DRINK AND CRIME

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Recently you have published statements from American correspondents that there has been a great decrease in American crime as the result of Prohibition. On August 22nd, however, you published a letter from Mr. A. W. Simons which seemed conclusively to prove that all these statements were untrue. Mr. Simons showed from statistics published in the Anti-Saloon Year Book itself that the total number of offences in America has steadily risen since the introduction of Prohibition—to be precise from 1,661,795 in 1919 to 2,407,756 in 1923. Of course, as Mr. Simons suggests, the total may have been increased by the inclusion of trivial offences, that is to say by a more complete cataloguing of crime, but even so the figures are difficult to explain away.

I write to you as one who is interested in temperance reform, and to me such figures are naturally a disappointment. At the same time I hold that there is nothing more important than to get at the truth. Reforms which are not based on a solid foundation of facts are likely to go entirely adrift. On these grounds I venture to call your attention to a Report published in America about the decrease of crime in Great Britain, which, so far as I know, has received very little attention over here.

On July 28th the Department of Commerce at Washington published this Report, which was compiled by Mr. Alfred Nutting, a member of the American Consulate General in London. " More than twenty prisons in England and Wales, practically one-third of the total," says Mr. Nutting, " have been closed since 1914. There are now only forty prisons in use in the country and these are by no means fully occupied."

From the Baltimore Sun I take some figures about the increase of crime in America, which may be added to those given by Mr. Simons. The writer says that the population of the Federal prisons has become so great—this statement is apparently confirmed by the Department of Justice—that it is necessary to farm out prisoners to the State penitentiaries. The Department of Justice has pointed out that tax dodgers, automobile thieves and bootleggers account for the increase of Federal prisoners ; but these causes can hardly cover the general increase of crime. Although the figures for the Federal prisons are capable of a special explanation, they are worth giving

:-

1913 1925 Atlanta .. • • • • .. 1,000 .. 3,258 Leavenworth

• •

1,200 .. 3,294 McNeil Island ..

• • • • 300 • • 618

Totals •

• • •

.. 2,500 .. 7,170 —I am, Sir, &c.,

TRAVELLER.