The liquor problem

Front matter

Hi ^^H flass hMS2#{o Book 7P<5 ^L_.

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

By

Contents

PAGE

Author's Preface v

Lesson I. The Magnitude and Seriousness of the

Author's Preface

In the preparation of this book, the author has received valuable assistance from the Scientific Temperance Federation, Mrs. Emma L. Transeau having read the manuscript, carefully verifying all of the facts, and Miss Cora Frances Stoddard having prepared the material for the lessons on "The Effect of Alcohol on Race Welfare." The Temperance Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, through its research secretary, Mr. Deets Picket, contributed many helpful suggestions. Mr. Harry S. Warner, whose book on "Social Welfare and the Liquor Problem" is a standard work on that subject, contributed the lesson on "The Social Phase of the Saloon," and Mr. Ernest H. Cherrington, editor of the "American Issue," the one on "An Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." Dr. W. Stewart Whittemore, M.D., Mrs. Katherine Lent Stevenson, and Mr. William E. Johnson, were freely consulted in connection with the preparation of the lessons on "The Physical Effects of Alcohol," "Crime and the Liquor Traffic," and "How Drink Injures the Home." Many of the practical suggestions, pointing out "What Our Class Can Do," were offered by Mr. Arthur J. Davis, State Superintendent of the Massachusetts Anti-Saloon League. Grateful acknowledgment of the assistance of Mr. Raymond F. Piper is also expressed.

The first suggestion that such a book be prepared came from Mr. Philip A. Goold, then a student in Boston University, and the first lesson was written by him.

NORMAN E. RICHARDSON.

Boston University, August 17, 1914.

LESSON I

THE MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUS- NESS OF THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

O Jehovah, thou God to whom vengeance belongeth. Thou God to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: Render to the proud their desert.

Jehovah, how long shall the wicked, How long shall the wicked triumph?

They prate, they speak arrogantly: All the workers of iniquity boast themselves. They break in pieces thy people, O Jehovah, And afflict thy heritage.

They slay the widow and the sojourner, And murder the fatherless.

And they say, Jehovah will not see, Neither will the God of Jacob consider. Consider, ye brutish among the people ; And ye fools, when will ye be wise?

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he correct, Even he that teacheth man knowledge?

Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of man, That they are vanity.

Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Jehovah, And teachest out of thy law ;

That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit be digged for the wicked. For Jehovah will not cast off his people, Neither will he forsake his inheritance. For judgment shall return unto righteousness; And all the upright in heart shall follow it. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to the other; that ye may not do the things that ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and such like; of which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. — Galatiaris 5. 17-21.

The liquor business a power to be reckoned with

The liquor problem challenges the attention of every patriot, particularly if he prays : "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as' it is in heaven." A fulfillment of that prayer means, among other things, a State, a nation, a world without the evils which can be traced to the saloon. Men may hold different views as to the solution of the problem, but no man who looks thoughtfully at the facts can doubt the magnitude of the liquor traffic and the peril which it has become to American life. It involves large numbers of men, enormous quantities of raw materials, and vast sums of money. It affects the economic, social, and political life of all the people, and it is so organized as to use its influence and power to further its own definite purpose to increase its markets and profits.

Where it is sold

To appreciate the size of the business we must know something of the making and selling of liquor. There are approximately one hundred and seventy-five thousand places in the United States where liquor is sold, including saloons, restaurants, hotels, clubs, etc. Over thirty per cent of these places are saloons. They aggregate an owned and rented

MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUSNESS 3

capital of about $1,000,000,000 and employ about two hundred thousand men.

A Titanic disaster

The Titanic carried down fifteen hundred and three people. But the liquor business destroys that number of men and women every eight days in the year. At least one man in every seven and one-half men who die in the United States loses his life as the direct or indirect result of drink.

Vice and poverty

Conditions in and around the average saloon, dance hall, summer resort, hotel bar, and liquor-selling cafe show that they breed vice as well as poverty. On this point the testimony of the liquor trade itself, as stated in the North American Wine and Spirit Journal, March, 1913, runs as follows : "Some of the drinking places found in nearly all the large cities are a blot upon American civilization. . . . Many depend upon the debauching of women as a source of indirect revenue."

