The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 16, 1914, Page 12

spe EOE EEE E PTET FERRET ERNE TEER EERE TORE . - . ' . - ' . . . . » . . * . aadiastitnede’ geceh aan arta ment report: those statements are thentic records, th <5) eapect of the case w Dy Mr. White. by pointi of cnace © i000 tn eterrresere: jebraska. And yet. Nebras flees and fines Dealing with form of alcohol; Hams demonstra: Nebraska had > South Dai whit puts forth. Another observed Is t Dr. Williams deals wi 45,000 people, | ® gallon per | lt A tg at ing the read th the | chusetts. | should have | nearly | STAR—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1914, PAGE 12. HAS PROHIBITION HELPED KANSAS?’ Political Orators and Fiction Writers Claim That It Has, but Offer No Authen- , tic Statements as Proof—On Other Hand State and Government Statistics Compiled by Special Agents Prove the Contrary Government Statistics Considered to Be Absolute Authority Prove That Kansas Is Higher Than Her Neighboring States, and Especially Higher Than Nebraska, in Her Criminal Record, Poor House and Insane Asylum Inmates, and Consumes |D | =, w& a leading physician, medical expert, cultured man and author of many books, has furnished for publication—taken from government statistics —information covering the State of Kansas from the standpoint of prohibition. His statement is so broad and comprehensive that it needs hardly any comment by the publisher in presenting the same to his patrons—beyond this mere fact: Dr. Williams speaks by the card—from the rec- | ord made up by the State of Kansas and United States officials, who are paid to ascertain facts— and the accuracy of these statements are proven by these statistics. Of course any political orator or any writer of | fiction can easily make assertions which look well in print, and will be accepted by many good people | as facts—and yet the promulgators of such state- ments never cite any authority whatever! Against the wild assertions which have been repeatedly published about what “Prohibition does for the State of Kansas,” Dr. Edward Huntington Williams has prepared the following, and chal- lenges successful attack by citing official figures: DR. WILLIAMS’ MOTIVE. A few months ago it was enthusiastically proclaimed, ap- parently from official sources, that the beneficial effects of pro- hibition in Kansas could be accurately measured by the steady decrease of insanity and crime. “We are closing our poorhouses, prisons and asylums, thanks to our prohibitory law,” wrote the Kansas enthusiast. STATEMENT OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE | Everyone appreciates that if this statement is true it is of | greatest significance. For, beyond question, there is a close association between insanity, pauperism, crime and alcoholism. If Kansas, with its thirty years of prohibition, can show a record for thrift, sanity and good citizenship superior to neigh- boring States, which have a tolerant form of liquor legislation, all reasoning persons will be forced to admit that this form of legislation has earned the right to a serious hearing. CENSUS BUREAU TELLS THE STORY. It so happens that the census bureau, which has been in- vestigating these very problems, has just issued its report. And almost simultaneously the tutions for the insane, criminals available. So that it is now po accuracy the truthfulne astic Kansan, who claim NEBRASKA INSTEAD OF MASSACHUSETTS. The Kansas observer reached his conclusions by compar- ing his State with such Eastern State But obviously hi been made ke his own. Nebraska, for example, offers a ’ an adjoining state of the same type and having the same kind and practically the same number of inhabitants. It is apparent, therefore, that Kansas should be able to and paupers have become s of the assertions made by the enthusi- such superiority for his State. comparison with States nearer home, and more very | show a cleaner bill of health than Nebraska to make good her claim of legislative superiority. But in point of fact, the shoe is on the other foot. The census report shows that Nebraska had almost three times as great a decrease in insanity during the census period as Kansas —twenty-eight per 100,000 inhabitants as against ten, to be exact. So that if we make the decrease in insanity an index to good legislation, Nebraska’s license law appears to be greatly superior to her sister State’s prohibition. R. EDWARD HUNTINGTON WILLIAMS, | annual reports of the various insti- | sible to gauge with absolute | as New York and Massa- | , to be of much value, | close parallel, being | and given out officially by the various states, one is led to | wonder whether the enthusiast who boasts about Kansas’ record Enormous Quantities of Liquor ALCOHOLIC INSANITY. Of course, no one but a badly biased partisan will claim that any particular form of liquor legislation is responsible for the fluctuations in the exact numbers of all forms of insanity. Yet there is one form of mental unsoundness, known as alcoholic insanity, that is directly dependent upon the consumption of liquor. The number of cases of this form of insanity in any com- munity will give a very accurate index to the amount and quality of liquor consumed So that if Kansas is actually as “dry” as her partisans claim, she should have no cases of alcoholic insanity whatever, or, at worst, should make a better showing than her immediate neighbor. But her own official reports show that even in the matter of insane alcoholics, Nebraska has a better record. To be perfectly explicit, Kansas has 5 per cent alcoholic cases in her asylums, while Nebraska has a trifle over 4. More- over, the number of cases of this form of insanity has increased 1 per cent cach year for the last three years in Kansas, at the very time when the prohibitory statute was “being more rigidly enforced than ever,” according to a prominent State offi Meanwhile in most of the adjoining States, with the excep- tion of Oklahoma (which is also a prohibition State) there was a pretty uniform decline in the number of cases of alcoholic insanity. COMPARISONS EXTENDED. It lent, therefore, that Kansas has no basis for boast- ing about her insanity record when compared with her nearest neighbor. And her records shows to no better advantage when the comparison is extended. IS eV Thus the average number of cases of insanity in the ten | states that surround Kansas as a center, is 30.6 per 100,000 | inhabitants less than in Kansas. Or, stated in another way, if these states had as many | insane per capita as Kansas, they would have 4,800 more luna- tics than they now have. All of which