The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1910-06-02
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPEI,ANUE
"What Is WbisISy?"

cials have been trying to arrive at a
correct definition for whisky, and
finally, in concluding the discussion,
the President has announced what, in
his opinion, 1t really is.
Undoubtedly considerable interest
centres in this decision, but 1t is
chiefly commercial interest. 1t
would have been far more interest
ing and useful If the Government had
taken it upon itself to have run
whisky directly to its lair and had an
swered this question in plain, every
day English by telling us just what
whisky is, what 1t is doing to the peo-
pie, what it means to the Nation, and
what ought to be done about 1t.
And it would have been compare
lively easy matter to have prepared
this information. In determining the
correct commercial definition of
whisky many men were called upon
to give an opinion, and many lines
of inquiry were pursued. With no
more effort the Government might
have secured the other kind of infor-
nation. 1t would simply have had to
look for it in a different directions;
it would merely have had to consult
with a different class of people.
If you want to find somebody who
really knows what whisky is you
want to call upon the judge of
police court, upon the chief OF police,
upon the manager Of a charity organ
ization. They are the persons who
are best fitted to answer this query,
for they are brought into daily and
hourly contact with the work that
whisky is accomplishing. AS rule
n. r1nF fn a -
termed Temperance cranks," yet the
stories they could tell would be far
more eloquent in their appeal than
almost any illustrations that the
preachers of temperance sermons are
able to devise. The simple fact is
that these tales are the plain, matter
of-fact incidents that have come to
them in the course of their daily work
among whisky's worst victims-those
whom whisky has brought to a con-
dition of misery that is incalculably
worse than death.
OF course, most of us have some
idea of the work that whisky is doing,
for there are few persons who do not
number one or two victims of this
beverage in their list Of relatives,
friends or acquaintances; but to dis
cover the whole truth, it Is necessary
to go to the police courts and to the
tenements in which women and chill
dren are starving, for it Is then that
the charge against whisky commences
to assume proper proportions. In
fact, it would be a very good idea IL
every young man could be given an
opportunity to study this effect OF
whisky at first hand. 1t would be a
temperance lesson that would cast
the most logical of arguments far
into the shade.
Ask any police official, any judge.
any charity worker, what is RESPONSE
BILE for the crime and misery of the
world, and he will tell you that.
whisky is to blame for the greater
part of it. Even when other causes
may be assigned little further in
vestigation would probably show that
whisky played its part in the disas-
ter. They will tell you, too, that the
bulk of evidence goes to prove that
whisky is a thing that cannot be
fooled with-that it objects most seri-
ously to being let alone. Once it has
gained firm hold upon an individual
it holds on with a grasp of steel, and
it takes something more forceful than
ordinary determination to break its
hold.
1t isn't because it tastes good that
people drink whisky, for there are
few persons who really like the flavor.
1t is simply for its effect upon the
brain that it is consumed, and 1t is in
this insidious effect upon the brain
that it's danger lies. For, once hav-
ing been experienced, the brain de-
mands this sensation more and more
frequently, until finally the habit has
actually been formed and the end is
in sight.
This is the story that those who
work among the poor and the law
breaking elements can tell, for pow
erty and crime follow as naturally in
the wake of whisky drinking as the'
moon follows the sun. 1t Is practical
ly inevitable law that whisky spells
disaster-disaste to the individual,
disaster to the family; and when we
realize that there is no other side to
the picture-no glorious record of
success attained through whisky, but
only misery and death-we begin to
regret that the Government did not
carry its investigations little further
and furnish us with just the sort of
definition of which we are in need
Graham Hood, in New York Globe
and Commercial Advertiser