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THE SOCIAL EFFECTS
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AS SEEN IN
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A Study Made by the League for Preventive Work, Boston
Read by Amy Woods, Secretary of the League, at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the National Temperance
Council, Washington, D. C., Sept. 20, 1920
The League for Preventive Work is an affiliation of twenty-one social service agencies dealing directly
with medical, legal, children's and family problems. Its purpose is to study with a forward look toward
ultimate prevention the underlying causes of poverty and misery found in their work with families.
ITH the last official figures on March 1, 1918, Robert W. Kelso, present
Commissioner of Public Welfare of Massachusetts, summed up the fol-
lowing "certain definite outlays which are indisputably the result of
drink":—59 per cent. of the policing of the State; 70 per cent. of criminal prose-
cutions; 65 per cent. of the work of the county jails and houses of correction;
considerably over one-half of the commitments to the State Farm, and practically
all of the patients of the State Hospitals for alcoholics and drug inebriates; more
than 16 per cent. (16.76%) of the care of the insane; at least one-third of the
care of 7,000 children and one-third of the poor relief administered in the homes
by the Overseers of the Poor.
Taking in each instance a lower percentage of the total cost of maintenance
than these figures indicate, he estimated the Commonwealth's yearly expenditure
for alcoholic intemperance in these items alone as $6,235,898.60. Subtracting the
income from licensing fees of the year 1916, $3,453,321.84, left more than two and
three-quarter million dollars spent outright for the drink habit.
Besides the two and three-quarter millions of public money charged up to
drink, 815 incorporated private charities in Massachusetts expended $17,183,501,
in regard to which, quoting Mr. Kelso again, "Indisputable evidence shows that
never less than one-fourth of the outlay is chargeable to drink.”
According to the American Grocer (Sept. 1, 1920), "The result of anti-liquor
laws has been the cutting down of the use of spirituous [alcoholic] liquors as a
REPRINTED FROM THE SCIENTIFIC TEMPERANCE JOURNAL, SEPT., 1920)
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THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
beverage from 22.79 gallons to 9.17 gallons per capita." Despite the estimate that
15 million gallons of liquor have been withdrawn from Government bonded ware-
houses since prohibition went into effect, and that it is a recognized fact that a
considerable amount has been illegally used for beverage purposes, it would seem
hardly possible that Massachusetts at least has lived up even to the American
Grocer's minimum figures of 9.17 gallons per capita since July 1, 1919, when the
following facts and figures are considered. It must not be forgotten that when
the per capita consumption of alcoholic beverages was highest in the United
States about 93 per cent of the amount consumed was in the form of beer and
wine, chiefly beer (90 per cent). Boston has been called a boozily backward city
by Elizabeth Tilton, and Federal Prohibition Commissioner Kramer is reported
as saying that the enforcement of prohibition in Boston has been the most satis-
factory of any of the large cities. This paper, therefore, is a summary of some
figures and impressions of a wet city under prohibition in the first year of en-
forcement of a national law.
The official figures for arrests for drunkenness in Boston for one year ending
July 1, 1920, are 16,487, a drop of 68 per cent. from the previous year, which
recorded 52,682. The rate of decrease, more than two-thirds, is approximately
the same for both men and women (Table I and Fig. 1, p. 124.
July
August
September
October
··
March
April
May
June
November
December
January
February
..
•
•
D
Total men
Total women
TABLE I.
ARRESTS FOR DRUNKENNESS IN BOSTON
Year Ending
June 30, 1919
•
•
•
•
•
Male
3,741
4,196
4,593
4,711
5,056
4,575
3,818
3,760
3,612
3,814
3,585
3,522
48,983
Year Ending
June 30, 1919
48,983
3,699
Female
272
311
350
352
350
353
324
289
272
316
250
260
3,699
Total men
Total women
Total men and women. 52,682
Figures from Boston Police Headquarters, September, 1920.
Year Ending
June 30, 1920
Male Female
60
609
•
1,055
1,561
1,865
1,264
2,042
1,160
615
936
1,238
1,601
1,513
15,459
74
105
132
65
94
75
62
4I
95
124
IOI
15,459
1,028
Total men and women. 16,487
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES
1,028
Year Ending
June 30, 1920
There are also more than 5,000 fewer arrests for other offenses for the twelve
months ending July 1, 1920.
Personal safety has increased immeas-
(Table II.)
[2]
AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
urably under the first year of prohibition. The drop in figures of offenses which
cover assault upon the person other than sex offenses, such as murder, man-
slaughter, assault and battery, etc., (Table V) abandonment and neglect of chil-
dren, offenses against chastity and morality, range from one-quarter to two-thirds
of the number of similar offenses the year before. Prohibition appears to have
decreased nearly every type of crime in Boston, except breaking and entering,
which remains the same, and gaming and violation of drug laws, which have in-
creased, although the tremendous increase in the use of drugs which was predicted
does not show in either public health, hospital or court records.
