The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-03-26
Remarkable Report Under In
ebriate Act Has lust
Been Put on File.
IS MUCH LESS DRINKING
NOTICED AMONG THE WORKING
CLASS, BUT THE HABlTUAL
DRUNKARD HAS PRACTICALLY
NOT BEEN AFFECTED.


News Service.)
London, March 26.-The insufficient
cy of the law in dealing with the ha-
bitual and irreformable drunkard is
the keynote of remarkable report on
the working OF the Inebriate Act by
Mr.. r. Welsh Branthwaite, the chief
inspector. Two propositions of vital
importance to social reformers are laid
down by him as follows:
Although there has been great
change in the direction of sobriety in
general habits of the people, the habit
ual drunkard is practically unaffected.
Although the various Inebriates'
Acts conferred certain powers on the
courts, further powers are needed to
grapple effectively with the evil.
Those of us who have occasion to
mix with the workers of today in busy
centers,' says Mr.. Branthwaite, ''can
not fail to observe the improvement in
the general drinking habits of the ma
ton, as evidenced by the substitution
OF unlicensed eating houses for licens-
ed ones, and by the frequent absence
of Intoxicating liquors from tables in
licensed restaurants and clubs.
Treating Less Common.
Drunkenness in private life is now
anathema, and the man who can not
control himself becomes more or less
an outcast from society. Treating as
an adjunct to commercial transactions,
is less prevalent than it used to be,
and many minor inducements to excess
sive drinking have fallen into disre-
pute.
But notwithstanding this acknowl-
edgment Improvement in the general
drinking habits of the nation, it Is
by no means clear that any real ad-
vance has been made towards the sup
preston of habitual drunkenness-the
form of drunkenness that gave rise to
temperance work, the form that caus-
es all the real misery and matters
most.
.In times gone by the habitual inc
briate was constantly in evidence in
the streets. in public houses, and in
private life. He was allowed free
dom to roam about and display his pc.
culiarity. being treated with the same
tolerance as the village idiot or. harm
less lunatic; when he became too great
a nuisance he was put still more in
evidence by public chastisement in pill,
Tory or stocks. In other words, every
drunkard was then known and seen.
Fate Of Drunkards.
To-day the habitual drunkard in a
well-to-do private family is RELOCATED
to the skeleton cupboard, and prevent
ed, SO far as possible, from publicly
exhibiting his failing. Pauper drunk
ards hide themselves in warehouses;
shelters, or charitable colonies, the
only places where they can get food
or. when they become sufficiently in
sane, are immured in asylums.
1.-The man who appears drunk in {
public house, drunk and disorderly II
the street, or who commits crimi
nal offence through drunkenness, il
hurried to the police cell; ultimately tt
prison. AS a consequence of all this
the ordinary individual sees little OF
nothing of the habitual drunkard of to
day, and is apt to believe that few ex
list"
Mf. bTduluWdlte udhoo Oil Sioool" CIV
analysis Of the work done under thu
lnebriate Acts, and the conclusion h
comes to is that although much valu
able work has been done under them
the control they give is still insult
ficient.
Mr.. Branthwaite urges emphaticall!
the necessity for putting into practice
the opinions expressed by the Depart
mental Committee of 1908, that the de
tention of the confirmed inebriate il
justifiable and necessary. apart from
all questions of reformation.