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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1917)
AC L: K W fc, t . k d.,. The C&inmoner -.- 1 - JT V (Pf" homo-rulo amendment ., by 3,500. When the' state of Colorailo voted on stat-wjrto prohibition In 1914, al (biiKli, the state as a .whole went IJ1 VJAU VXIjr Ul UUUVUI VUIUU WUL UV ausui i- ... . Is 8.000 nialoritv. nnrt on Jn.nnn.rv 1. IjJ.jLG ,'tho state prohibition lq,w went into offoct, thoroby closing tho .sa loons and llnuor stores In Donvnr. I In November, 1910, at the general oloction tho liquor people tried to repeal tho state-wide prohibition law bV submitting to tho voters an in itiative petition for an amendment to -tho state constitution declaring beer not to bo an Intoxicant. Now, pleaso boar in mind that Denver .voted ,000 wot In. tho state-wjde , light, Jmt after tho peoplo of this city had lived under prohibition for .hlno .months they went to tho polls n J9iG and voted dry by a major ity of 10,900. In the same, election tho majority for prohibition, in the state of Colorado was 86,000. Yes, my friends, the peoplo of Colorado and Denver spokq for themselves with regard to what tholr sentiments were, toward prohibition, and yet in face of these facts wo still hear the thundering voice of the' cliie ex liorter of tho liquor interests wliq lives down in Cincinnati, 3,0 0d miles away from Denver, proclaiming with a loud voico that prohibition has ' boon a deplorablo thing for' Denver', On December 12, ID Iff orfo of the daily papers of Denver had this to say about prohibition after It had m'ndo a very careful investigation of conditions in tliat city during ."' the first 10 months without1 saloons ,r "Taxes have decreased".1' ' ' " " "Finances of municipality" never wero.80 good. , 'Business Is better 'tharl it" "'has' ' over been. " v -y v " "Every man who wants work can set it, "Thero aro fewer vacant houses and stores than ever before. "Building permits, especially for tho last six months, show, a decided gain, particularly "iilie InaWerAof small homes. "Collections aro 4.0 er cent, bet ter. -r t i "Sayings accounts jn Denver. have ! lM1sv nil u. 1 - " ' uiuivtju an rtjuoras. "Hotels whoso nrnriftaYnW"' -ivL dieted they would be driven' out df business within three months ate planning-extensions, andr.two new cutJts staff of police reporters from one-half to two-thirds. "The state nenitontiary has one- fdurtli ' fewer" prisoners than . form erly, anu auout February xwill close otfo.wliolo wing oi' its chain of build ings; "Just before Denver went dry sa loon interests predicted that prop erty occupied by saloons would re main vacant, as the locations were lit for nothing but saloons; that .'sa loon men, brewery workers, and others dependent upon tho. liquor trauo would move away from Colo rado, causing houses to become oxu i) iv ana ren.1 p.Rtn.t-.n vninna rt Aal predate; that Ice plants, which were" bupposea to rely upon the saloons as their best customers, would reduce their output at least 60 per cent; that merchants in every lino would encounter the worst times in the. his tory of the city; that taxes. would, bo heavily increased to make up the loss of $341 annually paid by sa loon licenses." . Then follows this statement: . "The best of tho saloon locations were rentdd "before the bars moved out. Proprietors of other businesses iittu Uieir lixtures built in advance; saloons closed and moved out ou Saturday nicht: new nnnnnm in stalled fixtures and stock on Sunday uuu litjuecior Dusiness Monday. . "Merchants in all lines aro com menting on tho increannrl hnsinoae during 1916. Their customers pay their bills promptly, they say. Nearly every merchant tells of accounts ow in.E sq long, he had written them oil tho books. SInco the saloons closed tho men who owed theso bills have dnfted unsolicited Into tho stores and commenced to pay tip on' the in stallment plan."" Mr. Wayne C. Williams Testifies Mr. Speaker, on December 2.1 I wrote to Mr. Wayne C. Williams, of Denver, Colo., who is a member of the Industrial Commission of Hnin- Jd2?vad9fluestedUiim to give me Unlwritingihis views as to what the eitect of prohibition had been to the people of, that state, and I desire to have printed in the Record his an. Lswei' to my request. U 1UUUOH1U1 I JfJTTlTTllRClinM " CoVdrado,"" Denver,' December " 28, ' auiu. xion. vJOMl Li. Cooner. TTmisA .of