The following statistical comparison, extracted from the United States Census of 1900 and the Inland Revenue Returns by Mr W. O. Tatum (_New Encyclopedia of Social Reform_) and here presented in tabular form, is highly instructive. It shows the population and number of liquor dealers paying the United States tax in two prohibition states, one state under what is considered the best licensing system, and South Carolina. +-------------------------+-----------+----------+--------+ | | | Wholesale| Retail | | State. |Population.| Liquor | Liquor | | | | Dealers. |Dealers.| +-------------------------+-----------+----------+--------+ | Maine (Prohibition) | 694,466 | 51 | 1366 | | Kansas (Prohibition) | 1,470,495 | 129 | 3125 | | Massachusetts (Licence) | 2,805,346 | 617 | 5092 | | S. Carolina (Dispensary)| 1,340,316 | 13 | 534 | +-------------------------+-----------+----------+--------+ This table may be said to epitomize the results of the United States restrictive liquor laws. It presents examples of three different systems; the proportion of retail liquor sellers to population is--under complete prohibition, 1 to 508 and 1 to 475; under licence and local prohibition, 1 to 530; under dispensary and local prohibition, 1 to 2509. But the remarkable thing is the enormous amount of illicit traffic existing under all three systems. It is incomparably greatest under complete prohibition because the whole of the traffic in these states is illicit. In South Carolina one of the wholesale dealers and 388 of the 534 retailers were illicit. In Massachusetts the number cannot be stated, but it is very large. If the whole state were under licence the total legal number of licences, which is limited in proportion to population (see above), would be 3400; and in that case there would be some 1700 illicit retailers. But a large part of the state, probably more than half, is under local prohibition, so that the majority of the 5000 retail dealers must be illicit. These facts, which are typical and not exceptional, reveal the failure of the laws to control the traffic; only partial or spasmodic attempts are made to enforce them and to a great extent they are ignored by common consent. The illegal trade is carried on so openly that the United States revenue officers have no difficulty in collecting the federal tax. It is not a satisfactory state of things, or one which countries where law is respected would care to imitate. The example is a good lesson in what to avoid.