SALOON.

SURVEY

OF NEW YORK CITY

PROHIBITION snp SALOONS and LIQUOR STORES

BY ROBERT E. CORRADINI, RESEARCH

N JUNE 30. 1924, there was concluded the

first five years of National Prohibition in the

United States of America. Many had been

the rosy prophecies of friends and many the

dire lamentations of fees as to what would be the result of this national experi- ment in moral reform.

What has Prohibition really ac-- complished during these first few years?

The prognostications are many. The opinions, pro or con, sul more abundant, but the facts as- certained, proven and unchal- lenged are as yet, few.

There are given here, data of such reltable nature as to warrant, we trust, our conclusions and to enable the earnest seeker of truth to form his own opinion regard- ing the working of Prohibition in the City of New York. In other pamphlets there has been shown. with photographs, charts and ta- bles, what any casual visitor may notice to have occurred in New York City during, and because of Prohibition ; here are given the re- sults of the latest surveys regard- ing the effects of the Volstead Act on saloon properties and liquor stores. These surveys were pre- pare] by the Research Department of the World League Against Al- coholism through its New York City office at 150 Fifth Avenue, where all the tabulated material is filed and can be inspected by anyone who Wishes to go into further detail.

RIE WIRE TC 10

May we not refresh the reader's mind, who, after read- ing in the last few years so much of the real or imaginary failings of Prohibition, is apt to have forgotten the actual situation prior to the advent of the Eighteenth Amend- ment ? ;

We have to go back to 1916, one year before this coun- try entered the World Conflict. in order to have a vear which can be considered normal and typically wet. Amer- ica’s entry into the war brought with it a host of restric- tions to the liquor traffic in 1917 and 1918; these mea- sures make it really impossible to consider any year after 1916 as a typical, normal pre-prohibition year.

What the situation of the liquor traffic was in 1916 is best expressed by Mr. Gustave Pabst, President of the United States Brewers’ Convention, when, in addressing

THREE

ONTES TWO PAVERNS, BROADWAY.

PROHTRITION,

SECRETARY OF THE WORLD LEAGUE

==. |

ON THE LAND OCCU PIRD BY THIS BIILDING THERE WERE FRECTED IN THE VERY EARLY DAYS OF TIIR DUTCH COL- NUMBER ONE AND NUMBER TITRER THESE CONTINUED OFF AND ON, FIRST AS TAVERNS AND LATAR AS SALOONS UNTIL THR ADVENT OF THIS MAGNIFICRNT STRUCTITRE TITAS DIS- PLACED AN OLD RUILDING WH'CH HOUSED A SALOON

*1916 Year Book, U. S. Brewers’ Association,

AGAINST ALCOHOLISM

that gathering assembled at Cleveland, Ohio, on Novem- ber 21, 1916, in his opening address, “The Policy of the Brewing industry,” (which was formally endorsed by that body as an expresston of its policy and purposes) he said:

“The question for thoughtful men is how this industry may be so regulated that the evils incident to it shall gradually di- minish, and intemperance be re- duced until it becomes a negligi- ble social factor. What sugges-

#2 a) i

nM tions can be made to stem the tide

oc OE i} a

of national prohibition, which if continued, while it will net result, as has been proven, in bettering conditions will spell ruin to pres- ent investments, and disaster to the cause of real temperance? While it can be easily established that some of the causes which have been suggested are exagger- ated, and are not the sole fault of those in the business, this will not satisfy the public demand. Promises, advice to the trade, res- olutions of condemnation, cte.. will not suffiee. “A policy must be agreed to and acted upon. Mere temporary action will not do. Tt must be persistent, energetic, thor- ough and continuous. Any policy ia we may agree upon will find ob- “4 jectors in our ranks; reasons why it is impracticable will be urged ; but we must overlook our imme- diate personal interests and the effect upon our business, in order to arrive at a possible solution which will nltimately result in per- manency to our industry. mae

In the introduction of the same Year Book, the Secre- tary of the Association states: “Tlic trade, indecd, has many sins to answer for” . . . also, “Probably no other nation in the world has so much Iegislation on the subject of liquor as ows own, reckoning of course the enactments of the several states.

We see from the foregoing that everything was not well with the liquor trade, according to its own records, as far back as 1916. In this same book, we find that during that year there were, for the State of New York, approxi- mately 30,638 retailers of intoxicating beverages, or one to every 329 inhabitants.

The New York Excise Department reports only 22,199 licenses issued to saloons, and 2,140 to liquor stores, a total of 24,339 liquor licenses for the state at the end of 1916.