Liquor making

There are in the United States twenty-three hundred and seventeen liquor-making establishments with a total capital of over $770,000,000. Their economic importance is best shown by the number of wage-earners employed. It is shown in the "Abstract of the United States Census," 1910, that "in this respect the brewery industry ranks twenty-fifth among the industries listed and the distillery industry forty-third." This gives them a comparatively low place from the viewpoint of economic importance as is shown by the following table :

For each $1,000,000 invested

Ladies' clothing industry employs.... 1,180 workers Men's clothing industry employs 870 workers

Boot and shoe industry employs 884 workers

Lumber and timber products employ.. 590 workers

Bread and bakery products employ.... 454 workers

The average industry employs 358 workers

Liquor-making industry employs 81 workers

Liquor consumption

In the United States during the year ending June, 1912, 2,128,452,226 gallons of liquor were consumed, an average of 21.98 gallons for each man, woman, and child in the country, or about one hundred and twenty gallons for each averagesized family. Since a great many people do not drink at all, those who do must have consumed far more per capita and per family than this. It is alarming to notice the rate of increase of this consumption per capita. It was 4.17 gallons in 1840; 4.08 gallons in 1850; 6.43 gallons in i860; 7.7 in 1870; 16.72 in 1890; 17.76 in 1900; 19.85 in 1905.

The cost of drink

A very conservative estimate of the direct annual cost of drink is $1,750,000,000. Compare this with other expenditures : $165,000,000 Church Expenditures, 1906. $233,778,000 Potatoes (farm value). $290,430,728 Panama Canal (up to November 1, 1912). $426,250,434 Public Schools, 1910.

Wages and raw materials

What part of the money spent for liquor pays for wages and for raw material?

MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUSNESS 5

$100 spent by the consumer for

Automobiles will pay in wages $23. 10

Women's clothing will pay in wages 23.00

Men's clothing will pay in wages 20.70

Boots and shoes will pay in wages 20.60

Paper and wood pulp will pay in wages 17.20

Average industry will pay in wages 18.60

Malt and distilled liquors will pay in wages 8.90

The evidence is conclusive that neither the laborer nor the producer of raw material can afford to let the making of liquor replace the many industries which surpass it in per cent paid for labor and for raw material.

The indirect cost of drink

The magnitude and seriousness of the liquor business are seen in its indirect effects. In addition to the money paid over the bar, the liquor traffic "holds up" society in many other ways. One hundred and fourteen million five hundred thousand bushels of grain and forty-four million three hundred thousand gallons of molasses that might be used to satisfy normal demands for food are annually made into liquor. The strength and ability of about three hundred thousand men are wasted in making and selling intoxicants; and besides this they are needed to develop natural resources and to carry on beneficent industrial enterprises. The drinking man's highest mental and physical efficiency is impaired by this indulgence in alcoholic drinks. The moderate drinker's losses are from eight to ten per cent. Industrial accidents, sickness, and death from this cause cut down the labor force of the community. Hospitals, poor-houses, insane asylums, and prisons are from ten to fifty per cent fuller because of alcoholics. Society is thus called upon to pay millions of dollars to support and care for the wretched products of the liquor business. This indirect cost exceeds $1,000,000,000 annually, and is easily twice as great as the amount received by the national, city, and town governments from liquor licenses and taxes.

Policy of the liquor traffic

The allies of the liquor traffic are legion in number and are often found in the most unexpected quarters. The large number of men with whom the trade has business dealings (buying from them all kinds of commodities from grain and bottles to steam engines and fire insurance) are influenced to take sides with them. It appeals to them as "good business" to do so. The United States Brewers' Association has formed as many of these men as they can reach into "business men's associations'' and leagues for political purposes. These organizations under different names in various States publish license campaign papers, send out literature, and hold rallies. The value of such work to the liquor interests is far greater because the ordinary citizen knows nothing of the true purpose and backing of these leagues. A typical letter sent out by such a body, The Manufacturers' and Merchants' Association of New Jersey, clearly implies a boycott of the business man who fails to pay his dues :

"We are again calling upon you for your dues for membership in The Manufacturers' and Merchants' Association of New Jersey. We are about preparing our yearly report to be presented to the members and brewers of the State, and we do not wish to hand in your name to the brewers as a delinquent member of the association. You are doing a yearly business with the brewing industry which is seeking to support itself

MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUSNESS 7

through this organization against the Anti-Saloon League."

Newspapers allies of the liquor traffic

With few exceptions the newspaper which publishes liquor advertisements is to be looked upon as an ally of the trade, for the large revenue from this source is promptly withdrawn whenever the editor prints news items or editorials which reflect unfavorably upon the traffic. In the spring of 1910 the Boston Herald was thus disciplined because of its advocacy of a temperance measure pending in the Massachusetts Legislature.

