The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, May 22, 1929, Page 12

By RODNEY DUTCHER (NEA Service Writer) Washington, May 22.—The organ- ized wets with the organized drys, in their ceaseless battle of propaganda, have got down to the question of the costs and profits of prohibition Two demon research directors, Mr. Deets Pickett of the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Pub- lic Morals and Mr. John C. Gebhart of the Association Against the Pro- hibition Amendment, have presented their claims. Mr. Pickett's claim is in answer to Mr. Gebhart’s figures. Mr. Pickett’s estimate of the net profits of prohibition is much larger than Mr. Gebhart's statement of the losses. Mr. Gebhart has found, by tabu- lating available figures, that the tax- payers lost, last year through pro- hibition $936,000,000, or something short of a billion Mr. Pickett replies that prohibition has saved the American people $8,000,000,000 a year since 1920. Mr. Gebhart arrives at his figures through adding $36,000,000 as the cost of last year's federal enforcement, $850,000,000 as the loss in federal rev- enue because of prohibition and $50,- 000,000 as the loss of state, city and county revenue. He is concerned only with the taxpayer's loss and promises Subsequent data on the economic Phases of prohibition. Mr. Gebhart has gone on the as- sumption that 33 states would have been bone dry last year and that there would have been no consump- tion of liquor in the 19 states which permitted importation of liquor for home use, He has also failed to count in the cost of state and local en- forcement. He has furthermore as- sumed that the 1918 federal liquor taxes would have been maintained. He mentions the likelihood, how- ever, that the liquor tax rate would have increased considerably and that if the excise rates prevailing in England were now in effect in Amer- ica the estimated American consump- tion last year would have produced revenue of more than $1,715,000,000. Mr. Gebhart’s figures in some in- stances depend upon the probabilities, but they have not been questioned and a less scrupulous investigator might have undertaken to show that “Well, what do ‘little-girl-next-door Mom Ross asked, when at last’ the door had closed on Mary Burns. “Come back over here where I can look at you, Tony. It’s a sight I've never got my fill of.” “In just a little while, if you don't mind,” Tony answered carefully. “I'm —I'm watching the sunset.” Not un- til she got control of herself could she show her face to Mom Ross's keen. eyes. “She's — very pretty. Is she — Sandy's — sweetheart? Would that catch in her voice betray her? But Mom Ross's chuckle was reas- "I guess you might call her girl. Lord knows she comes nearer being his girl than anybody else ever did. I might as well own up that I used to get sorta worried about Sandy. It ain't natural for a boy not to take any interest in girls, and Sandy's going on 25. High time he was thinkin’ of getting married, I tell him. I been cggin’ this thing on for all I'm worth—not that Mary needs any pushin’ but it’s like tryin’ to a balky mule to get Sandy to make a date with a girl—” “But does he make dates with Mary Burns?” Tony asked, pretending to wn luxuriously after the question ‘Well, he lets her tag along with him in that rattly old flivver of his sometimes, and he's took her up in his plane twice. He said it was worth ten dollars to hear her squeal,” Mrs Ross laughed. “She tickles his funny- bone, with her cute little tricks and her ‘down south’ way of talkin’. A natural-born flirt, Mary is. I never heard Sandy laugh so much in all his life put together, as he has since Mary Burns has been frolickin’ around him. He teases her and treats her like she was a funny little kit- ten—" ‘Tony could bear no more of that think of our WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, lyzy ———————————————— yy the 1928 loss to the taxpayer Was much nearer $2,000,000,000. Mr. Pickett, asserting that prohi- bition has been worth $72,000,000,000 to the country since 1920, begins with the sum of $2,438,037,985 as the retail liquor bill of the American people in 1916. With higher prices, he says, this bill would surely have doubled by 1920. He now estimates that the “liquor trade” probably did 20 per cent as much business last year. He con- cludes: “The American people have been saving approximately four bil- lion dollars annually in the direct liquor cost and the indirect or conse- quential saving due to increased ef- fictency, and the sobriety which has permitted mass production and has stimulated consumption has amounted to as much more. This makes a net saving of eight billion dollars a year. . indicating that prohibition has been a major and indispensable fac- tor .in raising the standard of living in America to a higher plane.” Mr. Gebhart’s figures are worked out in a 15-page pamphlet replete with tabulations. Mr. Pickett'’s are equally difficult to disprove because they are not documented and appear to depend on guesswork. No one knows what the bootleg industry's income is at prevailing prices, nor whether liquor prices would have doubled without prohibition between 1916 and 1920. Mr. Pickett doesn’t allow for pre-1920 decrease of con- sumption in states which went dry after 1916 or those about to when national prohibition became effective. No one knows what the “indirect or consequential saving” of prohibition has been. The total national income has risen from $40,000,000,000 in 1916 to probably about $100,000,000,000 to- day. Of this increase of sixty bil- lions, Mr. Pickett claims credit for only four billions, hevertheless citing prohibition as a “major and indis- pensable factor.” Of course if both Mr. Pickett and Mr. Gebhart are right, then Mr. Geb- hart's little billion looks even sick- lier. And in any event, this little skir- mish between the rival research di- rectors over dollars and cents does not end conclusively. Arguments be- tween wets and drys never do. ‘YASSUH, BOSS =YASSUN- RIEKT IN DIS CAR HEAH=YASSUM—HELL J AREAL FoR SHO BE SUNPRISED ) SURE Cowgoy YouR. UNCLE HARRY ASHED AS T TAKE You OFF HERE LIMITED comes AT THE WATER TANK SO'S ‘To A stop AT The WATER TANK. ++? RAP ON THE PULLMAN DOOR BRINGS THE Porter, WUO OPENS IT AND LETS VAN 1N ee BOY! TLL Sav THAT'S FAIR ENOUGH. IT'LL SURE TAKE A LOAD OFF MY MIND 10 WELL YOU GOT ME ALL | BUT THAT WONT WRONG , POP, AND TLL COVER THE PROVE IT. TM GOING TO SLEEPLESS RETURN EVERY CENT NIGHTS THIS VOU'VE PUT INTO THE > | THING HAS GIVEN! CLAIM. 