The figures that strike between the eyes are these. The total arrests in Bos-
ton for all offenses in the first year of national prohibition are 5,287 less than
the arrests for drunkenness alone in the preceding year, despite the fact that the
police arrest on a much slighter provocation than before prohibition.
TABLE II.
TOTAL ARRESTS FOR ALL OFFENSES IN BOSTON
Year Ending Year Ending
June 30, 1919 June 30, 1920
6,953
3,560
7,661
3,799
7,864
3,939
8,218
4,270
3,315
4,268
July
August
September
October
..
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
·
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
·
•
·
8,723
7,845
7,142
7,164
6,943
6,568
6,810
6,592
88,483
80,829
7,672
3,969
2,689
3,462
3,718
5,034
5,362
47,385
Decreased Percentage
Over Previous Year
45
| 14 15
Total males
43,742
3,643
Total females
Figures from Boston Police Headquarters, September, 1920.
As for Massachusetts at large, Herbert C. Parsons, Deputy Commissioner of
Probation, gives the arrests for drunkenness for the year ending October 1, 1920
(estimating August and September as the same as last year), as 32,580, as against
77,925 in 1919, less than one-half. A number of courts in the State are running
into months with no work to be done. Mr. Parsons says he could easily name 30
courts in the State which should be absolutely abolished. There are no figures
to be had to cover the amount of court cases in the State, but the rate of probation
cases to court work remains the same as in previous years, that is 25 per cent.,
and as the number of probation cases has decreased one-half, it is safe to say that
the cases brought to court have also dropped to one-half the previous number.
The lowest mark was reached in February, since when there has been a steady in-
crease of about 600 cases a month. But 32,000 arrests for drunkenness, even
45
52
[3]
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
with a monthly increase through this period of adjustment of State and Federal
laws for enforcement, seem very small compared with Commissioner Kelso's
figures for 1915, of 106,146 arrests for drunkenness. (See Fig. 4, p. 130.)
FAMILY RELATIONS
That the number of court cases on charge of desertion has not diminished
may not be a reflection of conditions in the home. The workers in private agen-
cies which are most closely associated with the family have reported many in-
stances of the growing sense of responsibility of a former deserter. Here is one
story which can be duplicated many times in the essentials.
"Mr. Doe was a typical drinking, deserting, non-supporting man.
At one
time he and his wife were legally separated, but Mr. Doe returned and forced his
wife to take him back. Despairing of doing anything with him, Mrs. Doe moved
into the country. This and prohibition accomplished wonders. They are back
in the city now with their six children, comfortable, well-clothed and fed. Mr.
Doe is working steadily and they have redeemed property which previously had
been pawned."
Total 1919
Total 1920
Drunkenness 1919
FIGURE I
Arrests in Boston, 1919 and 1920
Drunkenness 1920, 16,487
47,395
52,682
88,593
5,287 Fewer Arrests for All Causes in 1920 Than for Drunkenness Alone in 1919.
BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT.
Judge Frederick P. Cabot, of the Boston Juvenile Court, says that although
they have not tabulated data in regard to prohibition, he has a strong impression
that the effect of prohibition is shown in the court cases, both "delinquency" and
"neglect," particularly in the standard of the family home, through the giving in
of more money by the father and through the absence of irritability and quarreling.
Boys who have been bunking out and refusing to stay at home have ceased to be
active problems, due to the favorable change in home conditions. In a number of
neglect cases where drunkenness was the primary cause of failure in the family
life, there has been an entire change and families are on the up-grade, so that he
has returned some of the children to their parents. He also adds, "I have not
seen any court cases that seem to me to be attributed to unfavorable reaction
caused by prohibition, with a possible exception of a case of a Jewish boy selling
Jamaica ginger which the father had collected in large quantities in his house."
Mrs. Margaret Fitz Barnes, who is in touch with the families of the children
referred by Judge Cabot to Dr. Wm. Healy of the Judge Baker Foundation, for
[4]
AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
the purpose of further study of the personal or family problems of the child before.
rendering a decision, says that her experience leads her to believe that the home
where alcohol is now used is worse off than before, first because of the nature
of the drink, and second because it is taken secretly and illegally. But, she says,
"Such homes are fewer than ever before, and taking the city as a whole, neigh-
borhood and home conditions are better. Certain facts stand out. First, marked
decrease in the number of cases referred of petty delinquency from congested tene-
ment districts because of adequate parental control due to prohibition and of better
economic conditions; second, a definite and larger number of homes are known
to us in which children were formerly neglected or delinquent, and which have
been re-established since prohibition with altogether higher standards of living
TABLE III.
OFFENSES OF AND RELATING TO CHILDREN IN BOSTON
COMPARISON BEFORE AND AFTER PROHIBITION, YEARS ENDING——
Children neglected
Children wayward
Children delinquent
1919
1,063 fewer delinquent children.
