Show nn BIGGEST DRY TOWN SIX MONTHS OF PROHIBITION AT WORCESTER MASS A City of 140000 Population Where No Strong Drink Is Sold Results Re-sults as Viewed from Both Sides Worcester Mass Worcestv1 r Is considerably con-siderably more than nine miles from a lemon In fact the nearest lemon not In the modern slang sense but In that of Sydney Smith Is a dozen miles away at the first wet town reached by the electric cars A town of 140000 Inhabitants can live without excellent art of any kind as forty or fifty such In the United States demonstrate but can such a town live and flourish without the sale of strong drink This Is the question that Worcester has been trying to solve In practice for the last six months and the citys third dlstinc tion and the one just now attracting most attention lies In the fact that she Is the largest dry town on earth Worcester Is the second city of Massachusetts Mas-sachusetts the third of New England I When It went dry by a majority of about 1000 In a total vote of 22000 In December last the town had 128 ordinary ordi-nary licensed drinking places There were 17 innholders with firstclass licenses l li-censes for which they paid 2000 a year < < 75 common victuallers licensed at 400 a year 32 wholesalers licensed at 2000 a year two hrewers at 3000 a year 44 druggists at one dollar i dol-lar a year three alcohol dealers at one I dollar a year and 14 special clubs at 100 a year The 180 licensed liquor sellers of all classes paid 220000 a year into the treasury When the dry law went Into effect the sale of liquor was In theory discontinued dis-continued in Worcester except that tho breweries went on making beer to bo sold to the outside world and eight druggists wore licensed to bell strong drink for medicinal purposes With the closing of these places about 1000 persons were thrown out of business After six months trial of local prohibition pro-hibition Worcester Is about to vote again on the question of wet or dry for the next year For several years the town has been pretty close to going go-ing dry at times The wets had It three or four years ago by a majority of only about 100 Then they won by nearly a thousand and so it fluctuated until the town went dry The possibility that a narrow majority ma-jority vote may put the liquor dealers out of business at any time has tended perhaps to throw the control of retail liquor selling In Massachusetts towns Into the hands of the brewers Few men of small capital could risk limo possibility of being driven out of business busi-ness on a few months notice In Worcester as I in other towns many saloons were owned the whole or In part by the brewers and run by their agents Now the brewers are Btlll In business as such and they have a continuing Interest In keeping the town wet So have their agents dependents business lends and the like All of these such retailers and others oth-ers as have suffered or believe that they have suffered loss of trade by reason of the towns going dry believers i believ-ers In personal liberty n good many of the foreign population to whom pre J hlbltlon Is a doctrine running connt r to oM experience and the chronically thirsty who are personally Inconvenienced Inconven-ienced by present conditions and such politicians as found open saloons convenient con-venient places from which to Influence voters arc hopeful that the town may swing back to the wet column In December De-cember The most active dries are some of the faculty at Clark university most of the local clergy many zealous women wom-en and other reformers of various kinds They look for support from voters who have found personal gain or moral advantage In the chang from wet to dry business men who havo prospered or believe they have prospered pros-pered for the same cause employers of labor who find their employes more effective than they were in wet seasons sea-sons perhaps from the express companies com-panies which carry liquor Into a dry town and the railway companies which carry the thirsty to neighboring wet towns One oil the savings banks of Worces tetr furnishes an Interesting comparl son of deposits In tho quarter ended October 1 1908 under dry conditions and that ended October 1 1908 under wet conditions The deposits in the dry quarter were 2052220450 In the wet about 5100 more but the fact that the hard times Intervened between be-tween the two quarters seems to show that the change from wet to dry Is at least not unfavorable to saving |