--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Anderson, Edward H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 6 published: 1916-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Edward H. Anderson, "For the Consideration of Utah Citizens," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 6 (April 1916): 540–545.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1906unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1906unse start_page: 540 end_page: 545 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1906unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # For the Consideration of Utah Citizens For the Consideration of Utah Citizens BY EDWARD H. ANDERRSON When there is talk of preventing the sale of liquor, threereasons among others are often given why it should not be done—it is detrimental to business; it doesn't prohibit; it interferes withpersonal liberty. But the greatest of these is business. It has stood solidlyin the way in Utah. It has been willing to cut its own throat withwhiskey rather than risk prohibition. The hoarded millions in thebanks have fairly rattled in the vaults for fear, when there wastalk of abandoning booze dispensaries. Men in high standing,politicians from the senate to the police court, have held up theirhands in holy horror at the thought. A state that should have ledin abandoning strong drink, because a great majority of the peopleare religious believers in temperance, has been compelled by thisinfluence to tolerate the saloon and to suffer the slimy trail ofneedless expense, disease, poverty, suffering and crime that lineup in its wake. Isn't it about time the people awaken to the truth, and to thefallacy of this position? Isn't it about time the voters cease tobe influenced by false cries of danger, and learn to look aftertheir own interests rather than those of the politician and thesaloon proprietor, whiskey manufacturer, and booze dispenser?Isn't it about time, then, to follow the word of God rather thanthe lure of money? So many states, and some nations for that matter, have triedprohibition, and found it advantageous, financially, morally, phys-ically, and as a stimulant to true freedom, that there is now noanswer which the supporters of the open saloon can give for itsexistence except personal gain to the manufacturers and owners.A poor recompense for the slimy trail! The dispatches brought news, some days ago, from Kansas,where prohibition has been on trial nearly a generation—longenough to give adequate evidence of its merits and demerits, thatthe state has the lowest death rate of any state in the Union.Why ? Because the people do not drink liquor. The United States government officials, in December last,published a report of the death rate for the country. It disclosedthe fact that the rate in Kansas was 9.8 in each 1,000 population,which was the lowest in the registration area. The officials did FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF UTAH CITIZENS 541 not believe the report, and sent a special agent who, after asearching investigation, reported Kansas 99 per cent efficientin reports. That did not satisfy the officials at Washington. Theywrote to Mr. W. J. V. Deacon, registrar of the Kansas VitalStatistics Bureau, demanding an explanation of why the Kansasdeath rate was so low. His answer follows in full, as it wasprinted in January last, in a dispatch from Topeka: REASONS FQR LOW DEATH RATE IN KANSAS "Kansas is almost wholly an agricultural state; there are only12 cities in the state of more than 10,000 population, and there is agratifying absence of slum districts in any of these cities. Aside fromthe southeast corner of the state there is no mining. '"The density of the population in the state is only 20.7 personsto the square mile, and 70.8 per cent of the population resides outsideof towns of 2,500 population or more. The climate, while showingextremes of temperature, is usually mild enough to permit much out-door work and open windows. INTELLIGENCE AND PROHIBITION "But it is to the people themselves -that we must look for thoseminor and subtle qualities that make for better and longer living.Kansas is a rich state, her per capita wealth is great and the peopleare enabled to live well, to clothe themselves properly, to have com-fortable homes and to load their tables with nourishing foods. All ofthese make for strong physical resistance to disease and that psycho-logical poise that directly affects bodily health. "Kansas is a prohibition state and has been for a generation, andin Kansas prohibition really prohibits. I do not mean by this thatthere is no alcohol consumed in the state, but the absence of thesis loon means much to our grown young men and boys who, in theabsence of the barroom, find more healthful pastimes than loafingin an alcohol laden atmosphere, and there is an absence of oppor-tunity to poison the body with the toxins of alcohol which will besure to show in those organic diseases which are known to be af-fected by alcohol. "Another and more important effect of prohibition is that the wageof the laborer or mechanic is not dissipated, but goes to supply thosenecessities of food, clothing and housing most essential to the wellbeing of their families and themselves. KANSAS DEATH RATES "The intelligence of the people has, in my opinion, a direct