Figures from Boston Police Headquarters, September, 1920.
FIGURE 2
Delinquent
3,587
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
2,524
1920
||||||\/|//|/|//|//||||||||||…………………………………………………||||||||||||
June 30, 1919 June 30, 1920
159
135
II
22
3,587
2,524
Offenses of and Relating to Children
Neglected
159
1919
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
135
1920
|||||||||||||||||||||
A Decrease of 1,036
Delinquent Children
29%
Decrease
Per Cent.
15
50
29
Wayward
22
11
1919 1920
BOSTON POLICE DEPARTMENT.
and better parental care; third, the opinion of alcoholic parents of delinquent chil-
dren who feel that prohibition is unfair, yet admit it is better for their children.
(Table III.) Boston has had 1,063 fewer delinquent children under federal pro-
hibition, a decrease of 29 per cent., according to police records. (Fig. 2).
Wm. H. Marnell, Chief Attendance Officer of the Public Schools of Boston,
writes that his officers agree that an improvement has been seen, not only in the
condition of the homes, but is reflected in the children. The homes appear better
[5]
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
kept, the children attend school better clothed and apparently better nourished,
and during the school year ending June 1, 1920, the number of individual truants
showed a very marked decrease which he says he attributes in a very large meas-
ure to the enforcement of the amendment.
C. C. Parsons, general agent of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children, sends the following partial figures from a comparative
study of physical neglect cases due to drunkenness known in 1916 and 1920, as a
straw to indicate which way the wind blows: In one of the cities of Massachu-
setts which has been "wet" a large part of 20 years there were 10 families reported
in July, 1916, in which there were 29 neglected children, 7 drinking men and 7
drinking women. This year there was but one family with one child neglected,
and one drinking man. In other parts of the State the rate is higher, but in no
instance did the reports in July and August reach more than one-third of the
1916 figures.
PENAL INSTITUTIONS
With a diminution of arrests has come a corresponding drop in institutional
population.
The State Department of Prisons reports a total prison population on August
1, 1920, of 2,278, nine hundred less than the year before. As for the lesser
offenders, the total population in 21 county jails and houses of correction on Au-
gust 1, 1920 was only 897, and this included persons arrested and awaiting trial
as well as those serving a term.
TABLE IV.
COMPARISON OF FIGURES SHOWING DROP IN POPULATION OF STATE
FARM IN FIVE YEARS, 1916-1920
August 1, 1916..
August 1, 1917.
August 1, 1918..
August 1, 1919.
August 1, 1920..
•
• •
·
Obtained from Mass. Dept. of Corrections.
*Due to war draft and a greater opportunity to work.
1,410
1,343
559
431
243
(drop of 4% over 1916)*
(drop of 58% over 1917)*
(drop of 21% over 1918)
(drop of 44% over 1919)
The permanency of the State Farm is also tottering. The former household
of 1,410 on August 1, 1916 has dwindled in four years to one-sixth its former size.
The State Farm is an institution where the courts may sentence the old rounders
arrested for drunkenness who have failed to respond to probation. Ninety-five
per cent. of the inmates of the Farm are of this type. They were housed and fed
for three months and then given $1.00 and a pair of shoes which they soon sold oi
pawned for drink, and so were recommitted. According to Dr. V. V. Anderson,
former director of the Medical Service of the Municipal Court of Boston, these
rounders [recidivists] averaged a little more than 17 arrests apiece. Now both
court and hospital authorities say that the old rounders are passing. (Tables IV
and VI.)
The same encouraging words come from the State Reformatory for Women.
Mrs. Jessie D. Hodder, superintendent, writes that from July 1, 1919 to July 1,
[6]
AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
1920, there were 8 commitments for drunkenness, and 5 of these were in the first
two months. The year before there were 34. There has been a marked decrease
also in commitments on other charges, part of which she says is undoubtedly due
to prohibition, a total of 118 commitments, as against 271 for the same time last
year. Mrs. Hodder says, "Now that the old rounders are being eliminated from
our reformatory population, we are getting a much higher type of younger girl,
the sort a reformatory should receive." In 1917, Mrs. Hodder reported that two-
thirds of the women admitted to the Reformatory bore a personal history of alco-
holism.
Total Commitments for All Causes 1919
""
FIGURE 3
Massachusetts Reformatory for Women, Sherborn
""
Drunkenness 1919
,,
39
34
""
"" 1920
118
271
1920 8 (5 in first 2 months)
Now that the old rounders are being eliminated from our Reformatory group we are
getting a much higher type of younger girl, the sort a Reformatory should receive.
JESSIE D. HODDER, Superintendent.
RELIEF AND TREATMENT INSTITUTIONS
The State Hospital, built for the care and treatment of inebriates and drug
addicts is closed and the policy of the State to develop out-patient clinics has been
abandoned.