Representatives, Washington, D. ,w. ,,JyViy.JLear. Mr. Copper: It is a million-dollar hotels are '.'fissured pleasure to comply, with your request within a year. ' - '. - -fdfMhfhrmnHr : n.,if , ...i L f disinformation' about the results of CrP.JlRP.fi S1 nw nont ; "Arrests for drunkenness have' de- creased 59 per cent. kw.vk-. ' "Arrests for vagrancy Irave de creased .56 per cent. . . )r J I "The cost of maintaining the city jail haS decreased 28 'per cerit? : "ThfoYcbst of mairitaiijiig the i county jail has fallen 27 ntufrtiant. ; j "The number of murders,, siiicides:, ; auu uurgmuuH hub xaiien oir at an astonishing rate. & "There has only been two mur ders tnvDenver . in 1016. . One of these Wg-aa clearly a caste (of,.self defenrainst a demented, man that the liirv rfianherl n.; 'vA'rrHWl hf 'ii'nf guiltyfeless than 20 miritites? the other aser has riot come to strial. At i iybb oujul h uuzgu muruera.ii year was formerly Denver's average. "PoUce Chief Hamiltpn ArmstrQng anvil nrWo e '.tfrfnolinr of ri rln tnomenal rate He attributes' fliisto f prohibition. i "District Attorney John A. Bush I stated in open court recently that ( the Work of his office has dan.rnnRnrl pHjiOper cent since the city went dry. DIVorce suits4 filed 'showa ?,d roliibltion iir -'Cblorado. Tho nnfi creaso of 40 per cent. .nuL ,has " been lied r.tomo flaerantiv nni A 1 n . . ., ... w " iieaiH tor an causesriiftve de- .ersisiiOAtiv on tills- matter that I velcqme advance to state the truth through such an influential channel as you offer. "SumminV-up in one sentence, the plain truth is that the success of prohibition' in Colorado exceeds the fondest predictions and expectations of its most ardent supporters. '?In the early days whan wo WQ.Q . fighting for prohibition in this state uuu xnu saioon was enthroned in power everywhere, the favorite ar gument of the " wets' V were these - "1. That prohibition would result in a general business depression in ,alj lines. . V"?;- specifically it would re sult, in" throwing thousands of people out of work and leaving hundreds ofour store buildings- empty and in practically stopping the tourist travel to Colpradp. "3. That tho drinking of liquor bore no relation to crime, and that there wduld be more crime and more arrests for crime under prohibition .than under the saloon. 'These were the arguments which defeated us in the early fights.-.WJth-out a single exception, they have boe utterly shattered by the, results, under, prohibition.- . There. 1b not. a prominent public ofllclal or business, man in tho state of Colorado who will not now admit' this. "Taking up these arguments in turn, and tho results which have furnished the answer to them, we will look first at the business side of the matter. ., "Instead of a general. business de pression in Colorado since prohibi tion went into effect, wp have, en joyed the gre.ate.st prosperity the city and state has ever known. This is verified by thQ weekly reports of Dun and Bradstreet in every line of busi ness, by the bank clearings of. Den-, ver, which have practically doubled, and by the . unprecedented industrial activities throughput the state. As a member of the industrial, commis sion, I am in the. closest touch with all branches of industry, and can state reliably that the wage increases under prohibition have never been equaled in the history of our state, and that these increases amount to millions of dollars. The beneficial effects of prohibition, to laboring men are so conspicuous that it is a matter of general comment through out tho state. , .-, "Instead of empty stores in Den ver, we had our. store buildings filled up so rapidly that we now have. fewer vacant buildings than ever before, and never have we had so few men out of employment as now. "Instead of prohibition resulting Jn the tourists refusing to come to Colorado, our tourist travel to Col orado, last year was double ,that of any previous year in the history o the state. The argument which thq "wets" made, to the effect that no tourist would, drive, an. , automobile up a mountain highway unless he was tanked up with intoxicating li quors, is about the silliest piece of moonshine ever, invented, .and it has be.en, blasted by the facts. The other false assumption, of the "wets" was that if a man could not spend a dol lar in a aloou he would neyer spend that. dollar anywhere else. . "On the question of crime the suc cess of prohibition is possibly even .more . satisfying than - any other phase of tho policy. The arrests in Denver alone have decreased rnearly one-half during the past year "Every assertion . that. I. .make above is based, upon, absolute facts. I am sending you data covering the question of arrests and business con ditions to verify the statements I make. "To my mind the ..two; most strik ing facts, which show, the success of prohibition are: . .'