Drunkenness in Chicago.

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 49, 26 August 1922, Page 4

Drunkenness in Chicago.

The annual report of the Municipal Courts of Chicago (says the New York Times) showed that drunkenness increased there in the last year, 51,300 persons being arraigned for intoxication in 1921, as against 32,305 in 1920. The report followed, the action of .tha.., City Council in voting, 52 to 6, for a ' resolution' demanding that Congress and the State legislature authorise the manufacture, sale, and distribution of " wholesome beers and light >vines." Alderman John Coughlin; had the resolution amended to improve the use "of the revenue derived from wines and beer to pay a. soldiers' bonus. The resolution declared that the Prohibition ' Act has failed to prohibit and to meet with the approval of the general public throughout the country. /- . " You could put every sheriff, policeman, and the State militia on the job, and you would not stop the sale o£ liquor in Chicago," said Alderman.

Increase Under Prohibition.

The figures for wrests for drunken* ne»s in Chicago are v follows :— • ; ,;;• 1918 .-•-.,■ >- '^ ■':>..'?ASiJHAS : 1919,.,, ,„•". :,„-,'; 35608 yi 1920..* ; ........ 1921 ... v,* „, ; . Conpirltoi with Ntw Zealand. The population of Chicago in 1920 (according to the. Statesman'*'.Yeir Book) was 2,701,705.' ■ ..: _ s Compared With New; Zealand, the population ofi IChicago is twice, a*, great, but the number of aneita for drunkenneßs in the' " dry" city i 4 six timci as great as in thi» "wet" Dominion. . ; , ' -■-•-, According to? the New Zealand Official Year Book, 1882 (pace 178); there were 8603 convictions far drun■kennew in 1920. ': ; : „~; n "Concealed" drinldng, apparently* means more drunkenness than, legal, out-in-the-open liquor coniumption.