A police captain with many years' successful record in a district of Boston
largely made up of lodging houses and tenements says that besides fewer arrests
the police have no appeals for charity, and the "Bedding House," an undesirable
type of hotel for men only, is being put out of business. Of two such houses
within a block of each other which lodged over 100,000 transients in 1918, one is
closed, and the other reduced to a third of its former business. Two hotels known
to be centers of vice and crime have closed, and three lodging houses which for-
merly were scenes of debauchery have sobered up into respectable houses.
The Washingtonian Home, a private institution for alcoholics, where the
greater number of patients are prosperous professional and business men, has had
its number reduced from 120 a month to approximately 30 a month. The patients
stay an average of seven days, and the treatment is simply a building up process
so that they can eat and sleep again. The number is now increasing slowly, and
on September 10 there were 11 patients. Dr. Gray, the superintendent, says that
they are able to get all the whisky they can pay for. Although many voted for
prohibition they have not the strength to resist when they can get it.
[7]
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
CONDITIONS IN THE "SOUTH END”
Albert J. Kennedy, resident of the South End House for fourteen years de-
scribes the changes in his neighborhood in glowing terms. The month before pro-
hibition there were wild orgies at night, and the neighborhood was awakened by
cries and crashing bottles. The night before was terrible, and then came absolute
cessation. The streets in the South End are now practically clear of drunken
reelers. One sees occasionally a victim of Jamaica ginger, with set features and
glassy eyes, steering a straight course home. The "jakey"* drunk does not stagger.
TABLE V.
ARRESTS IN BOSTON FOR PERSONAL ASSAULTS OTHER THAN
SEX OFFENSES
A COMPARISON OF FIGURES FOR THE YEARS ENDING JUNE 30, 1919, AND JUNE 30, 1920
Year Ending
June 30, 1920
18
Murder
Murder, assault with intent to..
Manslaughter
Assault with felonious intent.
Assault
Assault and battery
Assault on police
Assault to rob
~Robbery
••
•
..
· •
•
Year Ending
June 30, 1919
30
96
99,
12
75
1,886
131
42
243
2,614
Figures from Boston Police Headquarters, September, 1920.
56
63
9
39
1,480
II2
39
IQI
1,917
Decreased
Percentage
40
41
36+
25
48
21
14
7
58
26+
His faculties are paralyzed and the 80 per cent. alcohol produces a brutality and
makes family conditions much worse than whisky. Mr. Kennedy says, “One
drunken man is now seen on the streets where a year ago we saw a hundred."
The homes even more than the streets show the result. The man who once lost
seven days' work each month from drink has not only an increased, but a steady
income. Formerly unreliable workmen are being promoted to positions of skill
and responsibility. Women have stopped working in factories and are keeping
house. Some have moved into better tenements, bought furniture, phonographs
and clothing. The change first showed in the use of the wet wash. Then better
clothing; then savings and better food. The last few months conditions have not
been as good. Last month there was an influx of young, flashily dressed street
walkers, apparently from some other part of the country.
Undoubtedly there is a systematic attempt to discredit prohibition and the
enforcement law, but it is not carried on by the victims of alcohol but rather by
those who are willing to make a profit out of their weakness. Men themselves
say they do not wish it back, for many realize that they haven't the strength to
withstand it if it is put before them again.
*Jamaica ginger.
[8]
IMPROVED HOMES
C
In another district of Boston, where approximately 15,000 families of un-
skilled workers live, there were on July 1, 1915, 35 saloons and 10 cafés and hotels
where liquor was sold, besides wholesale liquor stores. Today only 10 saloons
and 6 cafés are still open and selling soft drinks and one-half per cent. beer.
Occasional raids show they are sometimes evading the law. Here among the
thrifty group who saved money and eventually moved away were the families of
drinking men, in wretched homes, bills unpaid, poor food and inadequate clothing.†
In 32 such families there were 39 men (31 husbands and 8 sons) and 4 women
victims of drink. The transformation in these homes is significant, especially
with the wives and mothers. They no longer go out to work, and many of them
send their laundry to the "wet wash."* A proprietor of a chain of laundries says
that prohibition has revolutionized the laundry business. It has lessened the
number of mothers working, and it is difficult to get the young girls to work who
formerly left school because of hard times, and also they have to be paid higher
wages. Grocers and fish men say bills are paid and a better quality of food is
ordered and more of it. Frequently the men do the marketing. One woman
told the visitor that her husband had saved last year from July 1 to Nov 1 (4
mos.), $200. Before this he was always intoxicated and frequently had to pawn
AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
TABLE VI.
COMPARISON OF FIGURES SHOWING DROP IN MASSACHUSETTS PRISON
POPULATION IN FIVE YEARS, 1916-1920
August 1, 1916..
August 1, 1917.
