The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-03-01
Health Or whIsky--which?

Writing in the National Advocate,
DR.. Homer X Hall says:
A recent president of a state medi-
cal society said: THE health Of the
people demands the suppression OF
the saloon" And he was right. If
any disease like smallpox or cholera
caused one-half as many deaths in our
country during year as has intoxi-
eating liquors sold over licensed bars,
the United States congress. would APP
propriate q hundred thousand dollars
to stamp out the disease, and then
appoint special officers to see that the
health orders were enforced This
would be right, and the people give
such a measure their hearty approval.
The health OF the people is a pre-
clous heritage And no legislative
power has any right to legallze busi-
ness that destroys or endangers the
health Of the people. We speak the
more positively on this question be-
cause the United States supreme
court has so decided
You win permit me 10 speak briefly
from my own experience. especially
as substantiate what | say with high
authority. Having been busy
physician for more than twenty-five
years. and IN that time having never
lost a week by III health myself. and
having my Office located with a saloon
on one side and another saloon in
front, and my residence with a saloon.
keeper living each side as neighbors,
you see | have had a fair opportunity
for practical observation and study as
to the effects OF alcoholic prepara-
tions on health
A noted physician. a few years ago.
when he observed that most men who
died Of cholera were drinking men,
declared that every dram shop ought
to be labeled. Cholera sold here"
And / declare unto you. every saloon
in America and the world over ought
to be labeled. Disease sold here"
We know Il is a severe charge to
say that saloons sell disease, but it
has the merit OF being true. And we
have the facts to prove 1t. few OF
which we will give here.
DR.. Willard Parker. who for many
years stood at the head Of the medi-
cal profession in New York city, said:
"0ne-third of all the deaths in New
York city are caused. directly or in
directly. by alcoholic drinks" Or.
Hammond. OF Washington. who en-
ioyed such success in his speciality Of
treating nervous diseases as to make
100000 year, names twenty dis
eases of the nervous system caused by
alcohol He said In a letter to Sena-
tor Blair: Il am free to admit.
weighing all points for and against,
mankind would be better of mentally.
morally and physically. il alcohol were
abolished"
The Massachusetts legislature an.
pointed a committee to investigate the
cause OF idiocy, and DR.. Howe, its
chairman. reported that of 800 idiots
he found that las of them
had drunken parents, and he estimat-
ed that threefourths Of the idiots OF
the state had Incorporate parents.
Insanity Is the worst form of men
tai disease. One OF the students, who
has been the physician in charge of
the largest hospital for insane in the
state for fifteen years, recently told me
that sixty-five per cent of all their
patients came to the hospital, directly
Or indirectly BY the influence Of alco-
nol. Were it necessary these facts
could be multiplied hundred fold.
When the statesman, Gladstone. de-
,lared that Strong drink destroys
more of the human family than war
Destilence or famine" he could have
meant nothing short of the mighty
destruction caused by alcohol through
disease which it produces.
Fathers spend their money at the
saloons and their children g, half clad
AXE cold and die Of pneumonia or
ither diseases of exposure. The
mother and children Of the drunkard
20 half starved, and become an easy
,rey to the germs of disease.
If moderate drinking fathers and
Mothers realized how such narcotics
weaken their offspring, making them
IN easy prey to the germs of disease.
hey would cease the use of intoxi-
ants forever.