1 NEVEQ GEATA | ME OR THE-TRIP) FRIEND. HERE ARE THE / 1 TOOK OUT TO PAPERS ALL READY COLORADO tO tO SIGN FIND OUT WHAT A LEMON 1 PICKED) TUL TOSS WW AN EXTRA $500 TO COVER THAT. I'D RATHER DO IT THAN TO LOSE You AS A FRIEND. JUST SLAP YOUR SON HANCOCK ON THE ~ DOTTED LINE. THERE'S. NO BUNK ABOUT IT. WHAT DO YOU SAY ? $500 extra! THAT'S $5500 ALL TOGETHER ea? ARICH BED OF ORE HAS BEEN picture. She interrupted crisply. “And DISCOVERED you want. Sandy to marry her, Mom?” Better to hear the worst and get it over Mom Ross chuckled. ‘“Reckon it ain't what I want but What Sandy wants that counts, Tony. He don't take her serious yet, but he gets so much fun out of her that I wouldn't be surprised if he did wake up some | fine mornin’ with the idee that it might be a good thing to keep her around to be laughed at and played with. She's a sweet, pretty littic thing, with a heart as big as all out- doot “Ye ry feminine,” Tony said slo ‘Somehow I never real- ized that Sandy would fall for that type, though.” “There ain't no tellin’ what a man will fall for,” Mrs. Ross replied ju- ciciously. “Of course, if the good Lord had left the job of pickin’ out a wife for Sandy to me, I'd a-picked you. But you and Sandy was just pals, chums, and neither one of you couldn't stir up a spark of romance for the other to save your life. But I was sorta worried for fear that was all Sandy was lookin’ for. Looked like I might never have any grandbabtes to spoil, and these fat old arms of mine just achin’ for ‘em—” NOU OUGHT TO MOVE TO CHICAGO AND BUY A MACHINE-GUN BY POSING AS WANTING To DO THE RIGHT THING he’s R So 00 1! aN’ That ) (Ou LooKee, Boss! cuPIDS \ OH1,NO! DON! GUZZLEN WILL BE | REMINDS ME—ITS |/GoT HER HEAD STUCK IN wept PLEASED WHEN sve. | FEEDIN' Time! || “THe SANO— WHaTs The GETS “He ostrich (OER? Mesee SHE'LL smotuer! ( CAN'T SEE CUPID, ANY wert] sue's TOO 1 “I'm—glad you're going to—be happy,” Tony managed. “And—and Sandy, too—” “Well, I_shan’t count my chicks yet,” Mrs. Ross answered cheerfully, “but I must say the prospects is a little brighter than they was before Mary Burns moved in next door... . Where you going, Tony?” io see Pat!" Tony choked, as she NEXT: Tony knows the truth at | last. _) =F (Copyright, 1929, NEA Service, Inc.) Z i IN NEW YORK New York, May 22.—The Bowling Green, whereon once stood the statue of III, is about to stage a come-back. Here where New York began and where Revolutionary war chapters were written in terms of stirring ac- tion, is to be a new and elaborate apartment house belt. Within the week, the real estate columns of the newspapers have informed me that some $50,000,000 worth of swanky apartments sgaltas arise. * * More than once I have wondered why someone did not convert the lower Battery belt into a residence ‘There is no view in or about New York lovelier than that of the ° ! ° ‘@| water and the ships and the dim ° Battery districts, 7 : Shorelines ahead as viewed from the Tourists have appreciated this, and flock daily by the thousands to the water line. Here, to help their view, the shrewd concessionaires have set up little racks where spy-glasses are rented. Here, through the daylight hours, the bally-hoo goes on—“See the big liners comin’ in... see the statue of liberty . . . see Governor's Island . . . step right up... ” The crowds ebb and flow, and the wary spy-glass racketeers take elaborate Precautions to keep the lighter fin- gered visitors from wandering off with the glasses. Frank Stone, oldest of the marine glass merchants, keeps his particular wares locked to a flexible stand. sess As it stands today, and as it has stood for many a year, this precious and tradition marked area, which buildings. ie, ees ee eae eee, tie fea ‘| yards of the colossal cit; 5 3 : i Finally, of course, there is the view | ¢@—————______________—. it seems to me, could not have if Federal Farm Facts failed eventually to attract the real; @————______________—_@ around the Bowling/ Being a tropical insect, the Medi- terranean fruit fly will in all prob- ability not invade the northern of the United States. It will, lo the first . eral months. During that period 'Co-ope: it shoe tid 188 per cent of the pre- ‘war level, a drop of 2 points bel the level of the same period in 1928, The cause, as pon by the U. S, of Agriculture, was the in the of all ucts, eggs, calves and wool. i 4 Even the - n sheng j extension depart the period Tgrieults ‘a dale eee ee ire > marking farmers all ove 3 o u i ve Extension Work, says: | 1,200,000 ac: ine pong that we can dole, per- E \ ps le, our economics extension very county needs oman work to the very great advantage of [tension agent af addition to the * the farmer.” male re During the last three years more |ment of Agricalture, forestland have been Srousht under| The Bureau of Agy n state administration, the u s. somes Eronnoe sts foraty holdings to more [Ci tqiataees oldin, than 6,550,000. acres, During 1925 lice crea ean ory euet, the state of Washingto: in-} and evaporated 2. H a i i # F i 5 3 é 5 i i i i gE i H fe | E I nn alone