Show 1 14 i xai 1 ii 9 prohibition colorado I 1 61 i i i ia 4 11 mrs alls S 13 huy of 0 this city being interested te rested in the effect of prohibition in colorado recently wrote a friend regarding same and last friday received a personal letter from A J pinch finch superintendent of the league of colorado together with an address of mr finch that he delivered before the seventeenth national convention of the anti sa loon league of america at indianapolis indiana on june this year from which the record takes a few excerpts in the letter to mrs huy mr air finch says in tile the city of denver during 1916 1915 we had an average of 0 prisoners a day in the county jail two weeks ago the number of prisoners in the ithe county jail had dropped to 62 52 and they are going to find it necessary to close part of the county jail the tha city lockup lock loch up has only a very few in it abany time now in pueblo for the alist six months of prohibition the number of arrests tor for all crime was reduced per cent over the same period of 1916 1915 the state penitentiary at canon city on march had prisoners on last sunday august when I 1 visited the penitentiary and spoke to the prisoners the number had bad dropped to a decrease of the warden stated that he be was turning out three prisoners to each one that lie he was receiving and that by the first of 0 october lie he would be compelled to close one of tile the cell houses as they would have no prisoners to occupy it during every campaign tor for prohibition in colorado either local or statewide the citizens of 0 our various communities muni ties have been advised thru the medium of the daily press and mammoth billboard advertisements that tho the voting out of saloons would mean an increase of 0 crime create poverty constitute the principal agency of filling the insane hospitals and result in moral and industrial havoc we were warned that it if we adopted such a fanatical idea of 0 government within six months prairie dogs would be running along sixteenth street in denver our main business thoro fart aud and that the fertile fields of our vast irrigated area would revert to the domain of 0 the desert sands and the buffalo and indian again would roam at will oer these I 1 western wasef 11 tile the popular slogan of 0 the liquor people in all such campaigns was ioto wet and keep colorado on tile the map alap 11 disregarding these prophecies of calamity libelous and misleading statements and reprehensible tactics upon the part pait of the enemies of prohibition hibi tion we have been waging the fight in colorado with relentless vigor tor for the past twenty years our first great substantial victory was gained in 1907 when the sixteenth general assembly enacted the drake local option law under which measure incorporated cities and towns banished the saloon as did also large political sub dl di visions of 0 denver and pueblo in the year ot of 1910 aa a vigorous campaign was waged to make the city of 0 denver anti saloon territory altho defeated ly by a large majority the experiences of 0 that fight were af pf p tremendous va lueto us in the liter later battles in 1912 our first statewide state wide fight was carried on lack ot of harmony among the temperance forces added to lethargy upon the part ot of our best citizens resulted in defeat by a majority against us of approximately votes it is well to note however in passing so that you may better understand der stand the great of form two years later that voters voted for governor who did not vote on either side ot of his momentous issue our problem in 1914 therefore was to arouse our own people dy by the finest operation cooperation co between the league and the W C T U that it has ever been my privilege to witness every city town village and school district in the state were completely organized right down to the last person of voting age the result was victory instead ot of defeat and prohibition had been written into the organic law ot of the centennial state by a majority of votes the amendment so adopted providing that it should become operative from and after january 1 1916 thus giving tile saloon people fourteen months mon t lis to cloe out their business si since nce election day No november ember 3 1914 aery conceivable obstacle has been thrust ahead of us to defeat the will of the people notwithstanding tills this opposition however prohibition i went into deflect on new years day 1916 just five months and twenty nine days ago and during the time that has elapsed from then to now i colorado has demonstrated not only to the sisterhood of states but to the world at large as very few states or communities have so demonstrated aced the marvelous moral and acono i i mic alc results which follow tile the passing of the saloon crime vanishing under prohibition the exceptionally fine thing about the liquor peoples argument that prohibition creates crime is the tact fact that it true in colorado ar roots have been falling ot off from rom month to month ever since the saloons went out of existence this Is especially true for the offense fitense of druck edness vagrancy and disturbance danvers Den vers record take the city of denver tor for in stance which contains peo I 1 i plo more than ono one fourth of the tha states state s entire population during the months or of january february march and april 1916 1915 with the sal saloons cons open there were arrests tor for drunkenness for the same p period e tru I 1 0 d al this year under prohibition the number m of arrests for or this offense was a decrease of during the same period in 19 1915 15 with the saloons open there were 3 01 arrests for or disturbance for the same period this year under prohibition the arrests for this offense had dropped to a decrease of during the same period in 1916 1915 with tile the saloons open there were arrests made for all causes for the same period this year under prohibition the number had dropped to 2840 or fewer arrests under prohibition than under license the district attorney of the city