Social welfare and the liquor problem; studies in the sources of the problem and how they relate to its solution

Preface

‘¢The so-called personal liberty argument in behalf of alcoholic drink loses more and more of its force. Consideration of the public welfare continues to grow and overshadow the rights of the individual. The drink question must be fought out upon the ultimate foundation of morals, hygiene and social order—in other words, the public welfare. If the public welfare requires the suppression of the alcoholic drink traffic it should be suppressed.’’ —From an editorial in the American Brewers’ Review.

In a debate the first step necessary is to state the question—-to agree on a ground on which to disagree. No social or political writer has more correctly stated the basis on which the liquor question is to be fought out, and satisfactory settlement reached, than has this editorial writer on the pro-liquor side of the con- _ troversy.

On this basis the question is before the American people ‘‘on its merits’’ alone.

In this volume an attempt is made to collect, in systematic order, for purposes of study and further ‘investigation, the main facts of the actual present-day American liquor problem; to get together the materials needed by all who would understand the question broadly, and be of lasting service in bringing it to solution.

It is as necessary to understand the question as a whole, not merely its fragments, as to attempt to tell how it should be settled. It is the hope here very briefly but clearly to state the sources of the problem, the place of the liquor institution in human af-

4 Preface fairs, its grip on human nature, and its consequences under present-day living conditions. Such a broad view should suggest remedies with some degree of scientific value. Whether the purpose is here accomplished or not, it may be said that the attempt has been made honestly and conscientiously.

Whatever place drink may have served in the evolution of society in the past, its present worth to humanity depends upon present day facts and consequences. What to do about it should be determined by its broader influences in human life and living, on health, wealth, social happiness, moral ideals, and spiritual values. No theorizing about ‘‘inherent wrong,’’ on the one hand, or ‘‘personal liberty’’ on the other can be of much service. The question is one of practical consequences on every-day life.

The book does not assume to discuss methods. It endeavors to bring out the broad sociological facts and principles relating to the widespread use of alcoholic liquor on which permanent methods of individual and social reform should be based.

To college and university men and women, and to others anxious to be of service to public welfare in the overthrow of drink—in that to which the book frankly leads, its complete banishment, it is respectfully dedicated.

Harry 8. WARNER.

CONTENTS (Bibliography Classified by Chapters and Topics)

CHAP. PAGE IV. ALCOHOL AND HEALTH; THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM...... 67 1, Alcohol a Cause lof Sickness... v4). + 2.4: pee 67

(1) Ite Direct OA Chon. Nites ss «civ. Cee 69

(2) Reduces the Capacity for Resistance....... 72

(3) A Contributory Cause of Disease.......... 78

2, Is Alcohol or Beers Mood ti iin. a ss cere eee 80

3. Alcohol. ‘as 'ai\Medicine ss t406's'. i cau eee beer 84

4..A Cause of: Degeneraty 2.0.0.4 orc ene eee 87

5. Health the First Essential... 2.2... 0.6.5 sou an one 90 References and: Authorities... 2.4... 2.0.05. 5555s 93

Mic THE PUBLIC Cos? OF LIQUOR seiiiie.t =| 1a «ine ae are 98 1. The American’ Drink Bull). i oe 98

2. The Distribution of: the Drink Bille... jc8\ s.eee 102

(1) To the Producer of Materials............. 103

(2) To \ the Wage-earner. so. one aie alias ae 107

CS) Pol the (rates: ..:). vee a ineel de eae ee 111

(4) \Torthe Government. iio ee ee 114

3. The Consequential Cost.............e00- wine Spee 115

(1) Loss of Bilicioncy sri nec. aa ee eee 116

(3) In Producing Capacity ; Relation to Poverty 120 (4) Care and Support of Defective, Criminal, ete. 124

VI. INDUSTRIAL WELFARE AND THE LIQUOR PROBLEM....... 129 1. National Wealth and Social Welfare........... 129

2. The Burden of Intemperance on Labor.......... 132

3. Drink, Wages, and the Standard of Living....... 135

4, The Struggle Between Capital and Labor..... sae 139

6. The Demands of Economic Welfare............. 146 References and Authorities..........0....00.00- 149

VII. THE RELATION OF LIQUOR TO EDUCATION............. 152 1. The Saloon and the Public School.............. 152

2. School Attendance and the Saloon............... 155

3. Delinquency and Disability in School Children.... 157

4. Miseducation of the Foreigner..........seseeee: 160

5.) (Maseducation. of (the (Publics oO. oyee sues ease eee 163

6. Education and the Liquor Problem.............. 167

References (and): Anthoritiesc oes vi ene ack eae 169

Contents ) 7

CHAP. PAGE VIII. THe SoctaBitiry PHASE OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM..... 171 1. The Sociability Source of Intemperance......... 171

