668 



PROHIBITION'. 



local-option campaigns have been carried on ; 

 in large areas of Alabama and Mississippi ; in 

 about half of West Virginia; in many coun- 

 ties of Texas, of North Carolina and South 

 Carolina; in forty-two counties, of Georgia; 

 and in several counties of Missouri, Illinois, 

 and Kentucky. Tennessee has local prohibi- 

 tion very largely through her four-mile law, 

 which forbids the sale of liquor within four 

 miles of a chartered institution of learning, 

 outside of incorporated towns, and about one 

 hundred towns have surrendered their char- 

 ters, so as to come under the operation of the 

 law. Arkansas has a similar three-mile limi- 

 tation, applied by a majority of the people, 

 women also voting. Potter county, Pa., has 

 had prohibition many years by special law. 

 The towns of Vineland, N. J. ; Greeley, Col. ; 

 Pullman, 111. ; Bavaria, 111. ; St. Johnsbury, Vt. ; 

 and Millville, N. J., have absolute prohibition, 

 the first three by provision in title-deeds. The 

 entire Indian Territory has it by authority of 

 the United States Government (declared in 

 1834, in a law "for .the protection of the In- 

 dian tribes"), and the Cherokee nation also by 

 their own constitution and laws. 



High License. High-license laws, considered 

 prohibitory in effect, prevail in several of the 

 States. In Arkansas, besides the three-mile 

 limitation, which refers to a church as well as 

 a school-house, the State fee is $300, and most 

 counties require from $300 to $500 additional. 

 In Missouri the lowest fee is $550, and this 

 may be indefinitely increased by any town. 

 Illinois has a fee of $150 for ale and beer, and 

 $500 for distilled liquors, and every city, coun- 

 ty, town, or village may prohibit the sale of 

 intoxicants entirely, by majority vote. Michi- 

 gan levies $200 tax on each wholesale and re- 

 tail dealer in malt-liquors, and $500 on each 

 wholesale dealer in spirituous liquors. In Ne- 

 braska the fee is $1,000, and every man want- 

 ing license must have the approbation of thirty 

 freeholders, his petition must be published two 

 weeks in the newspaper of largest local circu- 

 lation, and if any objection be made to him he 

 is debarred; he must also give $5,000 bonds, 

 and must support all paupers, widows, and 

 orphans, and pay the expense of all prosecu- 

 tions, civil and criminal, which may be justly 

 attributable to the traffic. Minnesota has a 

 law quite similar. Sunday prohibition exists 

 by statute in every State where restrictive 

 laws have been enacted, but in all the large 

 cities of all the license States it is but spas- 

 modically enforced, as a rule, though generally 

 observed by dealers in the smaller towns. 



Effects of Enforcement. As to the general en- 

 forcement of prohibition law, opinions differ. 

 Maine, where it has been longest in operation, 

 is usually cited to prove its failure or success. 

 From the State and Government records these 

 figures are gleaned: There are no distilleries 

 or breweries in Maine. In 1883 the United 

 States tax of $25 was paid by 813 persons in 

 the State, including nearly 200 druggists, and 



because of the vigilant Government-detective 

 service it was believed that this number repre- 

 sented all who were in any manner engaged in 

 the traffic. All these were secret dealers, save 

 the druggists and the dealers in seventeen cities 

 and large towns. Counting the druggists as 

 dealers, there was one dealer to about 800 in- 

 habitants ; in New York there is one to every 

 180, and the average number in the Northern 

 license States is one to 210. The internal rev- 

 enue collected in 1882, on the manufacture and 

 sale of liquors, was four cents and three mills 

 per capita ; throughout the entire Union it av- 

 eraged $1.71 per capita. There were 156 deal- 

 ers in Portland in 1883, most of them secret. 

 In the 14 cities, with a population of 177,863, 

 there were 496 persons, including druggists, 

 who paid United States tax, or one to 300 in- 

 habitants. In 60 license cities of other States 

 there was one dealer to 155 inhabitants. In 

 470 towns and plantations in the State there 

 were but 220 dealers, or one to about every 

 2,000 inhabitants. In 355 towns and planta- 

 tions not a single dealer was found. In two 

 cities and fifteen towns the law is not en- 

 forced, and these reported 179 dealers; while 

 in 12 cities and 142 towns, where the law is 

 enforced, 473 secret or suspected places were 

 reported, making in these places, all told, one 

 dealer to over 1,000 inhabitants. Actual ar- 

 rests in 60 licensed cities show an average 

 number of 27 to every thousand population ; 

 in the fourteen cities of Maine, during the 

 municipal year ending in 1883, the average 

 number was 17 to every 1,000; in all the 

 cities, except Bangor and Portland, it was 10 

 per thousand ; and in Lewiston and Auburn it 

 was but three. The State at large has one 

 high criminal to every 1,600 inhabitants; New 

 York, one to 690. 



A multitude of senators, governors, judges, 

 and other officials have testified that the law 

 is a success, despite its confessed non-enforce- 

 ment in certain places. Said Judge Davis, 

 "The Maine law even now is enforced far 

 more than the license laws ever were." In a 

 letter written in 1882, Hon. James G. Elaine 

 said : " Intemperance has steadily decreased in 

 this State, since the first enactment of the pro- 

 hibitory law, until now it can be said with 

 truth that there is no equal number of people 

 in the Anglo-Saxon world, among whom so 

 small an amount of intoxicating liquor is con- 

 sumed as among the 650,000 inhabitants of 

 Maine." Perhaps the most impartial testimo- 

 ny given was furnished in 1881, by two special 

 reporters sent by the " Toronto Globe." One 

 of these was a prohibitionist and the other was 

 opposed to prohibition. The latter found that 

 "in the cities the law has been a partial fail- 

 ure, so far as uprooting the traffic or even the 

 suppression of open bars is concerned ; that 

 this failure has been greatly exaggerated by 

 quoting exceptional places or periods as typi- 

 cal of the whole State, and by the ingenious 

 perversion of statistics ; that in . the rural 



