in its place, as is quickly the case. There is a narrow stage of fever and debility in which alcohol may be available. But it is to be borne in mind always that the stimulant effect is short and apt to be followed with depression and that its chief effect is that of a neurotic. Since we have come to know the value of the various peptonoids and of their combination with beef, gluten, milk, and flavoring oils or condiments, there is far less need of alcoholics. The appetizing effects of wines, etc., result full as much from flavors, such as aenanthic ethers developed in them, and from the acidity, as from the alcohol itself.

The fattening effect of beer to some, results from the malt, etc., which now has an excellent substitute in the syrupy malt extracts. Alcohol as it comes to derange organs, especially the liver, has much the same effect as is produced by a forcing process upon the livers of geese, which become abnormal. The more such geese weigh, and the better they look, so much the worse for the geese. No doubt by the clogging of organs there may be retention of materials and pent-up secretions which add slightly to bulk or weight, but it is only a storage tending to disease and not a storage of health.

The day is passed when upon dietetic or medicinal grounds there is any indispensable call for the moderate or habitual use of alcoholic beverages.

In the midst of all the various alcohols and of all the manufactured and concocted mixtures which are now sold, as if they were the real and pure product of the grape or of alcoholic distillation, we have better known tonics and nutrients which effectually take their place, except to those who wish them as pleasure-giving drinks. As the design of this paper is only to state the finding of scientific and experimental research as to alcohol and the judgment of skillful and critical clinical experience we leave to others many arguments which go to emphasize the convictions which experiment and observation force upon us.

1

THE ECONOMICS OF PROHIBITION.

BY DR. E. R. HUTCHINS (Iowa). ·

IN presenting to this convention a paper, necessarily brief, upon this subject, pressure for time compels me to give some facts covering several years, but not wholly for the last three. What shall be said herein may be said of those years, down to the present time. I must, too, confine my statements to matters in Iowa, with which I am, of course, more conversant; but again, what can be said of this State applies with equal force to all communities in which prohibition exists. Proofs of good results are strongest when practical and beyond cavil. Such I hope to present.

First, let us refer to the capital of Iowa, Des Moines. This is the largest city in the State by nearly 20,000. From the time the prohibitory law went into effect there has not been an open saloon in the city. True, there have been and still are places where liquors may be procured, but while men can go into cellars and hidden places, behind lumber piles and in the shadow of secluded alleys and find liquor, at the same time thousands of boys can walk our streets by day and night and not be enticed into a single saloon.

First. The average rate of taxes for the six years preceding the enactment of prohibition (1878-1883) was fifty-five mills on the dollar. For the past six years (1885-1890) it has been fifty-two mills. The highest rate of tax ever paid by any property in Des Moines was sixty-seven mills, levied in 1883; the smallest was forty-one and a quarter mills, levied in 1887.

Second. In 1884 there were ten school-houses in Des Moines, with eightyeight rooms; now there are twenty-one for the grades, with one hundred and sixty rooms, besides two large high-school buildings, with capacity for nearly six hundred students, and costing $125,000. This does not include the schools in the territory recently annexed to Des Moines, in which there are not far from twenty school-houses having fifty rooms, attended mostly by pupils from families recently removed from older parts of the city.

In 1884 there were thirty-seven houses of worship in the city as at present constituted; now there are sixty-seven, and eight of the societies which then had houses of worship have erected new ones, and several more are in process of erection. Among the new ones are some of the most elegant and commodious in the State.

Des Moines to-day is unquestionably the most prosperous and flourishing city in the State. The contrast in good order, growth, prosperity, and comfortable, happy home-owners between this city, where the prohibitory law is enforced, and the river cities, where the law is openly and flagrantly violated, is decidedly marked. Business men, including those opposed to prohibition, report larger sales, easier collections, and a far greater volume of ready cash. The following illustrates the economic effect of prohibition upon the taxpayers of the State in the matter of criminal convictions. There were, in

1884, 1,592; in 1885, 1,339; in 1886, 1,645; in 1887, 1,520; in 1888, 838. About the same reduced proportion prevails in 1889 and '90.

The requisitions for criminals in 1883: Iowa sent to other States 125 requisitions for criminals that had fled from her boundaries; in 1885, 167; in 1887, 112; in 1888, 37. The cost to the State for this purpose in 1883 was $17,193; in 1890, less than $4,000.

The prison population in the State in 1885 was 634; in 1886, 653; in 1887, 615; in 1888, 532; in 1889, 537; in 1890, 570. In Missouri, there is one inhabitant out of every 1,320 an inmate of their prisons; in Alabama, one out of every 2,000; in high-license Nebraska, one out of every 2,600; and in Iowa one out of every 3,350.

Third. On June 30, 1885, there were thirty-four savings banks in Iowa, with deposits amounting to $7,401,633.30, and assets of $9,618,866.97. Five years later the number of these banks had risen to fifty-nine, the deposits to $16,336,787.68, and the assets to $20,771,393.86.