August 1, 1918..
August 1, 1919..
August 1, 1920..
•
•
•
·
•
•
Obtained from Mass. Dept. of Corrections.
*Due to war draft and a greater opportunity to work.
5,554
5,581
3,671 (drop of 34% over 1917)*
3,173 (drop of 13% over 1918)*
2,278
(drop of 28% over 1919)
clothes to buy food for the family. When reminded of high wages, the mother
has always been true that the more money he
She is the mother of thirteen boys and one
The oldest boy had begun to go the way of
said, "That is not the reason, for it
had the more went into whisky."
girl, five of whom died in infancy.
his father, but since prohibition is earning $30 a week and had saved up to May 1,
1920, $350. This story of thrift could be duplicated in practically all of these 32
families. When a man ceases to drink, there is more money for the home and
immediately it becomes a livable place. First there is better food, then clothes,
then pleasures shared together and home furnishings, with chairs enough so that
the entire family can sit down at the same time and eat their meals together.
A number of new instalment furniture stores have sprung up on the edge of
each of these districts. The proprietors say they have had a wonderful business
year with prompt payments.
†Neighborhood Study by Mrs. Beata Brumy Cleary, from a thesis accepted for credit by Smith
College Training School for Social Work.
*Laundries which wash but return the articles wet for drying and ironing at home.
[9]
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
The change in the character of the men as brought out by the stories in these
32 families seems almost incredible. Brutes changed into self-respecting men inter-
ested in the welfare of their wives and children. A grandfather, a habitual
drinker, now says, "Just see where I am, working all my life, yet only a florist's
helper, never saved a cent. Since whisky went I have bought a cottage on the
Cape in a few months."
As against these stories of remarkable changes in these 32 families, there are
four men, two fathers and two sons, who have persisted in using whisky or its
substitutes. One husband is very brutal when intoxicated. He chases his wife
about with a knife in his hand, and has wounded her a number of times. The
other spends so much for whisky that he has no money for the adequate support
of his wife and four boys. One son is indulging in such extremes in substitutes
1915
1919
*1920
Arrests for Drunkenness in Massachusetts
32,580
FIGURE 4
"Estimating August and September the
same as in 1919.
Fiscal year ends October 1.
!
77,925
106,146
I 4 years a decrease of more than 4
In 1 year
""
""
""
""
1/2
HERBERT C. PARSONS,
Deputy Commissioner of Probation.
that he is rapidly destroying his health. The other has always been a worry
to his widowed mother, and is constantly under the surveillance of the police.
One of the men residents of the neighborhood house under whose auspices
this study was made has had a five-year experience as an amateur and professional
boxer which gives him the advantage of knowing many men. He has talked with
many people as he has gone about the city to prize fights and various other meet-
ings of men. Especially interesting is what he says men think about prohibition.
He says that men who were drunkards admit being brutes, and say that it took
months to get the alcohol out of their system, but now they can think straight,
and they hope it will not come back. The few men who were violent about having
their whisky taken away, when asked why they do not take drugs, agree with the
one who said, "I may be half crazy, but I am not entirely gone." For the most
part men who are using substitutes are unmarried and living in rooming houses.
The majority of the men are glad that whisky is gone, but many of them wish
they could have their drink of beer.
They fail to realize that the modification of the Volstead Act to allow light
wines and beers would throw open the doors again to 95 per cent. of the previous
consumption of alcohol.
[ 10 ]
AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
IN THE "WEST END" SECTION
In the West End of the city, where there is a large Jewish and Italian popu-
lation, Mrs. Eva W. White, head resident of the Elizabeth Peabody House, reports
a change in the closing of the saloons. This is a corner of Boston adjacent to
Cambridge, a no-license city for many years, whose late home-comers threw the
onus of their drinking habits upon Boston. In a survey a few years ago, out of
2,200 arrests in this quarter, 80 per cent. were non-residents of Boston, and only
4 per cent. out of the other 20 per cent. were residents of the district. Mrs.
White says there is a considerable amount of grumbling, with a great deal of extra
time on the hands of many men who do not know what to do with themselves, but
the moral aspect of the community has changed markedly. "Street solicitation
has lessened greatly. I can not say it has entirely stopped, but considering the
unsavory reputation of a certain Square in the neighborhood, the present gains
mean much."
SOUTH BOSTON
There are certain sections of the city that show the change more markedly
than others, notably the South End, Roxbury and South Boston. Miss Rose Here-
ford, head resident of the Little House in South Boston, says, "I have not seen
more than one-half dozen drunken persons, where before I often saw as many in
one day. One thing women are grateful for is the sober holidays, week-ends,
Christmas, etc." Before prohibition the nurses dreaded Saturday afternoon be-
cause nearly every person seemed to be intoxicated, but now there is much less
evidence of drunkenness.