May we not, in parenthesis, note the discrepancy in

tItalics ours,

these figures? The brewers report 30,638 retailers for New York State in the year 1916—evidently their clients —but the Excise Department of the State reports only 22,199 saloons and 2,140 liquor stores that had paid taxes. Here is a difference of over 6,000 licenses for retailers in alcoholic beverages. Did the brewers report more clients than they really had? If so, for what purpose? Or did the Excise Department report fewer license holders than the number actually paying a tax to the State, or may we be so horribly bold as to foster the thought, unfounded of course(!) that there might actually have been more re- tailers than the number who were paying taxes? Could this be? Why, then, if it is even only a bare possibility. are we to assume that in 1916 there were in New York 6,000 to 8,000 bootleggers? But were we not told by the “interests” that bootlegging is a product of Prohibition?

In our surveys of 1922 and 1924 of saloons which had been licensed in 1916 and 1918 we found anywhere from eight to ten per cent of the total of old “gin mills” which had apparently been doing business for years but for which we could find no record in the files that they had ever paid for a license. This is true not only of New York City but also of Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syra- cuse, Utica and Yonkers which we surveyed. The data for these and other cities are on file in our office. We have reference here only to saloons which paid no tax or the record of which could not be found in the Excise reports. Tt does not include the hundreds and thousands of private families who, before Prohibition, made a few barrels of wine every year which of course was sold to their friends. This latter phenomenon, peculiar especially to our foreign quarters, was not “known” to exist before Prohibition but was readily discovered by the wets themselves soon after the Eighteenth Amendment became law and a certain class of citizenry felt it to be their patriotic duty to broad- cast all of the shortcomings of the enforcement of this one particular section of the organic law.

NEW YORK CITY BEFORE PROHIBITION

In 1916 the New York City saloons and liquor stores were under direct control of the New York State Excise Department which had been functioning for the whole of the state since 1896. We believe that the secretary of the Brewers’ Association was quite right in commenting upon the multitude of laws and regulations enacted by the State Legislatures in connection with the liquor traffic. New York State took a prominent part in this orgy of legislation. This, however, did not materially reduce al- coholism as a scourge, and the effects of these laws and regulations were not at alf commensurate with the efforts of the legislators.

In 1910 there were 10,775 saloons in New York City and at the end of 1916 after six more years of admitted prolific legislation, the number had diminished to 9,667.

VON (OLE WEKOIETQUR MAMIE SSVES [AS OUR CIE

TABLE A AT THE END OF TIE FISCAL WEAR (SEPTEMBER go) IN THIN

or a decrease of 1,108 which represents an average falling off of 185 saloons per year. (See table A.) -

* All this abundance of liquor legislation did not decrease the number of liquor stores throughout the city because “while in 1910 there were 1,181 of these licenses; by the end ot 1916 there were 1,235, or an increase of 54 for Greater New York,

Also, the direct fatal results of this nefarious industry had shown proportionate changes. In 1910 in Greater New York there were 621 deaths from alcoholism. In 1916 the Health Department reported 687 of these deaths. The weekly average was 11.9 in 1910 and 13.2 in 1916. The population had increased, but the alcoholic death rate per 100,000 population was 13 in 1910 and 13 in 1916. The deaths from acute and chronic alcoholism in Belle- vue Hospital alone, which were 189 in 1910, rose to 418 in 1916.

From 1910 to 1916, the arrests for intoxication had not decreased to such an extent as one would have expected to be the case, considering the efforts put forth by the legislators to encompass the evil of drunkenness. The arrests reported by the New York Police Department were as follows:

NS) een Soro tio nr. 645-6 60.006 21.994 1912 waeideue +45 sone ee 20,640 LOS: gee acave act a te eee ON G2E 1914... cat oka es ee ee 20,269 1915 os ceases se co Cee 20,199 L9IG ois echoes ge ee er 17,099

The admissions to homes for inebriates during that period, were as follows

The admissions to these homes for men were about the same in 1916 as in 1910. The admissions to homes for inebriate women which were far below the 400 mark in 1910, had increased to almost 500 by 1916.