Municipal licenses as allies of the liquor traffic

New York City annually receives $12,800,000 and Chicago $7,000,000 from municipal licenses. One of the bad results of this system is the practical bribing of voters to favor "license" at the polls. The senior deacon of a Massachusetts church votes for license, saying, "How can our town pay its bills if we cut off this source of revenue?" Because of the indirect cost of the liquor business, the deacon's argument is "penny wise and pound foolish." But the point here is that he is a useful ally of the liquor interests.

Organizations allied to the liquor traffic

All over the country the trade has formed local, State, and national organizations, cooperating to guard its interests by educational campaigns and political activity. The most important national associations with which the smaller bodies are affiliated are

The National Retail Liquor Dealers' Association, The National Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association, The National Liquor League of the United States, and The United States Brewers' Association.

Educational campaigns of liquor interests

Practically every liquor men's organization has a publicity department. The work of The United States Brewers' Association is typical of what is being done by other such bodies. The report of its publicity committee and a "Literary Treatment of the Liquor Question" take up more than half of their three-hundred-page year book for 1913. The same association publishes "The Text Book of True Temperance," which for more than three hundred and twenty pages pleads for the extended use of and sale of beer and light wines. It contains frequent errors and perversions of fact, and misinterprets many of the statistics which it does not misquote. Moreover, it has been sent free to a great many public libraries in cities and small towns as a trustworthy work on temperance. Even at the Boston Public Library it was accepted, catalogued, and placed on the shelves beside reliable volumes on the subject, until persistent remonstrance called attention to the errors it contained. It was finally removed, but it still remains in many libraries.

Political aggressiveness

This educational work is largely for political ends. The main objects of the organization of the "wet" forces are to get a license vote, elect men to office whom they can "influence," defeat unfavorable legislation, and secure favorable legislation. When Theodore Roosevelt was Police Commissioner of New York city, he said, "The most powerful saloon keepers controlled the politicians and the police, while the latter terrorized and blackmailed all other saloon keepers. If the American people do not control it, it will control them."

Use of attorneys and publicity bureaus

The work of the national liquor associations and leagues is shown in the following quotation from The Northwestern Liquor and Tobacco Journal :

MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUSNESS 9

"The National Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association and the National Brewers' Association employ high-salaried attorneys to protect their interests at the State Legislatures and in Congress. They maintain at great expense a publicity bureau, sending out tons of literature treating the economic side of the problem. They assess themselves thousands of dollars to defray this expense. Their respective political bureaus spend an untold amount of money to prevent drastic legislation."

The need of personal interest and united effort

The magnitude and danger of the liquor business are apparent. Its forces are moving forward together with a definite program of extension. The moral forces must also get together and move forward behind a definite program of equal magnitude if they are sincere and intelligent in their opposition to the saloon. The liquor traffic will end in America whenever the American citizens really want it to end, that is, whenever they are sufficiently in earnest to do something about it, not one minute before. The challenge comes to each man in the questions : "What are you going to do about it?" "To what extent do you feel an individual responsibility?"

The opinion of safe and intelligent leaders

Intelligent leaders in the fight against the Liquor Business have thus described it:

"The liquor traffic is national in its organization, character, and influence. It overflows the boundaries of States and refuses to be regulated or controlled. It is a federal evil; a national menace, too powerful for State authority, requiring: national jurisdiction and treatment. It beggars the individual, burdens the State, and impoverishes the nation. It commercializes vice and capitalizes human weakness. It impairs the public health, breaks the public peace, and debauches the public morals. It intimidates and makes cowards of public men. It dominates parties and conventions. It cajoles, bribes, or badgers the makers, interpreters, io THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

and administrators of law, and suborns the public press.

"It claims for itself a special right and privilege asserted by no other interest in all the land, however great or powerful; a right and privilege utterly incompatible with free government, the right and privilege to infract municipal ordinances at will, to violate and break legislative resolves and enactments, and to set aside the constitutional provisions of sovereign States, however solemn and sacred. Refusing all domestic regulation and control, it leaves the American people but two alternatives — the abject surrender of their inherent right of self-government or its national annihilation. Between such a choice free men cannot hesitate. ,,

To what extent will liquor manufacturers and dealers develop their business if no opposition confronts them?

To what useful ends could the three hundred thousand men now employed in the liquor business be employed?

If a "hard drinker" should substitute coffee and water for alcoholic drinks, how much less would it cost him in a year?

What could he do with his savings?

Would the change be injurious to him in any way?

Would it be easier for him to remain temperate if there were no saloons?

What responsibility has a Christian man for the character of the public sentiment in his community relative to the saloon ?

How could it be made profitable for newspapers to refuse liquor advertisements?

