OCR Text |
Show IT IS TO LAUGH. It is with great glee that drinking men tell of the large amount of intoxicating liquors consumed in states and cities under prohibition laws. The alleged fact is often referred to by travelers, and is sometimes seen displayed in the public prints. Members of the liquor trade profess to believe there is more drunkenness and hence more intoxicants consumed in communities where no saloons arc permitted per-mitted than in licensed towns. It is noteworthy, however, that the' liquor interests are lined up to a' man against the spread of the wave of prohibition. and are thus inferentially working against then-own then-own interests. The statistics of arrests for drunkenness given out by the Chicago Saloon Keepers' association are along this same line. Prohibition states furnish a larger proportion of arrests for drunkenness than license states. Such being the case, the consumption of liquor in prohibition states must be proportionately proportion-ately larger. And yet the reason for the compilation compila-tion and publication of the statistics is to prevent the spread of the prohibition movement. It doesn't appeal to one's good sense, unless the saloon keepers, brewers and distillers want to save the people from their own folly. People drink more under prohibition, but the liquor interests prefer the smaller sales and high license. It is to laugh |