4: Counter Attractions (eli mall! Us 178

5. ‘‘Reform the Saloon’’; The Subway Experiment. 181

6. Substitution, a Temperance Measure............. 183 References and Authorities..................... 187

3: 7The Saloon’ Its ‘Chief’ Competitor (0 oe ies. 198

4. The Traffic in the Foreign Field. 3... ..02. 0.02... 201

5. Ethical Phase of the License Policy............. 205

6. Harmony of Government with Ethical Welfare... 207 References and Authorities..................... 210

Til LIQUOR INFLUENCE IN AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND PROBLEMS

X. THE Liquor CONFLICT WITH SoctaL INSTITUTIONS....... 213 Pemenie amily) Drinks Patios oy siete hie yw dete so ie ete ge 213

2. The Suffering Unit—The Family............... 216 Serio AMONG! Womens die 25 asl y win’ Wee Welty epee 218

4, The Family and National Welfare.............. 221

6. The Saloon and the Housing Problem........... 226 TPMT ALAIN sgt alle t wie p alaien alninte aioiate ta iets wha.408! »\¢ mis 228

9. Liquor a Factor in Race Conflicts............-.. 239 References and Authorities................c000. 243

XI. THe Liquor CoNFLICT IN POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT... 247

2,

TACO ANG) POTTER ia elle iialuin, OAs luis eee da ahs 247 (1) The Revenue System a Defense........... 250 (2) License Gives Protection and Influence..... 252

(3) The Vote-Corrupting Consequence......... 254

8 Contents

CHAP. PAGE 2. THE Balog nV Ove ny his Se Cee elie se ga ge 256 3. Political Alliances of the. Traffic..:............. 258 4.\'Drinki.as (a Causeioft , Crime i iis. !4 04.02) ee een ele 261 5. Kinds of Crime Resulting from Drink........... 265 6. Crime an Unavoidable Consequence.............. 267 References and Authorities..................... 271 IV THE SOCIAL DEMANDS FOR COMPLETE ELIMINATION XII. Tue SoctaL DEMANDS FOR COMPLETE ELIMINATION.... 274 1. The Social Welfare Basis; Summary............ 275 2. Commercializing the Narcotic Habit............. 279 8. The Relation of Solution to Sources............. 282 (1) Educational Movements .................. 283 (2) Regulation or Control Methods............ 284 (3) Social’ and Industrial Group....-4.)0 44.05 286 (4);Dhe Prohibition Gropp wi aes ae cue 287 (5) The ‘Wider: Program (0 8)4,) Sosa g ss» cee 289 4. The Necessity for Complete Overthrow.......... 290

References and Authorities................sce00> 294

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.

—Henry Van DYKE.

The alcohol question presents itself at every corner to every man and woman desirous of solving the great social problems that await solution.

It is a kind of root problem, the settlement of which would necessarily involve an adjustment of innumerable other things which have a destructive effect on every hand. As a mere matter of economy and time this 1s a question worthy most sertous consideration.

—Sir VESEY Stronc, Lord Mayor of London.

| CHAPTER I LIQUOR A SOCIAL INHERITANCE

Almost as far back as written history goes there can be found traces of a struggle with strong drink. The use of alcoholic beverages dates back yet further into prehistoric times, to a period long before any suggestion of its dangers was discovered.

But the modern liquor problem, of which drinking and drunkenness are but one part, has grown up recently and in a way possible only in the highest industrial civilization. The struggle with personal intemperance is hoary with age, but the conflict against social institutions which encourage intemperance is new, peculiar to the last part of the nineteenth and the first of the twentieth centuries. Vital with controversy, it is one of the most burning social problems of the present day.

Development of the Problem.—The temperance problem of a century ago, when serious efforts toward its solution first began, was very different from that of today. A hundred years ago almost everybody ‘‘took a little something’’ oceasionally or oftener. The use in the home generally, at social affairs, in religious conventions, in business, and among all classes, gave alcoholic indulgence an unquestioned public sanction quite in contrast with much of the present-day sentiment. The saloon as it exists today, with its politics and commercial influence, was unknown; retail sales were made at grocery stores, taverns, and public houses, and manufacturing was car-

12 Soctal Welfare and the Iiquor Problem ried on in numerous small stills scattered everywhere and entirely independent of each other in ownership or management.