Suggest political plans for the extermination or curtailment of the liquor business: (i) in your community, (2) State, (3) nation.

Do the present liquor laws represent public sentiment on this question in your community?

How can that sentiment be elevated?

MAGNITUDE AND SERIOUSNESS n

What is your answer to the Psalmist's question: How long shall the wicked triumph?

Can a man dominated by the spirit of Christ be engaged in the liquor business?

Class Discussion Bring out clearly these three points :

The magnitude of the liquor business : capital invested, men employed, raw material used, methods used for selfprotection and development, vast sums of money spent by consumers, allies.

The nature of the liquor business : relation to poverty and vice, relative economic inferiority, indirect burdens placed upon the community and state, its physical, mental, and moral injury to the individual. Social and political corruption.

Ignorance, indifference, and lack of cooperation on the part of those voters who are responsible for public opinion and laws permitting this business to thrive. Ultimately the saloon or the nation must be overthrown.

Find out how many saloons in our community are owned or controlled by brewers.

Find out how much money is invested in the liquor business: (i) in our community, (2) in our State. How much is spent for drink in our community? How much of this money leaves the community?

Investigate the influence of liquor advertisements upon the attitude of the local newspapers toward the liquor business.

Note: It is very important that a permanent committee be appointed to keep carefully, permanently, and systematically the facts brought out in the investigations made from week to week.

LESSON II

THE PHYSICAL EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL

And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the ground, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, who rode upon camels and fled. — I Samuel 30. 16, 17.

In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and reigned two years. And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah: and Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. — 1 Kings 16. 8-10.

And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible. — 1 Corinthians 9. 25.

The origin and nature of alcohol

Yeast is a microscopic plant. It is a fungus growth, not being able to make its own food like ordinary plants, but living upon the food materials of others. When the yeast plant comes into contact with sugar, it feeds upon it, changing the sugar in such a way that carbonic acid gas and alcohol are left in its place. If it were unable to throw off this waste material, its vital processes would become clogged and death would result. In fermentation, yeast is the active agent. But when a bottle of cider or grape juice, for instance, has fermented until it contains twelve per cent of alcohol, the yeast plant dies, being poisoned by the waste material it has thrown off. Thus alcohol, like the excretions of lower plants and animals, is a poison to those of a higher order. It is present in malt and distilled as well as fermented liquors.

Is alcohol a stimulant?

Dr. Henry S. Williams, after long and careful observations upon the influence of alcohol, says :

"The traditional role of alcohol is that of a stimulant. It has been supposed to stimulate digestion and assimilation ; to stimulate the heart's action ; to stimulate muscular activity and strength; to stimulate the mind. The new evidence seems to show that, in the final analysis, alcohol stimulates none of these activities; that its final effect is everywhere depressive and inhibitory (at any rate as regards higher functions) rather than stimulative ; that, in short, it is properly to be classed with the anesthetics and narcotics. The grounds for this view should be of interest to every user of alcohol ; of interest, for that matter, to every citizen, considering that more than one thousand million gallons of alcoholic beverages are consumed in the United States each year."

A custom based on ignorance

It was while people were ignorant of the final and real effects of alcohol that this injurious custom of alcoholic drinking grew to such gigantic proportions. Through ignorance and error men have mistaken for real strength a feeling which to their temporarily blurred judgments seemed like that of strength. Dr. John J. Abel, of Johns Hopkins University, says that "both science and experience of life have exploded the pernicious theory that alcohol gives any persistent increase of muscular power. The disappeari 4 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

ance of this universal error will greatly reduce the consumption of alcohol among laboring men." Men have thought they were working faster, with greater accuracy, and better while those of sober judgment who watched them could detect a marked decrease in efficiency. The misinterpreted feelings due to alcohol have made possible the enormous growth of a really harmful custom.

This feeling further defined

What is supposed to be stimulation is the effect of the poison in paralyzing in part or in whole the higher centers of control whose function is to keep all the activities in coordination. The man who staggers may feel that he is making superb headway. His power to appreciate a lack of coordination in the movements of the muscles has been taken away. His feeling of elation may cause him to wear a smile on his face or even to boast of his happiness to every one he meets. But the cool, sober judgment of those who know condemns his conduct as pathetically ridiculous.

