United Statcs-Mexic- o ? . ht l non-bevera- ge t th th 1 ( in( |