There was no ‘‘temperance problem’’; no ‘‘organized liquor power’’; no ‘‘saloon in politics’’; no ery of ‘‘personal liberty’’ on the one hand, or ‘‘for the protection of the home’’ on the other. The trade was not united, nor separated from other trades, nor organized into a political force. The right or wrong of selling or of licensing was not discussed. The foolish actions of a man in a state of intoxication were regarded as a matter of course, or of jest, not as a sort of temporary insanity. Science had not turned its attention to the problem, while religious leadership, yet friendly to the older customs, was just beginning to speak out on some of the more obvious evils of excessive drinking.

The first important change took place when Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as a physician began calling attention to the consequences of the use of ardent spirits. He called for men to give up the use of toddy and grog—a radical move for that day—for churches and ministers to aid in the new erusade, and for the government to limit the number of taverns, impose heavy duties on spirits, and punish drunkards. A few years later—1808—the first temperance society was formed—the first organized effort—its members pledging themselves to abstain from the use of spirits and wine except in case of sickness, at public dinners, and on special occasions. Malt liquors were not included; they were supposed to be temperance drinks. <A fine of twenty-five cents was imposed for breaking the pledge and one of fifty cents for actual intoxication.

Thus was initiated publicly the effort to influence public sentiment on the personal problem of temperance. But the question did not long remain one of simple temperance. During the first half-century, while the effort to win men to moderation or total abstinence was growing out from a few small societies until it became a great national total-abstinence movement, the problem itself became more complicated than it had been previously, or than it had ever been in the history of the world. Society slowly became differentiated into two classes— drinkers and non-drinkers. This created other new factors. The opposing forces became more distinct; antagonism developed; both grew strong together. During the past half-century, political and commercial forces have entered, producing a liquor problem vastly different from that of a hundred years ago.

The development has been somewhat as follows:

1. The simple temperance stage, resulting in a division into drinking and non-drinking classes; into those who retained and those who discarded the long-established customs. At first the end sought in temperance effort was ‘‘moderation’’; later, after experience, it became ‘‘total abstinence.’’ The methods of winning men away from drink, man by man, were fitted to the conditions to be met in this stage.

2. The development of the saloon and its side attractions as a social and commercial force in the community, replacing the tavern and liquor-selling grocery. This set aside and emphasized the trade as a distinct ‘‘ business,’’ with influences different in character from other lines of business.

3. New drinking ideals and customs from time to time were introduced by new arrivals from foreign lands. It should be noted that those of the first half-century, who long since have become part of the bone and sinew of the national life, were much less moderate users of intoxieants on their arrival than are those of the past few decades. But the later immigrants, falling under the worst influences of our cities, have not had the opportunity to break away from the old customs and become part of the new, as did the earlier people who settled in the purer environment of a newer country. This constant reintroduction of pro-liquor customs, whether tenaciously held or not, has offset the growing temperance sentiment here to no small degree.

4. The steady increase in the use of beer, from a per capita consumption of 1.38 gallons in 1840 to 20.66 gallons in 1911, is so excessive, in view of the fact that the use of other intoxicants has not correspondingly diminished, as to constitute a vital point in itself. Three factors have aided this increase: Furst, the early impres. sion that beer is a temperance drink and a good substitute for those with a higher percentage of alcohol; second, its wide use by the nationalities that yielded the heavy immigration of the latter two-thirds of the nineteenth century; third, new manufacturing and shipping facilities, making it possible, as it was not a century ago, to preserve and transport malt liquors in large quantities.

do. The political power and complications of the traffic which began with the adoption by the government of the policy of taking from it, by revenue and license, an unusually large share of its profits and using this to relieve taxation. The Revenue Act of 1862, but slightly changed since, revolutionized the relation between the government and this traffic, and threw the question into politics more than it ever had been.