One may well ask for what purpose was all this liquor legislation enacted, anyhow? It did not reduce the num- ber of saloons to any noticeable extent and so far as alco- holic mortality is concerned, the rate remained stationary. Does not the situation in New York indicate that “regu- lation” of the “trade” by ordinance or legislation is an impotent palliative for alcoholism? Or is one to assume that there is an inherent degree of wickedness in New York City alone which frustrates the benefits which ac- crue te a community which properly regulates the traffic in alcoholic beverages? If this should be the case—and as a New Yorker I emphatically deny it—what benefits are there to show for those nations and communities where legislators suffocate under avalanches of liquor bills and acts. while their fellow-citizens who are sup- posed to enjoy the fruits of these enactments, fill courts,

ROROUGHS CONSTITUTING GREATER NEW YORK

MANIDATTAN BRONX BROOKLYN 1 II I I I u SA- LIQUOR SA- LIQUOR S$A- LIQUOR LOONS STORES LOONS STORES LOONS STORES 1910 5,565 710 s if 3,254 320 1911 oe 712 us d 3,178 317 1912 S444 793 * e 3,073 318 1913 S414 809 a! aE 2,094 316 1914 4.520 705 855 98 BAZ 313 1915 4,356 676 R57 6 Zo 315 1916 4,165 630, B44 100 2,704 300, 1917 3.975 582 R14 86 2,602 248 1918 3,608 463 686 47 2,247 173

QUEENS RICH MOND TORAT: I Il I dij i iH TOTAL SA- LIQUOR SA- LIQUOR SA- LIQUOR SALOONS AND LOONS STORES 1OONS STORES LOONS STORES LIQUOR STORES 1467 132 4g90 19 10,775 1,181 11,956 1471 142 491 22 10,693 1,193 11,886 1484 161 488 23 10,489 1,295 11,784 1479 178 489 23 10,376 ‘1,326 11,702 1403 177 491-23 10,280 1,316 11,596 1,531 188 483 23 10,058 1,298 11,356 1.480 18] ra at 9,667 1,235 10,902 1g2s 171 461 22 9.277 11100 10,386 1,216 140 Hit 18 8,168 841 9,009

*TLacenses for Manhattan and Bronx arc grouped together in reports of 1910-1913 inclusive.

SOURCE: Data from Annual Reports, State Commissioner of LExcise.

FOUR

Mem MO APHS TELL OF SNOMNMBMEaGLISME ee Wen

EACH OF THE EIGHT PLACES SHOWN HERE ONCE WAS A NEW YORK CITY SALOON. NOTE THE CHANGE PROHIBITION HAS WROUGHT

EVERYBODY WELCOME

TOAIGIL MS, 1 SHOWING NATURE OF CONCERNS WHICH HAVE Sure NE Des weOONS AN DeLIOWOR SiO ES ICS AWUAVNOEE ATP IE INS II TIKO) kee

All saloons and liquor stores surveyed ....... 1,877 = 100% New concerns on same premises ............ 2,090 = 111% Peal COMERS oounescuseseuens 891 — 42% (COkeRO RIP NES) Sas aiseweimen ona tcntahate Peete 404+ = 19% nla: JIN, GRO, aoocscss QaN) =e UIA PMigmoulletesuncenc 2 caeanonee cae ace 403 = 19%

Malt and Sacramental Wine ... 39 = 2% IBRopenivesmmenovated Merritt tec titel|s-/- 939 = 50% Ppoeeokes SAGAN cconaoedaoasomoonanona 73 = 4%

FIVE

homes for indigents and institutions for those demented by alcohol ?

In table A there is given a mirror, showing the progress and the results of the last decade of State liquor legisla-

tion, and the direct results upon the number of saloons and -

liquor stores in the five boroughs which compose Greater Saw ork. Up to 1916 the change is more one of shifting than of

SALOON SURV Ex@s

URING the summer of 1922 we endeavored

to obtain information regarding saloon prop-

erties. Inquiry was made at the offices of all

organizations either in favor of, or opposed

to, Prohibition. No one seemed to know ex- actly to what extent Prohibition had affected the saloons. Many theories and many conclusions were advanced, but there were no reliable data to support any of the many prognostications, The Research Department then pro- ceeded in a systematic way to ascertain the actual facts in the case. In order to ascertain accurately how saloons had been affected, we investigated several thousand of them and have preserved the findings in our files. Our first ex- tensive survey was made in 1922,

During 1923 we went over the same field again, not so extensively, however, as in 1922, But in 1924, we made our second large survey of saloons covering approxi- mately 3,000 properties in Manhattan alone. ‘This latest survey was made by a tramed force during the month of Jule 1924.

The survey of 1922 covers Manhattan, the Bronx, Kings (better known as Brooklyn), Queens and Staten Island (Richmond County ), the five boroughs or counties which constitute Greater New York.

We are giving here in detail the method of the survey in order that the reader may form his own conclusions as to the reliability and worth of the data presented in these pages.

As stated, all liquor licenses in the State of New York were isstied, since 1896, by one office known as the De- partment of Iéxcise. This Department published yearly up to 1918, a report in two volumes, the first part con- taining statistical data, the second, the name of every license holder and the exact location of the premises licensed.