The City Missionary, who visits many homes of church members in South
Boston, tells the story of one family as an illustration of many whom she knows.
The father and mother and five children three to ten years old, the man earning
$40 a week, but seldom sober, the children so afraid of him that the mother put
them to bed before he came home, sickness in the home. One winter night at
11:00 o'clock, she was called in and found the father dead drunk on the kitchen
floor and the mother sitting outside on the stairs in the hall with the little three-
weeks old baby in her arms, not daring to go in because he had threatened all day
to kill her if he had the chance. Today the father works steadily, provides for
his family as a father should, and happiness is written on the faces of the mother
and the children.
THE "NORTH END" DISTRICT
In the North End, where the Italian residents feel that the elimination of
their light wines is a catastrophe and are still making considerable in their homes,
social workers report that although the social reaction from drinking is not the
same among the Italians as with some other races, the closing of the saloon has
been a benefit. One writes that she feels it has been of as great benefit as in other
parts of the city, and cites an instance of children stopping in their play to watch
an intoxicated man reeling along on the other side of the street, when a year ago
they would have passed it by as a matter of course. Another says that the grown-
up boys are not loafing on the street corner now, and their mothers say, "They are
[ 11 ]
1
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
eating their heads off." The nurses say that before prohibition, when wine was
much less expensive, it was given to the entire Italian family, and the children
had it instead of milk or cocoa, but now it is given only to adults. The saloons
on the principal street of this district have been converted into clothing or furni-
ture stores or into restaurants. Only two are vacant.
HOW FORMER DRINKERS AMUSE THEMSELVES
In all great periods of social revolution, there is a residuum of human society
that can not adjust itself to the new conditions, and so, beside the men too weak
to resist the vicious substitutes provided for them, there is the group that can not
find interest or pleasure as a substitute for the sociability they had in drinking.
On the other hand, we have many stories of men who have turned deliberately
from alcohol and found greatest joy in pleasures with their families. Several
men are reported who have been able to purchase automobiles. There is an in-
crease of family parties to the motion pictures. The Nantasket Steamship Co.
reports a maximum year of holiday seekers to the beaches. Men with families
are flocking in greater numbers than ever before and the fear that the summer
public would not patronize a dry beach has not been justified. For the last two
summers the "Pop Concerts," a special institution of Boston music lovers, have
been run with only soft drinks. This year they have had unprecedented popu-
larity and a demand for a Fall season breaks all Symphony Hall traditions.
IMPROVED HEALTH
From health agencies come many evidences of improved conditions. G. Lor-
ing Briggs, manager of the Boston Floating Hospital, writes that thirteen months
of prohibition enables doctors and nurses to note a most remarkable change in
the condition of the children who have come to the hospital this summer. Better
pre-natal conditions for the mother, better food, clothing, and environment are all
in evidence.
The Boston Dispensary has had only two instances of patients under influence
of alcohol in six months.
The Massachusetts General Hospital has few cases diagnosed as “alcoholic,”
only three or four a month now. Ida Cannon, chief of the Social Service De-
partment of the Hospital, says that the workers in the Spring saw a decided change
in the homes and cited the instance of a mother of seven children who had been
addicted to liquor for ten years, going away from home sometimes for a week or
more. During one of these periods she became infected with syphilis and was
committed to a rescue home by the court. The burden of caring for a household
of eight proved too heavy for the little thirteen-year-old daughter, and the father
had begun to whip her. The mother was released after prohibition, and with an
unusual understanding straightened out the little girl's difficulties, and there is now
a happily re-established home life and seven children given their rights to the love
and care of both parents. This woman speaks freely of prohibition and what it
means to her.
The nurses of the Baby Hygiene Association visit in the homes all over the
city for pre-natal care and well children up to five years of age. They found a
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AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
marked improvement in the first few months after prohibition. Now conditions
are not quite so good, because of the use of Jamaica ginger and the operation of
household stills.
The House Physician of the Boston Consumptive Hospital finds there has
been much less unruliness among the patients. It is too soon to see the lessening in
tuberculosis.
It is in the City Hospital where the greatest change is noted. With thirteen
hundred beds and an average of 900 always filled, the hospital stands ready for all
sorts of emergency work in the city. Dr. Edmund W. Wilson, Assistant Superin-
tendent, says that the whole atmosphere of the hospital has changed. There are
TABLE VII.
PROHIBITION AND THE DEATH RATE
DEATHS FROM ALCOHOLISM AND CERTAIN RELATED CAUSES IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, FROM
JULY I, IG19, TO JUNE 30, 1920, INCLUSIVE, SINCE THE PROHIBITION LAW BECAME
EFFECTIVE, AS COMPARED WITH THE AVERAGE FOR THE CORRESPONDING MONTHS
DURING THE PRECEDING FOUR YEARS, WITHOUT PROHIBITION
NUMBER OF DEATHS
Year
July 1, 1915, to June 30, 1916
July 1, 1916, to June 30, 1917
July 1, 1917, to June 30, iy18
July 1, 1918, to June 30, 1919
July 1, 1919, to June 30, 1920
Alcoholism,
Acute and
Chronic
109
203
97
110
24
Accidents
610
*747
721
703
484
Total Deaths from
Homicides,
Alcoholism, Acci-
Other than
dents, Homicides
Accidental Suicides and Suicides
40
4?