and county of Den denoner viner made the statement in open court a few days ago that the work of the west side court the criminal division had dropped 50 per cent since january ast 1st and that it was necessary for or the court to take from rom time to time during the present term awaiting the preparation of cases for or trial the donver county court officials recently made the statement that divorces have dropped 36 3 6 por per cent since the saloons went out of business is our next largest city ond and during the hie months of january february and march 1915 with the saloons open cases of drunkenness were tried before the municipal judge for the same period this year under prohibition tile the number ot of such cases caries tried was ag the total number of cases tried before the municipal judge tor for the first three months in 1915 with the saloons open was 1135 as against tor for the same period this year under prohibition hibi tion and the municipal judge in a communication addressed to the pueblo civil service commission dated april 10 1916 says in january february and a nd march 1916 1915 the city jail was crowded to capacity during the same months this year the city jail has boon practically empty Dec decrease in Po poverty erty shown ever since Colori colorados laos saloons closed the number of 0 families asking ashing relief from the denver bureau of charity and corrections has been falling failing off at the rate of more than one hundred families per ner mouth month during january february march and april 1915 1 with the saloons open 2 2237 families milles ta asked the city I 1 tor for relief during the same period this year under prohibition the number number was 1832 18 32 or a decrease of trie reports from the grocery stores are almost as interesting it is the custom of this office to give the grocery orders on any store preferred by the family amily assisted d we have found that the people get the best service in this way this has made us deal with the neighborhood groceries they tell us without exception that they are better able to make collections and that the people are buying dipre and a better quality of food than they lid did when we had saloons one groverman gro cerman commented that it was worth a great deal to see the increased manner ol of self respect with which uie the women do their buying since they can afford better things so we are convinced that however much or little actual drunkenness may have had to do with the poverty we meet at any rate since the closing of the saloons the people are be 1 ing better fed and that will go a long way to reduce some other causes of poverty and they are doing better about meeting their just obligations which alch goes tar far toward raising their self respect and general standard of living we cite therefore in answer to the pre election warnings of the liquor folks the tact fact that crime has been reduced to a minimum with poverty and squalor rapidly vanishing from our midst dry decent and nappy before colorado went dry denver alone had saloons including some fifty some odd holes masquerading as cates cafes thru the door of which hundreds of women and girls passed nightly these places are closed and the number of persons riding home after midnight on the owl cars has dropped 40 per cent since january formerly about 30 per cent ot of the 01 owl car passengers were women and girls many of them intoxicated now colorado mothers pillow their heads upon the conscious lons clous knowledge that these stand ing ng invitations to come and go to lell hell with me are forever closed empty aises mighty blighty scarce colorado has no saloons today and denver is still on the map three years ago the tha denver real estate exchange districted the city and found 2653 vacant houses including apartments today there are not vacant houses in denver in good cal condition tor for occupancy according to george H GaIl gallup lip of the denver real estate exchange who outlined present conditions before a meeting of the real estate division of the denver commercial association a few beeks ago mr gallup further stated reports made by the moving van and storage companies indicate that from one and one halt half to two families are moung aiho ato denver for each family moving away furthermore said mr gallup office buildings are in gir greater cater demand now than at any time since the sky scrapper period of a few years ago the principal big office buildings in denver are running from SO 90 to per cent capacity and desirable offices soon will be at a premium increased electric light W J barker the vice president of this company consented to an interview by the wall street journal which appeared in that large financial journal on may 6 5 reading in part as follows the putting out of business ot of so many saloons was regarded as a serious matter at first but by careful checking we have discovered that practically every place formerly run as a saloon is now being used by some other business and in many cases the consumption of gas and electric current is greater than under former conditions 1 I was asked recently why our current sales were so large when there were no bars at night for men to frequent my guess was that the men who formerly spent the evening at the bars now stayed at home sat up late at night reading and so more than made up tor for the heretofore legalized liquor by main kalning the standard of demand tor for electric current denver has never been so much alive buildings are going up kip ou on all aval available lable sites the banks report increases in deposits and earnings and we expect this year to be one of the largest tourist seasons in our history time will not permit a further survey of the veld I 1 have merely touched the high spots giving to you sample packages ot 0 our moral and industrial increment colorado greets the sisterhood ot of states from on high one mile above ill the level of tho the sea and recommends in ends as a panacea for all moral and industrial ills the great prohibition cure curc |