in-fluence upon their health. There is a direct correlation between alow rate of illiteracy and a low death rate. Kansas has an illiteracyrate of 2.2; the people are intelligent, and for many years the Kansasstate board of health and allied agencies have carried on a propa-ganda of public health education which is bearing fruit in the savingof human lives. "The following table shows a comparison of the death rates per100,000 population, in certain diseases, between the average for the 542 IMPROVEMENT ERA registration area of the United States as shown by the mortality sta-tistics for 1913, the latest pulication, and Kansas for the same period: Rate per 100,000 Population Area Mor- Kansas tality Report of Statistics, State Reg- 1913. istrar, 1913.Cause of death. Nephritis (Bright's disease) 102.9 64.5 Tvphoid fever 17.9 19.4 Diphtheria 18.8 . 7.8 Tuberculosis (all forms) 147.6 61.8 Cancer (all forms) 78.9 55.9 Diabetes 15.3 12.9 Pneumonia (all forms) 132.4 85.5 Diarrhoea and enteritis (under 2 years) 75.2 52.8 Violence (ex. suicide) 92.5 63.6 Kansas has the lowest death rate of any state in our country,because the people do not drink liquor. The people there have putinto practice the word of God: "strong drinks are not for thebelly;" and further, are reaping the benefits promised to thosewho keep this law: "I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, thatthe destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israeland not slay them." EFFECT OF PROHIBITION ON BUSINESS So much for the health of Kansas. The Governor of Kansas,Hon. Arthur Capper, born and reared in the state, writing in theJanuary, 1916, number of The Fro, gives some inspirational fig-ures on thrift and business as a result of prohibition. He statesthat the prohibitory provision in the state Constitution of Kansasis the portion of the fundamental law of the state nearest tothe hearts of the people, and that it is doing more "to make goodmen and women and to bring prosperity and happiness to the peo-ple of Kansas" than any other thing. He then proceeds to pointout "some of the benefits which Kansas enjoys as a result of pro-hibition :" "Kansas is the State which sends more boys and girls to univer-sity, college and public school, in proportion to population (census1913), and fewer men and women to prison and jail, than any otherState in the Union. "The State which has the highest per cent of home-owners. Thelast census showed Kansas first in home-owning citizens. "The State in which banks and not saloons cash the workingman'spay-checks; the same banks which in 1907, the panic year, sent theEast fifty million dollars. "The State with fewer millionaries and fewer paupers than anyother State. "One of the two States of the Union having the smallest numberof persons who cannot read and write—less than two per cent of itspopulation. FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF UTAH CITIZENS 543 "The State, which for thirty-five years, has not had a legalizedsaioon nor brewery. "The State in which thirty-two counties have abandoned theircornty farms, and eighty-eight counties did not have an insane patienton their county farms last year. "The State in which forty counties, out of one hundred five, didnot send a prisoner to the State Penitentiary last year. "The State which, taken upon the basis of property assessed fortaxation, has the largest per capita wealth in the nation—$1,629.61 forevery man, woman and child in the State. "The State which has no bonded debt, except $370,000 owned bythe State School Fund Commission. "The State which, under prohibition, increased its bank depositsone hundred per cent in ten years. The banks of Kansas increasedtheir deposits $46,000,000 last year. "The value of the Kansas orchard, field and livestock crops for1914 was 638 million dollars. I do not claim that the prohibitory lawis the sole cause of this great agricultural wealth, but surely thiswealth is evidence that prohibition does not destroy business and theproperty of a State.* * * "Kansas, by the last census, was the fourteenth manufacturingState, and its manufactured output was larger in proportion to thepeople employed in manufacturing enterprises than that of any otherState except one; which shows that prohibition begets efficiency inlabor. "And prohibition does prohibit. The per-capita consumption ofliquor in Kansas is $3.04; in the nation it is $21. Thus Kansas savesthirty million dollars every year directly through prohibition. Theindirect gain is not subject to computation, but is certainly greaterstill. "Insanity due to intemperance has been reduced to three per.cent. The average for the country is ten per cent. "As a matter of fact, there is no sound argument against prohi-bition, either moral or economic, not even the argument that it in-creases taxes, which it does not do. For instance, the taxes, in Topekaare just about the average of cities in the Middle West, many ofwhich get a large revenue from saloon licenses. * * * "In short, prohibition is an unqualified success in Kansas andour people would not think for one moment of going back to thesaloon." TESTIMONY FROM ARIZONA Our neighbor, Arizona, to the south, is prospering-, by leapsand bounds, morally, financially and in happiness, since prohibitionwas made the order, beginning with 1915. In the January, 1916,Sunset, a live monthly, published at San Francisco, George Her-bert Smalley, writes an article presenting statements which showthat in the face of such a record, "the saloon has no chanceof opening again for business in Arizona." Some of his state-ments are quoted at random : "Laborers have bank accounts who never before knew what sav-ings meant." "The savings accounts of the state banks increased by nearly halfa million dollars in eight months." 