During the same time the number of national banks and "State" banks (not including those for savings) had increased from 175 to 243, with deposits from $23,255,047.19 to $39,416,981.36, and their resources from $44,706,061.74 to $64,411,964.07. Total increase in number of banks, 93, or 44 per cent. ; in deposits, of $25,096,988.55, or over 81 per cent.; and in resources, of $30,858,429.18, or nearly 60 per cent.; this while the population of the State was increasing about 8 per cent. In 1885 there was about $18.00 of bank deposits to each inhabitant; in 1890 there was over $29.00 for each. During these five years it may be remarked that our building and loan associations have multiplied, and investments therein-both home companies and those from abroad-have very greatly increased. This shows you how prohibition has "ruined" Iowa financially. God speed the day when such ruin may come upon all.

Fourth. While I was Commissioner of Labor Statistics I asked the question: "Is prohibition a good thing for the wage-workers?" 1,704 working men returned answers. Of these, 376 said "No," and 1,328 said "Yes." The same question was asked coal miners. 440 replied. Of these, 121 said "No," and 319 said "Yes." The same officer asked of the savings banks officials : "Has there been an increase or decrease in the deposits of wage-workers during the last two years?" 20 per cent. replied "No increase," and 80 per cent. said "An increase."

Fifth. Statistics prove beyond a doubt that home ownership in Iowa has increased during the last five years more than threefold in excess of any like period prior to the enactment of the prohibitory law.

Grocers and dry-goods dealers in cities where the law is enforced report their sales for cash on Saturday and Monday nights (after pay-days) more than trebled since the prohibitory enactment.

An unbiased, fair observer cannot find a phase of pure social life that is not bettered by prohibition. Money is saved, homes are bought, schools and churches are populated, jails and prisons are emptied, improvements are perfected, sunshine dispels clouds around hearthstones, joy and content banish sorrow and strife at firesides, family altars are erected, and men are Christianized.

Thousands of persons once chained to the curse of the liquor habit are

men once more, "clothed and in their right minds." Thousands of homes, once places of discord and only homes in name, are now sweet and pure, and in reality the dearest places on earth. And all this comes directly from the economic effect of prohibition.

No man who desires Iowa's prosperity desires the return of the saloon within our limits. Our homes and schools are better than bar-rooms and breweries. The honest citizenship are realizing the truth of the statement that "license is the most daring treachery to civic virtue which our country has suffered since its tacit acceptance of slavery."

May God help, not Iowa alone, but the Nation, to crush out their most dangerous enemy, the licensed saloon.

THE USE OF TEMPERANCE LITERATURE.

BY REV. D. C. BABCOCK (NEW HAMPSHIRE).

WHAT is the purpose of the Temperance Movement? To abolish the Liquor System. Why? Because it is evil and "only evil continually," and the chief cause of many other social, civil, and moral evils. It is not a mixture of good and evil, but is all evil-as a whole, and in all its parts. It is a very comprehensive evil. It poisons the social, civil, and business life of the entire Nation. It should be destroyed pro bono publico.

To overthrow or prevent an evil we must remove or prevent its causes. The Liquor System is supported by the alcoholic drink traffic and drink habit. 1st. The traffic serves no good end whatever: those who engage in it do so for gain alone. They also do it with a full knowledge of the character of their "trade." They are "poisoners general." They know that degradation and ruin are sure to many of their patrons. They create an abnormal appetite, and feed it for gain. They "live" by destroying others. 2d. There is no good reason why any human being should use alcoholic liquors as beverages: there is no natural demand for such liquors. The entire animal world drink water. It is our natural beverage.

Drunkenness is caused by drinking If the effect is bad the cause must also be bad. But the Liquor System is a subtle evil. Many think the use of these poisons proper, but condemn drunkenness, which they denounce as intemperance. They fail to see that any use of such liquors, as beverages, is intemperance." Public sentiment sustains the causes that produce drunkenness. It sustains the causes and deplores the effects. We do not think this is done intelligently and of purpose, but ignorantly. The real causes of the evil are not seen by the masses.

The success of the Temperance Movement means more than a re-form-a-tion of social customs. It means a revolution; the eradication, not the readjustment, of the bases of the Liquor System. 1st. It meets the drink habit, not with " 'moderation," not with a substitution of "light" for "heavy" drinks, but, with abstinence from all alcoholic beverages, as the only correct rule of personal conduct. It denounces the use of alcoholic liquors, as beverages, as an immorality; a vice; a sin. It quotes the Word of God against it, "Look not thou upon the wine when it is red," etc. 2d. It meets the alcoholic drink traffic with prohibition. That traffic is a crime! We do not propose to regulate" that crime, but to stamp it out.

The foundation principles of the Temperance Movement, abstinence and prohibition, are set against the bases of the Liquor System, the drink habit and the drink traffic. They are adapted to the ends that need to be attained. Well-informed temperance people know that they are correct. Now, whoever takes a comprehensive survey of the Liquor System; noting the relations of "the trade" to grain, hop, and fruit raising; to bottle,