Total in 30 Cities _1920_ _1921_ _Increase_ Violation of Prohibition Laws 9,375 18,976 102.0% Drunken Autoists 1,513 2,743 81.0% Thefts and Burglary 24,770 26,888 9.0% Homicide 1,086 2,124 12.7% Assaults and Battery 21,147 23,977 13.4% Drug Addictions, etc. 1,897 2,745 44.6% Police Department Costs $31,193,639 $34,762,196 11.4% Judge Cavanagh of Chicago estimated that there were from 7,500 to 8,000 cases of murder and manslaughter in the United States in 1921. But the Special Commission on Law Enforcement of the American Bar Association, in its official report made on August 10th, 1922, stated that there were no less than 9,500 “unlawful homicides” in this country in 1921. The average per day was twenty-six. In the previous year there were at least 9,000 such homicides. In the first nine months and a half of 1922 there were 101 “unlawful homicides” in Philadelphia alone, as compared with the same number during all of 1921. In the same city, the arrests for violation of the dry law numbered 32,281, for the period between January and September, 1922. Of these, 25,925 were “drunk and disorderly.” In Providence, Rhode Island, drunkenness has increased 85 per cent since 1919. In Rochester, New York, crimes of violence in 1921 numbered 607, as against 488 in 1917. In the latter year there were 323 arrests for burglary, while in 1921 there were no less than 502. It has been reported that the western part of the State has become the victim of a new crop of young, educated and what are called “polished” crooks. Sing Sing prison deported no less than sixty prisoners to Auburn in May, 1922, because of overcrowding. The warden of Sing Sing, to whom I wrote, asking for figures as to the inmates received at his prison, very graciously and with unprecedented promptness sent me the following report, and told me I could make my own deductions: Fiscal year ending June 30th, 1917 1071 ” ” ” ” ” 1918 1197 ” ” ” ” ” 1919 1073 ” ” ” ” ” 1920 1490 ” ” ” ” ” 1921 1414 ” ” ” ” ” 1922 1613 Figures do not lie. Yet the Prohibitionists insist that conditions are better than ever before, and I have seen otherwise intelligent citizens take it for granted that the figures given by a speaker at some uplift meeting were correct. Few of us go to the trouble of verifying statistics. But the fact remains that passionate crimes continue, murders of unprecedented cruelty are committed all the time, and a heaven on earth is, I fear, remote from us. CHAPTER XV THE LITERARY DIGEST’S CANVASS