We had as our authority for the survey of 1922, the Annual Report of 1918. We card-indexed every saloon or liquor store on the main thoroughfares of the city, then visited cach of them, noting our findings on the cards and then, later on, checked up on a sufficient number of them to be sure that the reports were umform and represented the actual situation.

Our 1922 survey, then, compares the situation of that year with conditions in 1918, or the last wet year before war-time prohibition went into effect. For our survey of 1924, we went back to 1916, considering that year a more truly representative year of the old regime. Our findings in the survey of 1922 are reported here on pages 8-11.

We reproduce herewith, a facsimile of one of our working cards, one of approximately 25,000 covering surveys made throughout the State of New York. The complete list of license holders as used by us for the 1922 survey is found in the Annual Report of the State Com- missioner of Excise of the State of New York for 1918, volume 2, pages 9-23, 68-109, 131-215, 242-266, 270-277.

The basis for the 1924 survey is found in the Annual

direct elimination of liquor concerns. Saloons closed in one place and opened somewhere else. Hundreds of them forgot or neglected to obtain licenses in their new abode.

A close scrutiny of table A will convince most people, that there are few fields of legislation where the efforts of law makers are so barren and sterile as in admonish- ing and advising the liquor trade not to be “naughty’( !)

OF 1922 AND 1924

Report of the named commissioner, year 1916, volume 2, pages 263-369,

The results of the latest survey are found on page 14.

In both surveys a number of saloons are reported as being “still in business.” This does not imply that these premises were known bootlegging establishments. We mean to convey the idea that so far as we were able to observe, no outward changes had taken place. In other words, these premises looked as they did before Prohi- bition and most of them (this from mental notes) smelled as fetid as ever, In the reports in the daily press of ap- prehensions of violators of the Eighteenth Amendment we found, when we tabulated these lists, that from 60 to 73 per cent of the violations were in connection with old time saloons now doing business on the old spots, but selling, ostensibly, soft drinks. We believe to be thor- oughly justified in classiiying these places which look ex- actly as before, as potential sources of violations of the Lxghteenth Amendment.

THE BABEL WHICH IS NEW YORK

For those readers who are not well acquainted with the City of New York, it may not be out of place to give a description of the city, this cosmopolitan conglomeration which has absorbed from the four corners of the universe, the good, the bad and the indifferent. New York is truly a seething caldron, where human masses mingle in end- less streams, where all standards of living are indulged in or tolerated, where every language is spoken and creed is known and where every law and custom is seen, not through the eye of New England America, the West- ern or the Southern viewpomt, but is interpreted through the many racial prejudices and understood with a foreign twist. Here is truly a great battle-ground of idealism and civilization, Are American ideals really being absorbed and are they leavening this heterogeneous mass of human- ity? Or are they so mitigated or adulterated by foreign habit and view-poimt as to degenerate into hybrid and in- congruous nonentities ?

While these considerations may apparently be totally out of place im a survey dealing with saloon properties, yet they become vitally important when we try to study aud understand how effective a law which so typically represents American idealism (of Main Street, if you please) as the Eighteenth Amendment is, m such an alien atmosphere.

The Kighteenth Amendment is a more far-reaching piece of legislation than just the elimination of saloons. Whatever the results may be in rural Aimeriea, when a law of this tenor invades cosmopolitan centers like New York, where in many sections the preponderant majority is so thoroughly alien in spirit and ideal, there is a con- flict, the outcome of which is really interesting, and of great national portent.

Greater New York is composed of five borouglis, each one a separate county. Within the border of each one of these counties there are many little foreign cities.

sIx

FeOGR Mier R

~ 4

SHOES* 3.K LEIN*SHOES

bh ee ot

pepe ire rem cte (Pld RS on on

In Manhattan, (the Island which lives by grace of Wall Street, on Broadway and for lifth Avenue) the hest known part of New York and New York City proper, there is, for instance on the Lower East Side, a distinctly Jewish city. Further up on the same side of the Island there are colonies inhabited almost exclusively by Ger- mans or by Italians. In the same way there are small French colonies, Greek, Czech, Chinese and other foreign centers. Mulberry Street, in one of the several Italian quarters, is to all the world like a section of Naples, and in Harlem, in certain parts, the German element domi- nates the atmosphere so completely that one wonders at times if this is New York or Germany,

We are incorporating in this survey an interesting map of a section of the lower Fast Side, where, according to Senator Royal S. Copeland, former Health Comiissioner of our city, the density of the population surpasses the one-half million mark per square mile. It is here that New York has its slums, gangs and tenements and where originate most of our sad tales of misery and poverty so heart-rending and pathetic, known by all. believed by some and scorned by the dwellers of this section of New York. This district is inhabited almost exclusively by Jewish people. It is part of the Ghetto, and one would think, knowing the proverbial sobriety of the Jewish people. that the liquor traffe would not be able to gain a foothold here. Any such conclusion is gratuitous and shows a sad lack of understanding of the liquor trade, The liquor traffic has never waited for an invitation to invade any particu- lar district. Neither has it ever been known to be bashful or reticent in miposing its blight upon unsuspecting people.