does not seem to offer much basis for enthusiasm over Kansas’ method of legislation. PARESIS FOUND IN THE ASYLUM. But there is still another index to the amount of spirituous liquors consumed in any community. This is the number of cases of paresis found in the asylums. For although alcohol is | not the specific cause of paresis, the disease always accompanies, and results from dissipation of some kind. It is a matter of record that communities greatly addicted to alcohol show a cor- | | respondingly high percentage of paresis. It is significant, therefore, that Kansas has a higher per- centage of this disease, according to her own official report, than any of the states of her group. Stated in exact figures, Kansas had 80 cases of paresis for each 1,000 cases of insanity, at the same time that Nebraska had 60, lowa 50 and South Dakota 20. And the records show that the number of cases is increas- ing steadily in Kansas at the same time that the number seems | to be gradually decreasing in the group of surrounding states, | The physicians at the State Hospital at Topeka report that the | | percentage of cases had risen to 100 per 1,000 in 1913. THUS KANSAS EXCEEDS OTHER STATES IN | | barrel of whiskey per capita per annum—five barrels to thé | family. In other words, Kansas, instead of showing marked super- | | neighbors’ of insanity; has a higher percentage of insanity than the sur- | HER INSANITY RECORD. | iority, actually falls behind her nearest neighbor in the decrease rounding states; has more alcoholic insanity than her neighbors, and a far higher percentage of the dissipation-produced disease, | | paresis. | As these figures are the ones compiled by the government, is merely ignorant, or suffering from the peculiar kind of astigma- tism that seems to blind the political partisan to plain facts. KANSAS STATE’S PRISON RECORD. The same enthusiast has extolled the people of Kansas as exceptionally law-abiding on the basis of the State’s Prison rec- ords. Here again the peculiar astigmatism is apparent. For the actual facts are available to any one who cares to read the official reports of the State Penitentiaries. And accord- ing to these reports, Kansas shows to disadvantage when com- pared with Nebraska. Or to quote from the official prison re- | ports, Kansas had 52 inmates in her penitentiary for each 100,- 000 inhabitants during the same periad that Nebraska had 35.7 per 100,000, This means that if the people of Kansas were as law-abid- ing as those of Nebraska, there would be 275 fewer prisoners in the Kansas penitentiary than at present. Moreover, the prison warden’s report shows that the cause of this lawlessness in Kansas was the arch trouble-maker, alcohol, as a direct or contributory factor in 77.2 per cent of cases. Thus] the actual number of criminals, as well as the percentage liquor-made convicts, is higher in Kansas than in her sister sta KANSAS’ RECORD OF PAUPERISM. 4 Naturally these prison records are a thorn in the flesh of the Kansas enthusiast. But the records of pauperism are equally disconcerting, although frequently glibly explained, regardless of facts. For example, certain Kansas speakers explain that Nebraska has so many less insane in her asylums than Kansas by rere (ae iy > that Nebraska has sent her lunatics to the poorhouse instead o the hospitals. But official documents tell quite a different story« These documents show that the almshouse population off Kansas is about 20 per cent higher than that of Nebraska. Inq short, that Kansas’ criticism of Nebraska really applies to herself, , ; Uncle Sam's experts report that there are 52.5 persons 100,000 of population in the almshouses in Kansas at the sam@ time that the number in the almshouses in Nebraska is only 43.5. Stated in the simplest terms, then, Kansas has more insane ~ —more criminals, and more paupers than Nebraska. And now comes a recent government report to the effect that she hag also more mortgages on her farms! KIND AND AMOUNT OF LIQUOR CONSUMED Every one admits that all these conditions are directly or indirectly dependent upon the amount and kind of liquor con- sumed. The implication is that the people of Kansas manage to find a way of securing liquor in very appreciable quantities, despite the prohibitory ‘statute. In point of fact, this is no longer a case for speculatiot for accurate records of the legitimate traffic are now availab The Mabin liquor law, which went into effect recently, requires railroads and express companies to file reports by counties of all intoxicants shipped into Kansas. What these records show should be a revelation to those | who have been led to believe that Kansas is actually “dry.” TOPEKA—AND THE COUNTY CLERK’S RECORD. Topeka, for example, is considered one of the most laws abiding cities in the state. A member of the Board of Control recently stated publicly that the Kansas metropolis was absolutes ly “drinkless.” "And yet the files of the County Clerk of Shawnee County, in which the city of Topeka is located, show that in the month of | September, 1913, the shipments of liquor officially reported amounted to 95,561 quarts, of which 90,062 quarts were re- ceived in Topeka—a city of 45,000 inhabitants—‘just half a gal- lon per month for each man, woman and child.” This is a somewhat questionable showing for a model town. And yet by comparison Topeka shows to advantage for her little neighbor, Tecumseh, with a population of less than 100, received 1,627 quarts in one month—an amount equivalent to about one Little wonder, then, that Kansas’ record is worse than her ! But what about the integrity, or intelligence, of the persons who are shouting about her incomparably good record? THEORETICAL LITERATURE, “There is no theoretical literature upon the matter,” wrote a member of the Board of Control of the Kansas insane hospital recently, “it is simply an actual fact that since doing away with saloons and joints and houses of prostitution, insanity has creased.” There may be no “theoretical literature de- upon the subject, | as the gentleman asserts, but there is another kind of literature, in the form of government and state reports, that he would do well to scrutinize before putting himself on record. KANSAS COMPARED WITH CALIFORNIA. It is interesting to note that during the same period in which Kansas was making this record, the State of California, whose record is being attacked just at present, showed the greatest d. cline in the number of insane in her institutions of any State, an was only second to one state in the decrease of new cases of ind sanity. —PAID ADVERTISING—Wage Earnere’ League of Washington, .