6. The development of the trust stage has been due partly to this political situation and partly to the monopolistic tendencies of recent years. In this stage have come the forced extension of the market, increased sales, increase in the social attractions of the saloon, the duplication of saloons, the cultivation of habits of excess among classes hitherto more moderate in their use, the uniting with ‘‘allied trades’’ for political purposes— results vastly different from those that follow the operation of the merely personal and social demand for liquors. This forcing process has gone so far in certain sections where the ideals of the community are not high, that the trade may well be called ‘‘the exploitation of vice’’—the vice of intemperance—one of several such sorts of business appealing to human weakness and the distortion of natural human needs.

The Age-old Heritage.—Intemperance itself took its _ root in human experience long before men were capable of interpreting or even of recording their own experiences. Almost every nation and tribe, while yet in its savage state, had discovered the peculiar effect of substances containing alcohol and similar narcotics, and had made beverages out of them, or devised some other way to use them. The discovery of alcohol has been dated as far back as the beginning of the agricultural period, or 30,000 years.1 Most of the tribes, when they quit the nomadic life and settled down to the cultivation of grains and fruits and the making of pottery, began also the making of various kinds of ‘‘fire-water,’’ ‘‘ water of life,’’ or ‘‘drink of the gods.’’ The fruits and vegetables not needed immediately for food would ferment; the pottery, newly added to the progress of the race, furnished the means. ‘‘The earliest Egyptian, Babylonian, and

Hebrew writings show drunkenness to have been common, and from this we infer that it existed long before the art of writing was known.’’* The warnings show that danger became apparent over three thousand years ago. Egyptian frescoes on temples reveal ale brewing as an industry 5,000 years ago; one city was noted for its breweries; a reformer 1,000 years later demanded a reduction in the number of places selling it to the people. This drink, a crude sort of beer called “‘barleywine’’ by Herodotus, became the national drink of Egypt. The discovery of brewing was attributed to Isis, the wife of the god Osiris, or Busiris. From this latter name a tradition suggests that the term ‘‘bouzy,”’ or ‘‘boozy,’’ used for a time as a name for a drink, may have been derived.t In Greece and Rome and among the early Hebrews and most other Oriental peoples, the fermented juice of the grape was the chief source of intoxication. The history and tradition of those days are filled with references to the social customs and to the prevalence of drinking which injured and debauched, while the poetry and fable indicate the delights of the supposed stimulation. Among the Hebrews waves of reform, with occasional reaction, swept over the nation at times. But finally the influence of their great religion prevailed and the race became the most abstemious and long-lived among all that have influenced the world’s history. But the magnificent civilizations of the other ancient nations, lacking this force to throw off such social vices and dangers, suffered more severely.

In China, as early as 2187 B. C., there are indications of a period of heavy alcoholic drinking, accompanied by measures to reduce drunkenness. Later, the severe teachings of Confucianism and legal suppression made this

* nation one of the most temperate and free from narcotics of all kinds for many ages, and until the commercial power of Great Britain forced opium upon China at the muzzle of the cannon—the narcotic blight of the past half-century in that country. In India an ancient sage, Palesta, enumerates twelve kinds of liquors besides Soma, the drink of the gods and the most popular. They were made from honey, sugar, dates, pepper, and the palm. At annual feasts, as early as 1200 B. C., under the guise of religion, all classes gave themselves up to beastly drunkenness.°

Among the Teutonic peoples of Northern Europe the delights of the intoxicating cup were early discovered. Their drinks were usually less agreeable than were the wines of the South, but they were not more moderate on that account. The rigors of the climate emphasized excessive meat-eating and ale and mead drinking, while at the same time the forest life counteracted the results to a greater extent than was possible in the polite drinking feasts of Rome. This preserved the hardihood of the race in spite of occasional heavy drinking bouts. Ale was the beverage of the gods. In the Norse myths heaven was conceived of as a drunken revel after a big hunt of wild game; the drinking of blood diluted with wine was a foretaste of paradise. The Germanics were dubbed ‘‘the sons of malt’’ by the Emperor Julian. Tacitus describes the ancient Britons as having ravenous stomachs, filled with meat and cheese and heated with strong drink. Roman influence in early England made wine the popular intoxicant. The Saxons brought in mead, soon brewed in large quantities in monasteries. The Danes made ale the national drink.®

The art of distilling, or condensing, fermented liquors for the purpose of heightening the peculiar feelings which the use of alcohol yields is said to have been discovered in China 600 years B.C. by men seeking a panacea for all the ills of life. They called the new drink ‘‘the water of life.’’* But it was used very little until the seventh century, when it was rediscovered in Europe. Most of the earlier drinks were fermented or brewed and comparatively mild. After this, brandy and similar drinks with a much higher percentage of alcohol, became especially popular for a time—a new scourge with immediately terrible results.

