The Benefits of Prohibition

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 17, 1913

The Benefits of Prohibition

It is urged constantly by those opposed to the prohibition of the liquor traffic that the benefits to be derived from prohibition are purely theoretical; that prohibition does not improve social, economic, and business conditions. The testimony of the attorney-general of Kansas, of the practical results following thirty years of prohibition in that State, disproves these claims.

He states that in the Sunflower State drinking has been reduced two thousand per cent; that illiteracy has decreased from forty-nine per cent to less than two per cent, and that the two per cent is found almost entirely among the foreign element; of the one hundred five counties in the State, eighty-seven have no insane as public charges, fifty-four no feeble-minded, and ninety-six no inebriates. Thirty-eight poor-farms in the State have no inmates. Only one pauper is to be found for every three thousand of the population. In July, 1911, fifty-three county jails were empty, and in sixty-five counties of the State there were no prisoners serving time sentences. For ten years in some counties there has not been a jury called to try a criminal charge, and in one county no grand jury has been convened for twenty-five years.

These statistics certainly show most excellent and practical results attending the enforcement of prohibitory law. Kansas has set an example that her sister States can follow with profit and advantage.