Chart I shows the situation in this particular district in

-SEVEN

1916 when there were as many as 1+ saloons to one block. By contrast it shows the same district in 1924, after four years of Prohibition.

We had to guard, in our survey, against the fallacy of surveying one section too intensely ania neglecting others. This, of course, would have materially changed the results.

In order that this survey night be thoroughly and hon- estly representative of the actual conditions, we have taken, in Manhattan, for instance, all avenues. First to [leventh, also those which have names instead of numbers, and surveyed the streets all the way from the beginning to the very end. Vor instanee, First, Second and Third Avenues are populated, at their beginning, almost ex- clusively by Jewish people. l'urther North, these avenues run through Italian, Greek, Russian, Slav and German colonies. In following the avenues from beginning to end, almost the full length of New York, we have covered unpartially all the districts. It should be remembered that most of the stores, saloons and liquor shops were on the avenues; very few were to be found on the cross streets. In order to make the survey still further representative of the actual situation, we have taken some of the cross streets which are best known, 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, 125th and others, and have surveyed these from Fast to West. We are satisfied that this is not a partial survey but represents the true condition of Manhattan and, to a large extent, of Greater New York, as found at the end of 1922 or in 1924. All places were visited by the same staff. The data from all the streets and avenues were compiled by the same method. Everything that was hu- manly possible was done to eliminate error or bias.

Many changes, of course, took place even during 1922 and 1924, but almost all were for the good.

Sey

EXTENT OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC BEFORE PROHIBITION

N 1915 there were for the ten million persons in the .

State of New York, approximately 23,000 saloons.

These were reduced to about 22,000 in 1916. Dur-

mg 1917, throughout the State including the City of

New York, various restrictions went into force, chiefly due to American entrance into the World War when it became imperative to save not only foodstuffs and transportation, but man power as well. From 1917 to 1918, the number of saloons throughout the State de- creased from 20,000 to 15,000, due largely to local option measures. In the City of New York the decrease was less marked, where the 9,277 saloons of 1917 decreased to 8,168 in 1918. During these two years the decrease in the rest of the State, exclusive of New York City, was from 11,513 to 7,319. In the Fall of 1919 the total of 15,000 saloons of 1918 for the whole State had further decreased to 11,000. These figures show plainly that local option and the approach of National Prohibition did more in two years to eliminate saloons than the previous ten years of liquor control by the Excise Board.

On July 1, 1919, War-time Prohibition became effective. In New York State, licenses were still being issued, how- ever. Few took Prohibition seriously in New York City at that time. Many took out licenses, anticipating that de- mobilization might be concluded and War-time Prohibi- tion abrogated before the going into effect of National Prohibition by Constitutional Amendment. On January 16, 1920, Constitutional Prohibition superseded War-time Prohibition, and at the end of that year there were 8,358 licenses issued to saloonkeepers besides 586 to hquor deal- ers throughout the State.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF LICENSES

While there were several classes of licenses issued, for our present purpose only two will be given which em- braced the preponderant majority. Licenses, or Certifi- cates Number One, were issued to hotels and saloons and authorized the holder to sell alcoholic beverages to be con- sumed on the premises. This corresponds to the English On-license. Licenses Number Two were for stores selling alcoholic beverages but did not permit the holder to allow his patrons to consume the goods on the premises. These licenses are the same as the Off-license in the English system,

In 1918, 92 per cent of the licenses issued to dealers for the sale of alcohol for beverage purposes were to saloons and hotels, while 8 per cent were for liquor stores. Ap- proximately the same ratio held true for Greater New York where the saloons had about 90 per cent of the licenses and the hquor stores a little over 9 per cent. For Manhattan (New York City proper) 4,071 licenses were issued in that year, 3,608 or about 89 per cent for saloons, and 463 or 11 per cent for liquor stores. (See tables B, C.)