The history of Western Europe, from that until the present day, is not complete without a mention of the drinking habits prevailing so largely in all classes. Its literature, poetry, and song show how widely prevalent was the use of wine, gin, and ale. And the more serious writings occasionally give pictures of the awful wretchedness, poverty, and social corruption resulting.

Lecky, writing of gin drinking in the middle of the eighteenth century, says: ‘‘Small as is the place which this fact oceupies in English history, it was probably, if we consider all the consequences that have flowed from it, the most momentous in that of the eighteenth century— incomparably more so than any event in the purely political or military annals of the country. The fatal passion for drink was at once, and irrevocably, planted in the nation. The average of British spirits distilled, which is said to have been only 527,000 gallons in 1684, had risen in 1727 to 3,601,000. Physicians declared that in excessive gin drinking a new and terrible source of mortality had been opened for the poor. The grand jury of Middlesex declared that much the greater part of the poverty, the murders, the robberies of London might be traced to this single cause. Retailers of gin were accustomed to hand out painted boards announcing that their customers could be made drunk for a penny, dead drunk for two pence, and have straw for nothing; and cellars strewn with straw were accordingly provided into which those who had become insensible were dragged and where they remained until they had become sufficiently recovered to renew their orgies.’’ °

From the peoples which have not advanced so rapidly, but have remained primitive or savage well into the period of present-day history, may be obtained a crosssection view of the sort of intoxicants enjoyed by our ancestors. A few of these child races were ignorant of alcohol until civilization brought them ‘‘the delights of intoxication,’’ but most had discovered how to make inebriating drinks of their own. Some of these were quite mild, others were more dangerous. In savagery it should be noted that the use of such fiery drinks was limited to rare occasions. This was largely due to the facts that but small quantities could be made at a time and that it could not be preserved or transported in quantities. On such occasions, the inclination was to drink to utter excess and even oblivion whenever the supply permitted.

The Japs had saké, a sort of eae from rice; the Tartars, koumiss, fermented from milk;the Roweane pulqué, from the juice of the agave; the Peruvians had several drinks. Both Mexicans and Peruvians had discovered the danger in drunkenness and had laws severely limiting the amount drunk. These laws seem to have been effective, for after the Spanish conquest, when this control was removed, the people abandoned themselves to reckless intemperance.® In the South Sea Islands and

Africa, the tribes had fermented drinks made from shrubs. Some of the American Indians made intoxicants from maize, manioc, cactus, or palm sap. But among all these the opportunities for indulgence were limited to special occasions. The long intervals made the total use very insignificant, indeed, compared with that of civilized peoples. There was no regular drinking, no systematic drunkenness. The intemperance of savagery is little different from that of a group of ten-year-old boys who, discovering some fermented apple cider in an old out-of-the-way cider mill, should drink it all and then be unable to find any more for a year.

Origin and Development of the Saloon.—From the earliest the use of alcoholic drinks was associated with all sorts of political, religious, community, tribal, and smaller group gatherings. It was usually an affair of social occasions. Solitary drinking was exceptional. From such usage by many gradations have come similar customs of the present time, and, as a by-product to this evolution, the place distinctively set aside for alcoholic sociability and alcohol sale, known as the saloon.

In the Roman Empire, during the period of the decline, wine parties and banquets with heavy wine drinking, similar to those among certain wealthy classes of the present time, were numerous. There are found, also, concrete examples of the predecessor of the modern saloon—a sort of drinking café not unlike those patronized by “‘high society’’ in the cities of today. When the buried city of Herculaneum was exhumed, there were found 900 public houses at which wine drinking was combined with dining, gambling, and the playing of chess and other games. The early Germanic peoples, as ee eee eel a well, had great drinking feasts at which many hours were spent and vast quantities consumed.

When the Roman influence reached England, these social customs were reproduced, in a rough way, in the taverns scattered every twenty miles along the great Roman highways. The tavern sign-boards of that period are now the peculiar mark of the public house in England. The practice of drinking ‘“‘healths’’ also came from Rome. As early as the ninth century the ale house, intended more as a place of sale and less for the entertainment of travelers than the tavern, a more direct predecessor of the saloon, began to appear.

