LESSENED CRIME.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 15318, 14 September 1920, Page 5

LESSENED CRIME.

„--.-;> * .., , ; . . •FRISCO'S FIRST SIX MONTHS OF PROHIBITION. The San Francisco. Chronicle off July 26 states:— ■'...-. j / ,'-, . 'Though the first six months under the Eighteenth. Amendment, have the arr&st m Saii/ ;Fj;ahcigco of about ;_"00 Violators, which is at the' rate &f 101)0 a year, we shall' hardly be able jto say that this counter-balances a drop of mqro than 15,000 m the number of arrests, for drunkenness in' this city for, the last fiscal year, as compared ' with' the previous twelvemonth. -, • "We are rather staggered by the figures m the annual report of the Police Department. It has been obvious \& everyoiie on the streets that drunken ihfen have been less conspicuous m this arid .era, put. we. were, hardly, prepared foi ifttt jai^ hpuhcemeht that only 1814 persdtlft '#ere arrested for drunkoniiess m the last year J , as; against 71,354 who reeled into the tit-ria:-of. the", law m the year beforeV:. It is notorious that powerful waters a,re tb be had, the arrests for- bootlegging,' indicate a/liige. traffic,. there is a world ofctalfe of home; brews, but, at any rate, tl^'s condition . seems not ii>. produce the; public drunkenness that . marked the wet/bid dayjst.* The Police 'Department finds itself unable . to offer any other explanation than .prohibition for this falling*, off iii arrests for intoxication, a falling pff that also 'extends to arrests for most other! classes of offences. ' .. //, I . *Wo find that the. total number; of ar- / rests for all off ences, w&s 26,673,^ whilfy m the'^ear before it ran to 49,641, .atftl . ?m tfmycair before that to 47,813. It is m keeping with the record of lessened drunkenness that the arrests for begging, batteryV petty larceny, robbery ;and as- : saUltS all show a heavy falling off. ' There is a text m each one* of thefep, nut; a 'different sort of text m; the Wil of burglars. The year saw 471 of these gentry arrested, although there we're only 450: in, tho year before. It shbUld be noted, though, that the record bf arrests fbiYthis offence is. no guide to the number : < of bi-fglaries .committed. 1 We -aro Unable to say just what this increase m the number of captured burglars; means. Perhaps the police , have growtt moji-e efficient, perhaps , the porchclimb'ers are not "so Ibrave" without Dutch coiitage. , Still another text may toe found m the increased number of drug peddlers taken. Here' again' there' are alternative / ek--plahations. Maybe the down arid outers, denied bf their grog, have taken; to dope; perhaps the law is more active. . ; The conclusions to be draWh from police reports m this city aro reinforced by "'a. study of figures compiled by. the Allegheny county, -Pennsylvania, Workhouse -and Inebriates' Asyl'uni.: These show a", very similar falling off m .arrests for drunkenness and the crimes, that, are cortimoply associated with over-indulgence m strong waters. . . ■M-H-I-M--MI ■