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Show II OLD CRIMES REDUCED, I NEW BOOTLEG PERILS I FOSTERED IN DRY ERA Gain to Society From Enforcement Nearly Offset by Violations of Prohibition LawInsanity Cases Decreasing, but Drug Addiction Grows Lessened Drinking Shows No Effect on General Health Conditions. Copiirighl, lOtt, b'j Tub New Youk HauMk Iu one respect practically nil of the reports received by The New York Herald and this newspaper in its investigation into the results of two rears of prohibition agree. In nearly every part of the country there baa been a marked decrease in crime in the last two years. A decrease In the number of insanity cases in some sections and, judging by court reroute,1 an improvement in domestic relations also is noted. Whether there has been an improvement iu the general public health which can be traced to prohibition the record is not BO clear. In considering crime statistics, however, confusion results from the general inclination to Include invarinbly the statistics covering the "crimes" for which the prohibition lnw itself is wholly responsible, that Is, the violations of the Volstead act aud the State enforcement statutes This is a new class of crime, and at present the violations in some sections Of the country are exceedingly numerous. Any table of statistics which Included these violations would be somewhat misleading if takeu as a guide to whether prohibition had reduced or increased crime. The correspondent in Indianapolis puts the matter thus: I "It narrow? down to the point of view ; on crime.' So fur as jut- -ts are con-! j cerned records oho wtliat th se. have been approximately the same In Indian under the Volstead act as before It was put In effect, but the natur. of the 'crimes' has differed. Bank robberies have Increased and murders hnvc decreased. de-creased. Bootlegging arrest and convictions con-victions have Increased several hundred per cent (Indian was dry before th Volstead act passed), but convictions for drunkenness have decreased several hundred per cent. In lndiannpolls there Is an average of six arrests dally for violation of the liquor laws." Major Crimen Dwindle. The correspondent in Harrishurg, Ta.. finds a somewhat different situation. "Five deaths from poison whisky, four fatal automobllo accidents attributed to whisky and twice as many arrests as tn 1920 In Harritburg on the charge of drunkenness tell the Eton- of prohlbl-t'on's prohlbl-t'on's effect here. In l'.21 S.S70 persons were committed to the Dauphin county prison, half of them for being Intoxicated. Intoxicat-ed. In 1920 2.514 persons were committed com-mitted to Jail." But this correspondent adds: "Major crimes, such as murder, rape, arson and forgery, however, have dwindled 1" this locality since the advent ad-vent of prohibition." California Is wet : It ranks second only to New York on the list obtained from enforcement offlcr In Washington. The correspondent in San rrancieo reports that city rather more than moist- Ho says . "A survey shows that arrests for drunkenness have been steadily on the Increase during the lxst two years and that twice as many people were Jailed for intoxication during 1921 as tn 1920. The San Francisco police attribute the Increase to laxity on the part of the Federal agents " 11 .Inlln l.f r.ivt d-d. But llko the man in Harrlsburg te adds "The survey shows that there arc on tho average i.000 fewer inmates of th city Jail each month than during the w'. period. Almshouses and charitable Institutions In-stitutions also reported a considerable falling off In population." Some of the figures contained In this dispatch ar-. well worth consldcrmg. They follow : 1916. 1921. Arrests for drunkenness drunk-enness 15.106 5,b53 Arrests for disorderly disor-derly conduct 2.293 2.1C7 Average population of Jails 333.406 121.160 Average population city prison 3.9S4.0S 2.508 S3 Average almshouse tc county hospital 703 83 552.50 Average children as public wards. . 443.66 40 41 Average State penitentiaries peni-tentiaries ( ) 290 30 238.50 I Xn every case It will be noted In really B wet territory there has been a sharp im- H provement, even though at tho same H time there have been many violations of IgggggB tho liquor law usually resulting In fine.