The narcotic effect of alcohol

The greatest effect of alcohol is registered in the central nervous system. The small amount contained in a glass or two causes the face to become somewhat flushed, leads one to talk more freely and to act as though at greater ease. Natural shyness or diffidence is gone, and in its place come boldness and loquacity. Greater confidence in both physical and mental ability is expressed. The former sense of propriety is lulled to sleep. The higher mental faculties that control the animal impulses become dull and ineffective. The self-restraint that is necessary in the conduct of a true gentleman or gentlewoman, the sensitive appreciation of the higher good, and the power to bring oneself into harmony therewith ebb away as the quantity of alcohol taken is increased. In its extreme effect upon these higher centers of self-control, debauchery and lewdness are seen. Intoxication may cause one to think his actions heroic, for he judges them by his feelings. The sober man knows they are hellish.

Alcohol is the enemy of the blood

"If ordinary air, containing twenty per cent oxygen, is mixed with pure blood, ten per cent of the oxygen will disappear, but with five per cent of alcohol added to the blood only four per cent of the oxygen will be taken up. The blood is the home of the red and white corpuscles. The red corpuscles, little, flattened disks, only one thirty-twohundredths of an inch in diameter, cause waste matter to be burned up, producing heat. The white corpuscles, or leucocytes, one twenty-five-hundredths of an inch in diameter, help to clean the body of waste matter and disease germs. If a pneumonia germ enters the body, the white blood corpuscles surround it and swallow it. Hence, they are called phagocytes, or cells which devour. They are assisted in righting disease by substances in the blood which are poisonous to disease microbes. These substances are called opsonins. The amount of opsonins grows less in bad health. If the finger is cut, the 'matter' which appears in time is composed of the dead bodies of the white blood corpuscles which have been destroyed in fighting the germs of infection. The white blood corpuscles do not like poison, and when even small quantities of alcohol are taken, they are repelled, driven out of the blood vessels, and if the finger is cut, are unable to make their way through the flesh quickly. If they do make their way into the blood vessels again to fight disease germs, they are sluggish, unable to succeed, and sickness follows." It was found in the Pasteur Institute of Paris that in almost every case the failures to check the development of hydrophobia in persons sent to the Institute occurred in alcoholic patients."

Loss of the powers of discrimination

After thus showing the baneful effects which come to one i6 THE LIQUOR PROBLEM

who uses a small amount of alcohol, Dr. W. Stewart Whittemore, a graduate of the Harvard Medical School, goes on to say:

"If his indulgence in alcohol continues, his powers of discrimination are next impaired. He will invite any stranger that happens along to drink with him, and he will intrust his money and his belongings to this chance acquaintance as he would to his most intimate friend. In his increasing loquacity he will tell anything that happens to come into his mind, and in this way many a business secret or family skeleton has been betrayed. Distinctions between right and wrong fade out in his mind. A previously moral man will commit acts when in this condition which he would never think of doing ordinarily, and which he may regret deeply when sober. He may become suddenly quarrelsome or vicious to such an extent that he will strike those who are dear to him."

Description of the drunken state

At this stage the power of control of the muscles is seriously interfered with. The movements of arms and legs are uncertain and awkward. Gestures are exaggerated, the hand shakes as it reaches for the glass and the man is unable to stand steadily or walk straight. Sometimes a peculiar recklessness comes over the partially intoxicated man and he will attempt the most absurdly dangerous feats. A man in this condition was seen deliberately to take a hundred pound cake of ice and drop it down two flights of stairs. If anyone had chanced to walk through the hall below at that moment he would have been killed instantly.

"Eventually the man's speech becomes thick and incoherent, his powers of sight and hearing are impaired, and he sinks into a deep stupor which is frequently preceded by nausea and vomiting. In this stage the spinal cord shares in the depression which we have noted in the brain. The man slumps from his seat to the floor, limp and helpless, to sleep off the effects of the drug. If very large doses have been taken he may remain unconscious ten or twelve hours.

Occasionally a drinker will take so much whiskey or other form of hard liquor that he never regains consciousness. In such cases death is due to the paralysis of that very important portion of the brain called the medulla, where the vital functions, such as breathing, are regulated and controlled.

The effect of habitual drinking

"The man who becomes acutely intoxicated once may recover entirely at the end of forty-eight hours. How is it with the man who repeats the process week in and week out? A slow but permanent impairment of the higher brain functions becomes noticeable. In the majority of cases the first evidence of this is the gradual decline of the power of originality. The ability to invent, to open up new avenues of business activity or of science, which constitutes the highest form of mental activity, is the first to be lost.

"As time goes on there appears noticeable diminution in the power to concentrate the attention upon one thing for any length of time. The habitual drinker's mind acts as if continually fatigued. Thus it is not surprising that business ability diminishes because the very factors which contribute to the making of a successful business man are constantly being undermined. Judgment and ability to reason clearly become things of the past to the chronic alcoholic."