an inevitable complication. In the case of war prohibition there was a tolerated delay of 7½ months, which the Supreme Court, in its decision upholding the war prohibition enactment, practically stated was a reasonable period, in lieu of compensation, to enable liquor dealers to dispose of liquors on hand. It was still necessary in the autumn of 1921 to depend largely upon the judgment of trained observers, who could be trusted to interpret partial but significant statistics. Of local and partial data there was no lack. The Survey for Jan. 17 1920, speaking of six months of the enforcement of war prohibition, said: “Thus the fact of national prohibition comes to pass without any of the dire disasters predicted—great bodies of men are not jobless; the breweries are not idle, but have turned to the making of soft drinks and ice cream; labor has not refused to work without beer. . . ; real-estate values have not slumped; in fact, the rentals charged to cigar stores, soda fountains, lunch counters, groceries and such like which are moving into the vacant saloons with all possible speed, are higher than they were; there has not been a reign of terror by outraged men demanding the return of their personal liberty.” Another study made by The Survey and published Nov. 6 1920, of the city of Grand Rapids, Mich. (located in a state under constitutional prohibition since 1916), says that Grand Rapids in 1920 was practically free from drunkenness if not from drink; prohibition had all but emptied the county gaol; the county farm had run down for lack of prison labour; the police force had been greatly reduced; the withdrawal of liquor from dance and social halls had closed prolific sources of immorality and crime; and the number of arrests in two years had been cut in half.
A study under the direction of the Federal Council of Churches was made by the head of a social settlement in Buffalo, who visited eight cities, including three of the largest—New York, Philadelphia and Chicago—and the smaller cities of Washington, Harrisburg, Columbus, Detroit and Buffalo, examining the police returns, hospital returns, reports of lodging houses, charitable and community organizations, during the month of April 1920. Most of his material is from official sources and shows a decrease in the number of arrests in cities far apart, which cannot be explained by the operation of the usual causes of fluctuation. Apparently prohibition was the only factor common to all of these returns and operating upon them alike. Other reports, from many sources, of similar character show that throughout 1920 arrests for drunkenness and for all crimes in the principal cities diminished. In Philadelphia the total for the dry six months of 1919 compared with the wet six months of that year showed a decrease of 40% (47,000 to 28,530), and the chief resident physician of the Philadelphia General Hospital stated that there had been no increase in the use of drugs since prohibition.
Fifty-nine cities of the United States having a pop. of 30,000 or over and a combined pop. of over 20,000,000 (including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia) give the following official figures for arrests for drunkenness in the four successive years 1917-20: 316,842, 260,169, 172,659 and 109,768. Indiana shows 70% fewer arrests in 1920 for drunkenness than in 1917, the last year when the state was wet, for 39 cities with a combined pop. of nearly one million. Boston reports 5,000 fewer arrests in 1920 for all causes than for drunkenness alone in 1919; the state of Massachusetts reports 32,580 arrests for drunkenness in 1920 compared with 77,925 in 1919; Connecticut had 943 arrests for drunkenness in 1920 against 3,777 in 1919; New York City a decrease from 14,182 in 1917 to 5,813 in 1920; St. Louis a decrease from 2,605 in 1919 to 691 in 1920. A similar tendency in many cities is apparent in the returns for 1920.
Since prohibition, high wages and continuous employment came together during the year July 1 1919 to June 30 1920, it is difficult to state with certainty which of the three was the cause, or the major cause, of the increase in savings bank accounts, or of the decrease in industrial accidents reported during that period. An official statement of the Comptroller of the Currency given out in Washington Jan. 22 1920 stated that in national banks alone 880,949 new accounts were opened in the first 4½ months of the fiscal year beginning July 1 1919, and that the increase in the number of depositors in state and private banks, though not available, was known to be far greater than the increase of depositors in national banks. The Comptroller's official report (48th Annual Report) for the year ended Oct. 31 1920 states: “In the number of depositors or deposit accounts in national banks all previous records were exceeded, official reports showing that on June 30 1920 there were 20,520,177 deposit accounts in all national banks. This was an increase of 2,279,877 (12½%) over June 30 1919. There is now approximately one depositor in the national banks for every five of our population.”
The most disinterested and intelligent observers, accustomed to judging public conditions and social facts, differed widely in their verdicts on prohibition, its economic results and general benefits or disadvantages to the public welfare in the first year of national prohibition. That is likely to be true for several years to come. The more authoritative opinion, however, seemed to be that the first effects had been generally beneficial; that the popular sentiment in support of effective prohibition was gaining in strength, and that the experiment would be continued and developed. The fears of lurking danger to social institutions or to the moral integrity of the people (which some critics believed to be inherent in prohibition), seemed likely to be outweighed by the economic and political advantages of freedom from the saloon, and the semblance, at least, of more orderly communities, less petty crime and less abject poverty. The majority of moderate drinkers seemed to be willing to sacrifice their personal liberty for these desirable results. The intemperate constitute a minority as compared with the total abstainers plus a majority of those who had been moderate users of intoxicating beverages, and their number may be expected to diminish from year to year. The business interests which were thought to be menaced by prohibition found, at the time when national and wartime prohibition went into effect, means of readjustment without great loss and without inflicting on the nation the burden of any scheme of compensation. The outlook for the future was in 1921 one of hope that new forces and new funds had now been released, which might be directed to providing normal recreation and facilities for social and community life which the saloon did not provide, but for which its very existence had precluded other provision being made.
U.S. War-emergency Measures.—After the entry of the United States into the World War, Federal legislation began with the Draft law of May 18 1917, Section 12 of which authorized the President to make regulations for the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic liquors in or near military camps and to officers and enlisted men of the army. An Act to promote the efficiency of the U.S. navy, approved Oct. 6 1917, extended these provisions to include the navy and all places for training and mobilization connected with the naval service. This section made it unlawful to sell or supply intoxicating liquors to any military or naval station, cantonment, camp, fort, or officers' or enlisted men's club, or to sell intoxicating liquor, including beer, ale or wine, to any officer or member of the military force while in uniform. The Food Control Act of Aug. 10 1917 prohibited the use of foods, fruits or food materials in the production of distilled spirits for beverage purposes, but authorized the President to prescribe rules for their use in the production of distilled spirits for other purposes. It provided also that distilled spirits should not be imported into the United States, and that whenever the President should find that limitation, regulation or prohibition of the use of foods, fruits or food materials in making malt or vinous liquors for beverage purposes, or that the reduction of the alcoholic content of such liquors is essential for food conservation, he should be authorized to prescribe and give public notice of such limitation, prohibition or reduction as might be necessary. This Act also authorized the President to commandeer and pay for distilled spirits needed for the manufacture of munitions or military supplies.
The so-called War Prohibition Act, enacted Nov. 21 1918, 10 days after the signing of the Armistice, was an amendment to the Agricultural Appropriation Bill, and provided that from June 30 1919 until the conclusion of the war and of demobilization, the date to be determined and proclaimed by the President, it should be unlawful to sell for beverage purpose any distilled spirits or to withdraw distilled spirits from bond except for export. It also provided that after May 1 1919 no grains, cereals, fruit or other food products should be used in the manufacture or production of beer, wine or other intoxicating malt or vinous liquor for beverage purposes, and after June 30 1919 no beer, wine or other intoxicating malt or vinous