-. It would be possible to give similar H facts and figures for nearly every State In the country, for with very few excep-Uons excep-Uons the reports received show the same general conditions. There arc variations B in decree Just as there are variations H in the comparative ' dampness" of tho B States, but the condition regarding H major crimes and prison almshouse pop- B illations appear to have Improved sub- H stantlally in the last two years. H Prohibition Gain offset. H In order that this statement miy not B be misunderstood It should be .-aid that tho "crime" of violating the liquor law. wherever the territory Is wet has very H nearly offset the gain to socletj made H with reference to other prime?, in othi H words, prohibition appears to have de- veloped new crimes and new criminals I HI which In numbers about equal those I which prohibition has eradicated. to Ht drunkenness alone It Is clear that there H have been decreases and Increases, again H depending on the wet or dry state of the H area und.-r consideration H As a matter of fairness it should be H raid The X'.w York Hcrald'a survey B shows remarkable discrepancies between B crime reports sent in by correspondent:. LLLLX and partial reports published for propa- j H ganda purposes in which a single In- stance or Increase or decrease In a par-H par-H Llcular crime Is need as if It Indicated H a general condition. Insanity statistics are not available from a sufficient number of quarters to B warrant an unequivocal statement re- H gardlng the results of prohibition In the whole country in Its relation to this dls- ease. Such re-LkLm re-LkLm eelved, with one or two exceptions, Indl- H catc a beneficial result, but even this Is qualified In some cases by a reference I to tho growth of the It H should be understood, however, that thero U no Intimation that the growth i of the drug habit may be due to lack of H ability to obtain Intoxicants. H The correspondent in Butte. Mont., fCggggfBi H ; "The use of narcotics is declared by Federal aKenls to have increased uy at ; least SO per cent In the last two years H The number of Inmates in the State In- H sane Aylum has grown from 1.19C on i Dec. 31. ;918. to 1.386 This growth H attributed principally to the Increased ' H . use of drugs ami also to tho use of Hi inoonMlilne whlskj H More In Hj Apparently a somewhat similar sltu- 1 nUw is met In Mlsojrl. whence H this message" Hf 'Th' lncBsaea In the nmrbei of in- MtM during tho period since 1919 Is greater tlinn for any like period In the State's history. This Increase Is placed at 1.500 by the State Board fo Eleemosynary Elee-mosynary Institutions. The total Insane and feble minded In Slute Institutions Is In excess of 6.000. but this does not include patients in private Institutions, where the Increase Is s.ild to be ven greater In proportion." On the other hand Madison, Wis., reports re-ports : "Alcoholic c.nes admitted to the Men-doll Men-doll State Insane Hospital in 1917 totalled to-talled 95. Last year the total was 11." And from Tallahassee, Fla., this has been received: "Tho Insanity percentage has been decreased as compared with the Increase in population. The State Health Department Depart-ment shows ther.r has been a great Improvement Im-provement In general health conditions during prohibition." Conditions In i-v i url.. This newspaper has received other despatches with hrlef references to the Insanity question which are unsupported by figures, but generally favorable. In New York State, thoroughly wet territory, terri-tory, tho situation does not appear to be as good. Judging from the following special dispatch from the corespondent In Albany: "The number of persons committed to State hospitals as the result ol alcoholic Insanity took a big Jump In the last fiscal fis-cal year. It Is shown by figures of the State Hospital Commission. This fact has caused considerable' surprise In State official circles In All.nnv lor tw I reasons. The fiscal year ending July I last was the second full yea I that prohibition pro-hibition hod hcen In effect (wartime prohibition included), and .-a .to this year with only two exceptions the number of alcoholics commltt.d to Stato hospitals hnd steadily declined. "In 1909 the excessive drinkers sent tc Stato hospitals totaled 56'. or 10.8 per cent of the whole number . r first admissions. ad-missions. The number declined from that time until July 1, 1919. when prohibition pro-hibition went Into effect For the fiscal ear endlnu with that date tho number of alcoholics committed wa-j only 269. which was 4 per cent, of the first admission. ad-mission. In 1920. the first year of pro-h'bitlon, pro-h'bitlon, the number went Ijwn to the minimum of 122, or only 1 ijcr cent Thi upward trend began th next year. "The 1921 fiscal year shovs nn Increase In-crease to 193. or 2.8 Ofr e.