544 IMPROVEMENT ERA "The total deposits of all state and national banks in Arizona in-creased $3,000,000, during the same period of prohibition." "The rust has accumulated on the locks of many outlying jails, sothat they can't be opened with a key." ''Even the city of Prescott did not have an arrest for three monthslast summer." Speaking" of the arrests, he says: "I examined the records of the sheriffs' offices and city police sta-tions in ten of the twelve cities that were wet in 1914. I found thatthere were 3,043 arrests for drunkenness during the first six monthsof 1914 and 464 during the same period of 1915 under prohibition, adecrease of 2,579, or more than 84 per cent. He presents the following table, showing the arrests for thefirst six months, of the last year of the open saloon, and the firstyear of prohibition. The table names ten cities of the state inwhich it is shown that arrests for offenses, including drunkenness,fell off, under prohibition, more than one-half: Arrests for the first six months of 1914 1915 Bisbee 581 164 Douglas 458 229 Prescott 90 44 Florence 33 5 Flagstaff 90 21 Williams 83 50 Tombstone 85 7 Tucson 702 661 Phoenix 2059 995 Globe : 612 214 Totals . 4793 2390 Decrease 2403 HOW IT WORKS IN RUSSIA When the Great War began, Russia forbade the use of vodkaand adopted prohibition. The result has been a remarkable in-crease in the savings deposits, and in the happiness and welfareof the people—accompanied by a marvelous decrease in crime,unemployment, sickness, suicide, arrests and imprisonment. It isgenerally believed that nothing can hereafter induce the rulers,not even the itch for saloon profits, to ever abandon prohibition, soconvincing has been the good results following its adoption. Adispatch from Petrograd some days ago named some of the re-sults of the first twelve months in Russia without liquor: Crime (all kinds) has decreased 62 per cent.Absenteeism in factories has fallen 60 per cent.Suicide rate has dropped enormously.Hospitals formerly overcrowded are not filled. FOR THE CONSIDERATION OF UTAH CITIZENS 545 Efficiency in factories increased 10 to 15 per cent.Practically every inhabitant is at work.Savings deposits have increased 8 per cent.Fire damage has fallen off 38 per cent. Wages in some districts raised 500 per cent. (This applies topeasants working as day laborers.) People are eating better and costlier food.Better clothing is worn by the poorer classes.Agricultural implement sales 60 per cent larger.Imprisonment dcreased 72 per cent. PROHIBITION IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST In the great Pacific northwest, Washington, Oregon andIdaho, after less than two months of total abolishment of the sa-loon, we are told by newspaper correspondents, that the businessmen of the leading cities favor prohibition as a good businessproposition. A correspondent for the press writes from Seattle: "The dire prophecies of the deposed wets have not materialized. "Instead of a business slump, times are unusually good. "Property formerly occupied by saloons has rented freely. "Collections, say merchants, are better than for a long time. OneSeattle packing and provision firm sold more meat, eggs and suppliesduring the first seventeen dry days in January than during the threemonths prior, when the city was wet. Real estate has felt no ill effects, according to a canvass fromseveral large Washington cities. "But the most marked response to the banishment of booze isshown in the police records of Seattle, Tacoma, Spokane, Portlandand other large centers. "In Seattle there were but twenty-six drunks "In Seattle there were but twenty-six arrests for drunknness dur-ing January, as against a former average of 200 drunks a month. Thetotal number of cases booked for all causes in January was almosttwo-thirds less than for an average month in the old days of thesaloon. "Spokane and Tacoma show corresponding decreases in arrestsand crime in favor of state wide prohibition. ' 'There has been a marked betterment of temper among the peo-ple during the past few weeks,' said Police Judge Gordon of Seattle.'There has been practically no fighting and very little petty crimesince the first of the year.' "The proprietor of a Seattle meat market, near the old waterfrontsaloon district, is cashing many more checks than formerly. "'The men tell me,' he explained, 'that they are now buyingmeat because they can't buy booze. It's not only a few such casesIV noticed, but it has happened hundreds of times within the past twomonths. These fellows from the waterfront no longer cash theircheks in saloons and spend the money there." "That is the general verdict from merchants in the larger cities." With these facts staring them in the face, will the voters ofUtah at the next election still continue in office, or elect to office.city and state officials who stand for booze, for financial or polit-ical reasons?