39
36
+44
Boston Department of Health.
*Forty-five of these due to an electric street railway car accident.
†Seven of these incident to the police strike.
14I
130
121
122
98
900
1,122
978
971
650
no delirium tremens cases now. Just previous to prohibition the hospital had a
special D. T. room equipped, but it is never used. Although the campaign for a
"safe and sane Fourth of July" in recent years has decreased the powder cases,
there have always been from 75 to 100 cases from the celebration of the night
before. This year the 17th of June and the 4th of July were both "just like
Sunday." In the winter there were some wood-alcohol cases but no "calamity
cases," that is, blindness or death. Now wood-alcohol is eliminated, and only
two or three admissions a day for "jakey" and a few "perfume cases." Formerly
on Saturday night the family man drank up his wages and got into a brawl.
Those as well as the old rounders and the old soldiers who used to break out once
or twice a year are gone. There are no "fresh accident cases" such as scalp
wounds and broken noses. Accident cases have decreased at least one-third. The
ward patients come better clothed, with cleaner bodies, and are anxious to pay
where formerly they tried to dodge financial responsibility. There are more pa-
tients paying board.
Dr. William C. Woodward, Health Commissioner of Boston, believes that
the best statistics on the effects of prohibition can be obtained by grouping deaths
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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
W

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3 9015 04123 7846
THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
from accidents, suicides and homicides with deaths from chronic and acute alco-
holism. Deaths in Boston from alcoholism dropped in this year of prohibition
from 110 to 24 (79 per cent.). Deaths from accidents dropped one-third, and
from suicides one-fifth. The rate from homicides has not changed. (Table VII.)
The rates of decline in suicides and homicides in the Metropolitan Life In-
surance reports for June, 1920, correspond with the Boston figures, but the reason
is attributed to war-time conditions. There is, however, no uncertainty as to the
decrease of deaths from alcoholism-62 deaths of industrial policy holders of this
one company in the first three months of 1919, as against 12 in the same time this
year. There were also no deaths in the first six months from alcoholic cirrhosis of
the liver, although 7 in the first quarter of 1919. The report goes on to say,
"These figures are consistent with those reported by state and municipal officers,
as well as hospital superintendents over the whole country.'
VENEREAL DISEASES
With the reduction of drunkenness and the awakening of moral responsibility
which follows a clear mind has come a change in the reporting of the venereal
diseases. From monthly figures kept by the State Department of Public Health
since gonorrhea and syphilis become reportable February 1, 1918, one sees a sub-
stantial increase in the reporting of cases in the year 1919 over 1918, and then in
January, 1920 the decline in the figures becomes noticeable. In seven months.
from January 1, 1920 there are 1,634 cases less of gonorrhea, and 754 less of
sypinis. Dr. Carey, director of the Division of Communicable Diseases, says,
"Our feeling is that, as alcohol is a known predisposing factor in many exposures
to this sort of infection, prohibition should effect a marked decrease." This sud-
den drop of 28 per cent. of gonorrhea and 32 per cent. of syphilis needed to be
accounted for, and Dr. Mary Lakeman, epidermologist of the Division, who since.
January, 1920, has interviewed 230 physicians throughout the state with regard to
progress made in venereal control, brings back the combined opinion of these men
closest to the problem in private life. A number of the men voluntarily mentioned
the bearing of prohibition on what appears to be a reduction in the number of fresh
infections and the many others who were interrogated on this point in answer to
the effect of prohibition in this regard have with one exception expressed the opin-
ion that the diminution in the amount of alcohol used is having its effect in de-
creasing the number of exposures to venereal diseases.
The Genito-Urinary Clinic of the Massachusetts Hospital also shows a de-
crease in actual figures, and other hospitals have expressed an opinion as to the
certainty that it is so, and that the decrease is not due to a lack of reporting.
MENTAL DEFECTS
The hospitals for the mentally sick show a slight decrease both of admissions
due to alcoholism and of patients remaining under care, but feel it is too early to
determine the reason. The rate of admission of alcoholic psychoses, according to
the yearly reports of the State Department of Mental Diseases, has been growing
less in the last four years.
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AS SEEN IN MASSACHUSETTS
The feeble-minded in state institutions are receiving much more thought and
affection from their relatives, and in several instances a feeble-minaud child has
been able to go back to its own home under the safeguards which a normal and
well-balanced family can throw about it.