SITUATION IN MANHATTAN ISLAND (New York County)

{n Manhattan, the heart of New York City, most of the saloons and liquor stores were on the Avenues. Some avenues had no liquor stores, others only a very few. There were certain sections in Manhattan, especially thie residential parts, where hardly any saloons or liquor stores were to be found. The exact figures for the whole State and Greater New York are to be found in table B, while in table C we have given a suunmary showing also in per-

OF (1922

centages the distribution of saloons and liquor stores for the State and for New York City.

Table D, page 11, gives the itemized results of the sur- vey, showing how the saloons and liquor stores were dis- tributed throughout the different sections of the City, In table E, page 20, we have the data for Manhattan only.

Fifth Avenue divides Manhattan into East and West. From First to Fifth Avenue there is the East Side and from lifth there is the West Side of the City. Fifth Avenue is the shopping center below 57th Street and one of the most exclusive residential sections from 57th Street to approxi- mately 100th Street. From 110th Street on, Fifth Ave- nue is part of a Jewish colony and above 130th Street it runs through the colored section of Harlem. Broadway is one of the best known thoroughfares in the world. An- other of our pamphlets deals with Broadway. The Bow- ery also is described elsewhere. On First, Second and Third Avenues, also Seventh, Eighth and Ninth, the population is to a large extent composed of working peo- ple. Fourth, Lexington and Columbus Avenues are part of a better environment. It is noted that in the first three and from Seventh to Ninth and Amsterdam Avenues there were more saloons than on any other thoroughfare.

Sixth Avenue is a business street almost exclusively. Broadway shows a great number of saloons, but that is due to the fact that that thoroughfare is very much longer than many of the others. Under “Miscellaneous” in table D, page 11, we have given the result of the survey of saloons and liquor stores, on cross streets as 14th, 23rd, 34th, 42nd, and others up to 125th street.

RESULTS OF PROHIBITION IN MANHATTAN

Table E, page 20, dealing with Manhattan only, shows that of the 1,877 licenses which were investigated, we found 687 which were apparently still doing business. We found no liquor stores anywhere. The total number of 1,190 places had discontinued. Of these 213 had been liquor stores, 977 had been saloons. Up to the summer of 1922 this would show that 59 per cent of the saloons had ceased to exist, while 100 per cent of the investigated liquor stores liad closed their doors. For alt licensed places, we found that the decrease was 63.4 per cent. It is interesting to note that the 1,190 former bars and liq- uor stores which discontinued have been replaced by 2,090 different stores, not including 73 which at the time were vacant and most of them so because still in process of alteration. This would indicate an increase of over 11 per cent in rented properties.

In table F, page 5, we have summarized certain inter- esting features of table E. For instance, we found that 43 per cent of the stores were taken by concerns dealing in food, 19 per cent were selling clothing, while 17 per cent were concerns directly or indirectly connected with the furnishing of homes; they include furniture, music stores, hardware stores, most of these latter stores deal- ing more or less in kitchen utensils and other necessities of the homie.

HOME BREW?

The objection has been raised that many saloons have gone out of business and that their place has been taken over by concerns selling distilling outfits and implements for home brew. It is very significant that we found only 36 malt and hop stores throughout Manhattan, and a total of 43 for the city, and most of them were on First, Sec- ond and Third Avenues. lourth, Fifth, Seventh, Elev-

EIGHT

enth Avenues and Broadway, the Bowery, Columbus and Lexington Avenues did not have a single malt and hops store.

It seems that all of the malt and hops stores which we visited did not carry a sufficient stock of material to pro- vide enough home brew for the block in which they were situated. Subsequent events have convinced us beyond all doubt that the home brew spasm has subsided in New Nok City.

A great deal of noise has been made concerning the numbers that are endeavoring to obtain wine through apparently legalized channels, as stores selling sacra- mental wine. In the hundreds of miles of the city cov- ered by these avenues and strects, we found only three such stores and on several visits made to them, we found them deserted most of the time.

As to distilling, for private home consumption in New York City, it is a negligible factor. As a sidehght it is very interesting to notice that many of the hardware stores which formerly exhibited distilling apparatus now have their windows full of radio outfits.

LEMONY JOUR 2

The charge, from sources undoubtedly interested in de- erying Prohibition, that so many of the new establish- ments which have replaced saloons are selling booze un- der cover does not deserve the attention that we have Leen led to believe it should have.

According to the survey, over 50 per cent of the former premises have been renovated and. while we have no of- ficial figures to an extent to warrant the giving of exact percentages, we have reason to believe that over half of the new stores are owned or operated by individuals and firms which were not at all associated with the liquor business which previously occupied these properties.

