What an interesting quotation.  Could you give me a citation to the
printed version, please.
Thank you in advance,
Joan McCord
 
Andrew Barr wrote:
>
> Evelyn Fanshawe, an English barrister who travelled round the United States
> and Canada in 1892-3 in order to investigate the operation of prohibitory
> laws, reported that "The proportion of crime due to drink is often stated
> by ardent prohibitionists, with more emphasis than accuracy, to be
> nine-tenths of the whole. Those of a more cautious temperament admit this
> estimate to be exaggerated, and recognise the difficulty of ascertaining
> the true proportion. One specially conversant with the criminal statistics
> of the state in which he holds office, and by no means hostile in principle
> to prohibition, has told me that many wild statements of this kind go
> uncontradicted, because anyone who demurs to or refutes them is set down as
> an enemy of temperance; that he himself receives letters, which he does not
> care to answer fully and openly, asking him to confirm such allegations out
> of his official knowledge; but he has no doubt that crime in general is
> very much less the effect of drink than many people suppose. A temperance
> lady goes and delivers a sympathetic address to the prisoners in jail,
> dwelling on the terrible evils of drink, and its awful consequences in
> turning good, respectable men into criminals. Then she calls on those who
> were brought to their present unfortunate condition by this cause to hold
> up their hands. Nearly everyone holds up his hand. Therefore, nine-tenths
> of crime is the result of drink. There is, as I have repeatedly been told
> by persons with prison experience, a strong tendency among convicts to 'put
> it on the drink'. A man determines to commit crime; he fortifies himself
> with a dram; he is caught, and says he was brought to it by drink. As a
> matter of fact a large class of criminals could not carry on their
> profession if they were drinkers. Liquor has enough crime to answer for
> without any need for exaggerating it. The proportion can, of course, be
> greatly exaggerated by including drunkenness itself (unaccompanied by any
> other offence arising out of the drinking)."
 
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