THE TALE OF NINETY-NINE FAMILIES
What effect all this requction of official figures has can best be seen by turn-
ing back to the homes of the people who have been most affected by the use of
alcohol, and I have left till tne last a summary of 99 stories filled with human
erest which have been sent to me from nine social service agencies, most of
which less than three years ago found an average of one-fourth of all the families
they knew handicapped by drink.
These stories for the most part have been written hastily in the midst of the
August shortage of workers, and by no means cover the total number of families
known to the agencies. They are only indicative of what may be found in every
part of Boston. They are stories of families who have previously needed medical,
financial or other form of social service and are known to have been seriously
handicapped by drink. They come from 13 different sections of the city and rep-
resent successes and failures of varying degrees. The family which has been
having a happier time and more food for a year, because blueberry juice combined
with medicated alcool made the father ill so that he stopped drinking is not
counted successful, because after a year of abstinence he has lately gone
drinking w sky. But the man who, earning fifty to sixty dollars a week
sober, had no responsibility to his wife and children, and since July, 191
contributed regularly to their support $50 a month and clothing for the children,
and who wishes his wife to return to him and re-establish his home, is counted
under "Improved Family Conditions," although his story is one of the lesser
achievements of prohibition.

امها
Seventy-seven of these stories, many of them almost unbelievable, of human
misery turned into family joy, show what prohibition can do. The Jamaica ginger
cases which are only evidence of exploitation of human weakness are incidents
compared with positive gains. In 49 of the families in which the figures are
given, 216 children are coming into their right to personal liberty through the oft-
cited infringement of their fathers' rights to stand unaided against irresistible
temptation. Of the 22 failures, 10 are of Polish origin living in 2 districts where
Jamaica ginger is being sold. Three are Italian, two of whom are mentally below
par, and one is a Swede. The nationality of the other eight is not given. Most
of these men stopped drinking at first, but now are obtaining either whisky or
Jamaica ginger secretly, their wives do not know where.
The trend of these findings was foreshadowed last spring by William H. Pear
of the Boston Provident Association in a paper read before the National Confer-
ence of Social Work, in which he says of 26 families,* "They may be taken for a
test of prohibition, and all but four can be offered as such examples of rebirth as
no friend of theirs would have dared to hope for nine months ago."
We can
*These 26 families are included in the 99 studies in this paper.
<<
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THE SOCIAL EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION
share the feeling of fear expressed by the wife who knows "He'd get it if he could"
lest there should be some relaxation of the law, and we can sympathize with Mrs.
Tim who says, "It is a poor arrangement that won't allow my man after a hard
day's work to have even a glass full of ale and all the time the rich have their
ceilars full of booze," especially when we read in the newspapers of September
12 well-known Boston names of persons who have whisky in their cellars pur-
chased from a whisky ring for wholesale traffic betwen New York and Boston
under forged permits. The difficulty of complete enforcement in Duston at pres-
ent apparently lies in the violation of the issuance and use of permits by a for
druggists and physicians, the manufacture and sale of Jamaica ginger for other
than medicinal purposes and the adjustment of State Police laws in accord with
Federal enforcement laws. There are other conditions which tend to laxity of
enforcement, and which will have to be remedied before we can expect an entirely
satisfactory situation. It would not, however, be wise at the present time to deal
with these matters in this paper.
Meantime those who place human welfare above personal gain may rejoice in
the growing number of mothers who will agree with one woman in Charlestown
who says that since prohibition her husbands has been "100 per cent a man."
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
CORRECTIONS
Commission on Probation
Department of Corrections
Reformatory for Wen
on Municipal Court, Probation Dept.
Judge Baker Foundation
HEALTH
Mass., Department of Public Health
Boston, City Health Department
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston City Hospital
*Children's Hospital, Social Service Dept.
Boston Consumptives' Hospital
Boston Floating Hospital
*Boston Dispensary
*Baby Hygiene Association
*Instructive District Nursing Association
*Dietetic Bureau
Washingtonian Home
EDUCATION
Boston Public Schools
Principals
Attendance Officers
*Member League for Preventive Work.
FAMILY
Mass., Department of Public W fare
*Boston, Associated Charities o
*Boston Provident Association
City Missionary Society
Catholic Charitable Bureau
*St. Vincent de Paul Society
Montreal, Charity Organization, Society of
CHILDREN'S AGENCIES
*Mass. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Children
*Boston Children's Aid Society
*Boston Children's Friend Society
*Children's Mission to Children
*Church Home Society
*New England Home for Little Wanderers
*New England Day Nurseries
MENTALLY HANDICAPPED
Mass. Department of Mental Diseases
Two State Schools for Feeble Minded
Boston Municipal Court, Mental Examiner
NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSES
Elizabeth Peabody House
Ellis Memorial
Hale House
Hawthorne Club
Little House
Norfolk House Centre
North End Union
South End House
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