RIEAUL, JESVIPAMeS,

That prohibition would vacate many stores has also been found to be a prognostication without foundation. Only 1 per cent of these properties surveyed wore found to be vacant, and half of them were so because altera- tions had not been completed.

“WBURIESE, JOM AOL oy

The effects of Prohibition on propertics can be seen by analyzing some of these streets. For instanee, Sixth Ave- nue, Which makes perhaps the best showing, would indi- cate that the 78 saloons and 10 Hiquor stores, or 88 prop- erties in all, have heen supplanted hy no fewer than 226 different stores. There are corner properties on Sixth Avenue where as many as six small stores or show rooms are crammed into the place of a former bar-room.

Of course all this means a tremendous amount of money expended for alterations, for new stock for these stores, a greater number of employees in the personnel, many more firms, some of them to be sure, very small. yet independent, whereas in the old days of the liquor traffic it is acknowledged that the majority of the saloons were owned by the liquor traffic which in turn is one ex- planation why so few of the former saloonkeepers have launched into new business enterprises.

Once of the interesting revelations of the survey of 1922 was the fact that real estate is not being left vacant by the disappearance of the saloons but that Prohibition is directly responsible for a new wave of vrosperity. We found that 1,421 saloons and liquor stores had diseon- tinued business throughont Greater New York. These properties had been replaced by not fewer than 2,406 stores and legitimate concerns. In other words, 1,015 additional concerns occupied the same premises of the

NINE

former “gin mills.” The full portent of these data can not be realized without further analysis. Upon investi- gation, we found that the cost of alteration of these prop- erties varied tremendously, In some instances, It 1s true, the change did not involve an expenditure of over $5,000, but in many it passed $100,000. In a few instances, huge buildings, sky-scrapers. factories, warehouses or depart- ment stores were erected on sites formerly oceupied by frame buildings worth only a few thousand dollars each in the saloon days. These last buildings cost millions of Collars and of course will bring the average cost of alter- ation of the old saloon property to an exorbitantly high level. (See table G, page 29.) Tf we include this last item we find that the average cost per property altered, sur- passes a quarter of a million dollars. This is evidently quite an unfair and too high average. If we eliminate all the new buildings, we find that the cost of alterations of former saloons and liquor stores averages anywhere from $40,000 to $60,000 for each property. It may be objected that Prohibition had nothing to do, or played an infimtesi- mal part im this tremendous building boom. This 1s de- cidedly not so, but we believe it to be more justified in assuming without fear of well-founded criticism that Prohibition is directly and almost exclusively responsible for the big boom in building in certain districts and cer- tain kinds of edifices. The reason is not very hard to find.

The brewers—it is a well acknowledged fact—owned or controlled the vast majority of saloon properties, —'n many instances, they owned choice corner plots, or had long leases on.such properties. Real estate agents also had many properties which housed saloons and liquor stores. They had been content to receive their rent regularly ; few alterations were ever necded on saloons or liquor stores and very little thought had to be devoted to the adminis- tration of these propertics. Now, along caine Prohibition. It threatened the very foundation of inany of the agencies that had specialized in saloon properties or whose busi- ness was largely in this particular line of real estate.

ID AIBILIE, 1B NURI Or SNLOONS AND ITOUOk STORIC Ii- C1 SSIES TAY eRe Se AR IS Iby (Ole IPS CONIE VIBES TS NIE SHOIRIS CUI WNT JEN Sine, Silane: OF NEW YORK TOTAL FOR ate te Saale, LIQUOR SALOONS STORES LICENSES

REST OF STATE LIQUOR

NEW YORK CITY

LIQUOR TOTAL

YEAR SALOONS STORES SALOONS STORES 1911 10,693 1,193 13.148 1,017 23.841 2,210 26,051 1912. 10,489 1.295 12.982 1,056 23471 2,351 25,822 1913 10,376 1,326 13,097 1,058 23,473 2.384 25,857 1914 10:280 1.316 13,095 1,085 23.375 2.351 25,726 1915 10,058 1,298 12.975 994 23,033 2.292 25,325 1916 GOGO? ieee) Was 905 22,199 2,140 24,339 1917 9.277, 1,109 11,513 843 920,790 1,952 22,742 1918 8,168 841 TMD 519 15,487 1.360 16,817 1919 er ose nate acon sellRey R207 2358 1920 8,358 586 8,944

SOURCE: fal Tee poeton Conn estaner of Excise. No separate data in last Annual Report. eS REC RELATIVE PROPORTION OF SALOONS AND LIQ- LOR STORES IN NEW YORK CITY AND STATE AMIE ARISE, IS28)0) Lone Wyss

