“It must be admitted, that in the state of Massachusetts, the liquor question has been as fully discussed, and the various legal expedients connected therewith have had as fair and full a trial as in any other state in the Union. It may therefore be claimed, without presumption, that to the results there attained, and the opinions there formed, when coming from official and authentic sources, the careful consideration of other state governments should be given. Acting from this view, we draw the attention of the reader to a very instructive report of the results of an investigation relative to drunkenness and liquor selling under prohibition and license legislation contained in the Tenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, issued as a public document in January, 1879. This investigation was undertaken at the special request of Governor Rice, whose object was to place on record a statement, as a basis for an intelligent consideration of the question, of as reliable a character as could be secured by impartial statistics. These statistics are drawn from official sources, and, as far as the figures are concerned, are thoroughly reliable. “The years 1874 and 1877 were selected for comparison, because 1874 represented the last full year under the operation of the prohibitory law, and 1877 the last full year under the license law. The advantages resulting from this selection of years, if any, are on the side of the prohibitory law, because that law, in 1874, had been in operation for a number of years, while the license law, in 1877, had only been in force a year and a half. “Four circulars were prepared and addressed by the chief of the state Bureau of Statistics and Labor to town clerks, city clerks, chiefs of police, to standing justices, clerks of district, municipal and police courts, and trial justices. These circulars solicited information regarding the sales of liquor, prosecutions therefor, and arrests and convictions for drunkenness for the prohibitory year 1874 and the license year 1877. The completeness of the investigation may be seen from the following statement: “Circular ‘A’ was sent to 325 Town Clerks; 322 answered. “Circular ‘B’ was sent to 19 City Clerks; 19 answered. “Circular ‘C’ was sent to 19 Chiefs of Police; 19 answered. “Circular ‘D’ was sent to 132 Court and Trial Justices; 130 answered. “This is a total of 490 returns of 495 circulars of inquiry sent out. There can be no question that the investigation was exhaustive, for the few towns which did not answer are unimportant places. From the information thus obtained and tabulated in detail in the Report, the following totals are derived: ARRESTS FOR DRUNKENNESS. Under the prohibitory law, 1874, 28,044 Under the license law, 1877, 20,657 CONVICTIONS FOR DRUNKENNESS. Under the prohibitory law, 1874, 23,981 Under the license law, 1877, 17,862