. . "1. The fact that this, year all po litical parties in Colorado declared for prohibition without reservation or qualification. I know of no: group or. bodies of persons that can so quickly and unerringly . detect the failure or success of a policy as. that group of persons who control a po litical party. . "2. The remarkable . vote which Colorado has given against the li quor traffic. I submit a table show ing the successive votes on the ques tion ,ot. prohibition in,' Denver and Colorado and the progressive trend of this vote toward prohibition, cul minating, as it does, in the over whelming majority of this year .against the beer amendment. npA. sents to my mind an unanswerable ulsuiuciii,. vyuen tne people voted on the beer amendment In Colorado this year it must be remembered that they were not voting ,for the return of. the open saloon. If.tftat had been the .issue the majority against the saloon would have been far greater; - X .YOL, 17, NO. a bfit tHe liquor interestTwT they did not dare to nresonf ihi osition for the return of t " 0' so they offered a much m l8alon' osition, and the 8 ; 0on Prop against it speaks in ZLT for the success of proX tones Denver and Colorado ft, j as follows,: tab,e is "1910 Denver vn,i ..... . "1912 Denver vo T )y ",000. "1914 Denver voted 3 T 22'00c "1915 fHrtma!iWetl)y 8.500. "1915 (Hdme - rulG " by 8'500' OOof Cl0rad0 vote1 wt by 40, boo'.19" Coloraao TOtel y by H,. "1916 Colorado votPfi ,i i 789. teu (Iry by 85,. - "The figures in some cases flM act and in others .,,!! are w they are so Tetliy eS "fft but table may be eivL nc that the mate onef subsfantL y8 ZSt change in sentiment. auolnS e "Very truly, yours. "WAYNE C. WILLIAMS." The Liquor Traffic and Labor Mr. Speaker, now just a word In regard to the liquor traffic all nr ganized labor. There is a this til an-effort to-leave the taJS that the labor unions of our counS are opposed to prohibition of the l quor traffic, and the members of this congress are being flooded with nu merous memorials from certain la- ?r f ganizat!,ons Protesting against the passage of prohibition laws. Now, Mr. Speaker, I deny' the emHent. th",tho laboring people ana the 'thousands of members of organized labor are in sympathy with the un-American licensed 11 quor traffic and that the "beer keg and whisky bottlo shall become their emblem." It is true that certain la bor organizations are opposed to the prohibition of the liquor traffic. But these organizations represent various crafts that are engaged in the man ufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic liquors. I hold no brief against these men and I have no quarrel with them, and I assure you I would do them a good turn if it lay in my power so. to do. But this fact remains, that they are engaged in .the. manufacture, production, and distribution, of ttiat which is the greatest .enemy of the workingman today. . There are many labor or ganizations in our country that are riot opposing prohibition of the li quor traffic, and some of them have gone on record as opposed to the open saloon. I feel proud of the fact that my i JJ 1.1. n1la nf uuuitt is recorueu upuii me iuiw one of our great labor organizations, li- Ti-.ii i.--j -it T Atlira V.n. Af flio lWorlnlnl nnnvfintioil Of tlliS me jarotuernoou oi uouumuuvo gineers, which has declared in favor n.i.Si.4i.Ln t 1. tlnnnr trflffiC. At the bierinial convention of this June, 1915, a resolution was Intro duced and passed unanimously plac ing this order on record as being w favor of ' state aVd national prohibi tion, and I desire to insert as pari of my remarks a statement maae some time ago by Warren S. Stoue, grand qhief of the Brotherhood l oi Locomotive Engineers, concern ng the stand that this organization takes upon this question: , Why He Fights Liquor Grand cw of B. of Ii. B. Speaks "Cleveland. OUio.--In a letter Re cently made public, Mr. W. S. Stone of this city,- grand oh ej of ; Brotherhood of Locomotive - r vJ