‘‘Around the eala-hus, the win-hus, and the tavern, there developed the Anglo-Saxon guild. The members of these social confederations were required to bring a certain amount of malt and honey to their meetings. Delinquents in this respect were punished with a fine sufficiently heavy to stimulate the memory. These guilds have left their mark upon the public house in giving it a certain respectability as a social club.’’ *°

From these in turn developed the public houses, taverns, and even literary clubs of early and later England, where extensive drinking began to be associated with sociability, literature, the discussion of public affairs, and politics. At these places men met to hear and give the latest news; they thus served in a meager way one of the functions in the development of public opinion now taken by the newspaper. The semi-private club is a contribution of the Elizabethan period. It differed from the guild in that its membership was received from select classes and that it supported a well appointed establishment of its own. ‘‘The Mermaid was the first of a long series of London clubs and included in its membership such well-known names as Shakespeare, Raleigh, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher. During the reign of the Stuarts and Hanovers, the ale-house and the tavern reached the complexion of the present public house in Great Britain and the saloon in America. It became ‘the poor man’s club!’ It was the place where politicians met to discuss men and measures, where business men repaired to negotiate or conclude their bargains, where toilet conveniences were freely provided, and where social and political ‘influences’ began to take the form of treating.’’ “

Thus the saloon has long served in a double capacity: first, as the place of sale and of most of the consumption; second, to a varying degree, as a place of social intercourse. In this capacity it came to America along with the colonists, ready made. Arriving here, it has been modified, especially in the last fifty years, by the more active life of the people, by the tenser business competition, by democratic ideals, and, more recently, by political forces and brewery control. This change has developed a distinct type—the stand-up saloon, with ae bar and lines of men leaning over it.

Socially, the American saloon now offers every attraction, good, bad, or indifferent, that will produce more sales of liquor. Politically, it is as much a center of influence as in the earlier days of England, but of quite a different class of political issues and forces. Economically, it has recently become, thru the growing power of the manufacturer, merely the local retail end of the big centrally controlled liquor distributing agencies.

Inherited Social Customs, in which drink is an important factor have been quite generally ingrained into the every-day living of the various nationalities making up the present American population. Among the colonists, and during the first days of the republic, among the North European peoples who came to this country in a great wave of immigration from 1830 to 1850, and again in another wave following the civil war, and among those of Central and Southern Europe who have been arriving at the rate of three-fourths of a million a year for the past fifteen years, the social habits supporting drink traditions have been strong and numerous.

Ancient convivial customs were especially numerous among the ancestors of the colonists who came from great Britain. A list of the more important heavy drinking occasions of a social sort prepared by Dr. Campbell ? includes the following: Religious feasts, fairs and saints’ days; ‘‘church ales,’’ given to raise money for church purposes, at which the one who spent the most was accounted the godliest; ‘‘bride ales’’ at weddings, where the bride, receiving the profits, seized the ‘‘nsychological moment’’ to procure a fund of ready money for herself; ‘‘speeding the parting guest;’’ ‘‘toasting,’’ one of the most continuously prolific means to drunkenness; ‘‘night-caps’’ at bed-time; drinking contests, quite common at times, at which he who could drain the tankard down to the mark the greatest number of times, was the best man. The habit of doing business over drink was common at this time.

The colonists, so largely of English stock, brought with them their love of strong drink and many of these customs inherited from their Anglo-Saxon ancestors. During the colonial days and down until the temperance movement began soon after the opening of the nineteenth century, almost everybody ‘‘took a little something’’ occasionally. Drinking was far more universal than at present, the total amount consumed was very much less. Strong drink was used at home, at the stores and taverns, and at work. It was employed in winter to produce warmth; in fact, in the northern colonies, the fathers thought that nothing else would enable them to withstand the rigors of the climate; in summer it was taken for the opposite effect. It was an apparent necessity to explorers and to pioneers as a ‘‘stimulant’’ and medicine. In the family it was the cure-all in case of sickness. Farmers furnished it to harvest hands in the fields, at barn-raisings, log-rollings, and always when a group of men worked together. Gentlemen caroused openly in the taverns. College commencements were the occasion for open drunkenness by students, members of the faculty, and visiting alumni alike. Weddings, christenings, and even funerals were incomplete without it. To permit a friend to call or depart without offering him drink repeatedly was the height of discourtesy. Towns sometimes supplied grog at public expense at the burial of paupers. It was respectable, not merely to drink, but to get ‘‘ gloriously drunk.’’