Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/548

 534 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

battery, from 382 to 263; for larceny, from 343 to 255; for neglect and non-support, from 1 12 to 87 ; for disturbing the peace, from 210 to 109. Patients in the alcoholic ward at the city hospital decreased from 274 to 144; and deaths from^ alcoholism, from 30 to 6. A special guard of 8 police, according to the Survey, has watched oyer illegal sales of intoxicants. There were made 381 arrests and 346 brought to trial. Of these, 51 were discharged and 241 convicted; the other cases being still unsettled. During the year 2,625 search warrants were issued and some places raided a dozen times to secure sufficient evidence. Massachusetts has 20 cities and 261 towns under no-license; and 13 cities and 60 towns, license. The figures given for Worcester, however, do not tell the whole story; as correspondents from Providence say that that city has been converted into a dumping- place for the least desirable of Worcester's population, especially on Saturday nights and holidays. In other words, Worcester is benefiting through the elimination of its undesirable element and Providence is suflfering by reason of its acquisition.

In the view of the Committee of Fourteen for Suppression of the Raines Law Hotels in New York City, there is a growing recognition by many of the clergy and those opposed to the liquor traffic that six-days' license and one-day prohibition cannot be maintained in a cosmopolitan city, and that it is better that liquor be lawfully sold under proper conditions on Sunday than by the means of speak-easies. These opinions are the results of the work of the committee and its attempt to pass the so-called Brough Bill, which secured strong indorsement in New York City, but for which the rural legislators were said to be afraid to vote. The Brough Bill aimed to make the Sunday sale of liquor no longer a special privilege of the hotel. The reasons urged for taking this privilege away are two :

First, because it encourages the creation of hotels which can be made profitable as vicious resorts; and, second, because the privilege puts at a disadvantage and practically forces out of business the saloon keeper who does not pay graft money to the police for the privilege of illegal Sunday sale. As a consequence this special privilege encourages vice and bribery.

The Committee of Fourteen sets forth the existence of two