Nine in Ten Convicts Blamed on Whisky

Rev. William J. Herwig, formerly of Spokane, writing in the American Issue, estimates that from 75 to 90 per cent of the crimes committed throughout the country are traceable to intoxicating drink and the liquor traffic. He cites a letter from Chaplain John Le Cornu of the Walla Walla penitentiary, who says that of the men received there, 78 per cent are directly and 17 per cent indirectly ruined by drink.

Prison records for the nine months ending June 30, 1909, assign liquor as the cause in a large share of commitments: liquor alone, liquor and evil associates, liquor and poverty, liquor and domestic trouble, wine and women. Of 1,016 prisoners at Walla Walla on Sept. 30, 1908, 796 were intemperate, 217 temperate, and only 3 moderate. Of 338 received during the nine-month period, 297 owed their downfall directly to liquor.

The article argues that about $225,000 is required yearly for maintenance, and that at least 75 per cent of the money spent on the prison is caused by the saloon. “The saloon is the source of unnecessary burdensome taxation,” it concludes. The Spokane Chronicle adds that if 90 per cent of convicts reach the penitentiary by the whisky route, the liquor traffic should be charged with at least 90 per cent of the cost of maintaining the institution—more than a quarter of a million dollars annually—and that the old argument that liquor pays a large share of government expense has been exploded. The paper notes that Washington has taken a wise step by passing a local option law.