-i.t. Of this number 167 were men and 25 women, the latter being less than for the year previous. The biggest Increase was In the metropolitan district. The alcoholics alco-holics committed to the four State hospitals in New York city In 1921 was 135. as compared to 78 tho year preceding. pre-ceding. "Tho two exceptions to tho -Jownward alcoholic trend before this year were In 1916, when tho percentage wont up from 5 6 to 6.1. nnd In 1917, when it further UUIHUMIU iu O V. ui . nut auJ i l. X-UllOCK, tho statistician of the hospital commls- sion. attributes the ncrease in those two years to the ihock of the war. Seme had believed that war pro'sperlt was the cause, enabling many poop I to spend more money In riotous living, but Dr Bollock pointed out that the effect of war prosperity was not rcal v felt until 1918. " 'There had been a decline In drinking drink-ing for a long time." said Dr. Pollock, because of the growing consciousness that alcoholic beverageswer o not bene-j flclal and should be avoided 1 " 'Do you think that the bad liquor sold by bootleggers since prohibition has j been responsible for the upward trend in alcoholics sent to Stato hospitals?" ho was asked. " "We have no definite facts along that line,1 he replied. " 'Might It not have been caused by tho fact that prohibition has turned Into, Whisky drinkers many persons who had taken nothing stronger than beer?" " 'We have no figures to show tliat either, but I doubt It. The main reason for the Increase In alcoholic cases. I believe, be-lieve, Is that Idleness In tho last year has caused excessive drinking. Economic depression seems to mr to be respbn- ' slblo for It. Idle men will always d'nk 1 moro than busy men You j-hould ;lso point out that In hard times many mild t cases of Insanity are sent to State hos-' hos-' pitols which -would have been kept In ! the homos when other mombers of tho family were earning good money. This I might have the effect of Increasing tho 1 percentage of alcoholics admitted to1 State hospitals.' "Dr. Pollock then calh-d attention o his table of statistics to show that the number of first admissions to hospitals iRSt year had Increased from 6.573 to 039." There docs no, appear to be a scrap of trustworthy evidence that health conditions con-ditions have changed perceptibly as a ' result of prohibition, though In placob there has been an improvement Indl-bated Indl-bated in the vlte' statistics. Claims are made on be-half .f dry interest"; thst I then, has been marked falling ov In ' deaths from dls:-- ;--n rall attributed attrib-uted to the use oT alcoholic stimulanta Tin usual COntindlcUoO ;,so ha ap peared In tho newspapers. Correspondents Corre-spondents however, have not found sufficient suf-ficient evidence to warrant the drawing , of any concluslocc' Where court records have been ox-inilr.L.l ox-inilr.L.l It ha b.in found that there has been an Improvement In domostlc rela- linn and consequently fewer cases of this bort takeq, to court A typical In-btancc In-btancc Is supplied by the Boston correspondent, corre-spondent, who stirmlta a Utter from the ICaseachUSettS Society for the Prevention Preven-tion of cruelty to Children, Av"crdln to ihlh letter the octet made a study of 111 cases In 1921 com-jailng com-jailng them wfh 338 cas?i handler In 1917. The two tables follow MArtH. It.17-3.1S OAHBB, Physical ngicet nn Intemperanco 132 39?t Non-fuppnrt 109 Irnmnrnllt y .... 100 (Separation of parrots N Morui neglect 7ii MARCH, 1021-311 C SV B rii.-knl inRloct 112 Moral ncniocl.., Trt Non-support 'i" Widowed tornt 57 Intemperance 5310.5 I Separation of parents 40 Illegitimacy 44 The society nuil-os this comment ! From this, w th particular reference to Int. mperance. It will be observed that in 1917 Inti-mp. ) ance cum' sec nd In frequency of occurrence as n social ran. Ual factor, wherepg In tho -roup studied In March, 1921. It came fifth In order of frequency of rc tirrence. This makes the ratio of dscreaSS 4 2.3 per n nt. This Indicates quite obviously that national prohibition has brought definite, tangible tan-gible results vor. beneficial to child and famll life and that Intemperance Is figuring is r east factor to a considerably consider-ably e s extent |