MN EMSS iit NOP WEOLE SEN Boon oeecne so 16,847 100% Salo os Gado oe arene ee Oe nore 15,487 92% IL skgiteose SHON, so cece aie ccueen meme enone cree 1,360 8%

All licenses in Greater New York ......... 9,009 100% SallOGMS. jose odoeaon ay of aaa ne 8,168 90% ILignier SiG jsoncaas ang ommeneoee ese 841 9%

All licenses in New York City (Manhattan) 4,071 100% SialleYeRiS chaps Ses Gee CeCe eR rE Orica 3,608 89% Ligier Sst aonnanasc cece oa. oe 463 11% SOURCE: Commissioner of Excise, New York, 1918,

Citas) all PASSING OF SALOONS Th NEW VOR eli

IFONWIEIR JBASIP SIND. SAME DISTRICT BEFORE AND AFTER PROHIBITION

1916

ER CEL ta 2a ERRe LEE ES RRGISAR FETT AIS SERRE SCC e

CHART I SIIOWS HOW PROHIBITION HAS AFFECTED A SMALL SECTION OF OUR LOWER EAST SIDE, TIIESE TWO MAPS SUOW THE SAME DISTRICT IN 1916, ALSO TIE SITU- ATION AT THE BEGINNING OF 1924. EVERY DOT REPRE- SENTS .\ LICENSED SALOON,

THIS PISTRICT EXTENDS FROM TILE BOWERY TO ESSEX STREET, FROM IIESTER TO EAST ITOUSTON STREET. IN MAP TO TITE LEFT REPRESENTING THE SITUATION IN TITERE IS ONLY ONE BLOCK WHICH HAS NO SALOONS, IT IS ON THIS BLOCK THAT WE HAVE, BESIDES THE PUBLIC SCHOOL, THE LUDLOW JAIL, FAMOUS AS THE ALIMONY CLUB. THIS JAIL IS PRESENTLY TO BE TORN DOWN AND WILL BE REPLACED BY A SCHOOL HOUSE.

They had drifted for vears, content with the meome thev received, Undoubtedly many had hoped for a change in the community that would offer them an opportunity to erect larger buildings which in turn would produce more revenue. But still it was an easy matter just to “hope” for such a change to come that would sweep these people along on the crest of a new prosperity.

The situation was changed entirely by Prohibition. From the passive method of administering their proper- tics, the owners and agents now had to take an aggressive part in order to save themselves from the “predicted and expected” catastrophe which was heralded to follow in the wake of national draught, and they were not slow to accept the situation and to adjust themselves to it as busi- ness always does. Rather slow at the beginning, and still hesitating somewhat after the first and se-ond year of Pro- hibition, we find that there was an almost frantic scramble to change. renovate and rebuild properties as soon as own- ers were convinced that Prohibition was going to be a per- manent policy and that the saloon as an institution was doomed.

As interesting as table IE is table T1, page 25. In se¢- tion A of that table, we are giving the assessed valuation of Jand and buildings of fifteen properties which were saloons in 1918 and had not changed by 1922. The com- bined assessed valuation for these fifteen properties shows an increase of $1,500 in the land, and an increase of $47,500 in the land and building.

1924

FLL

LLL LT a LIL LL

ABOUT 98% OF THF POPULATION OF THIS DISTRICT IS OF FOREIGN BIRTH OR OF FOREIGN PARENTAGE, IT CONSTI- TUTES PART OF TILE MOST DENSELY POPULATED TERRITORY IN THE WORLD. THE DENSITY, ACCORDING TO SENATOR ROYAL $. COPELAND, FORMER COMMISSIONER OF TEALTH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, SURPASSED FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND PER SQUARE MILE.

THE MAP TO THE READER'S RIGHT SHOWS ITOW A FEW YEARS OF FEEBLE ENFORCEMENT OF PROHIBITION IAVE ELIMINATED THE SALOONS. THE DOTS ON THIS MAP REP- RESENT THE OLD SALOONS WICH ARE NOW DOING BUSI- NESS ON THE OLD PREMISES BUT OSTENSIBLY SELLING SOFT DRINKS.

The increase for the land, of these fifteen properties, from 1916 to 1922, is .2 per cent while for the land and building it is 7 per cent. We were compelled to take the assessed valuation for the year 1916 becaused during the war so many different items had to be considered and we were advised by one of the Commissioners of the Board of Assessors that 1916 and 1922 would give us a fair normal basis of comparison. The number of prop- erties compared in section A of table H is so small, how- ever, that the results should be taken with some reserve. We do not claim that all properties which have not changed from the old order show this small increase. These which