The Falls City tribune., 1910-06-24
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ALCOHOLIC CRISIS IN FRANCE
Republic Awaklne to Fact Her People
Are on Decline Morally, Men,
tally and Physically.

France is passing through what may
be called an alcoholic crisis. Many of
her public men declare that she Is in
the grasp of a much more dreaded foe
than ordinary alcohol-that subtle and
slow but sure poison-absinthe.
This great republic is awakening to
the fact that her people are On the
decline, morally, mentally and ply
sieally, and the momentous question
of absintheism is so vital an issue
that noted French doctors like Brou-
ardel, Hubbard and Motel of the
Academic de Medicine are using their
united efforts to arouse all Frenehmen
to the dangerous pitfall that is at
their door.
Heretofore the wine-drinking coun-
tries, such as Italy, Spain and France,
have hardly understood the word
drunkenness. 1t was a condition rare
ly met with either in the workman or
in the upper class. In any of these
countries If an inebriated person tot.
tered along the street he was hailed
with derision, hooted at by the small
boy and was a target for the jeers and
Kisses of every passerby; but this
feeling against the man who has
taken too much" has changed with
in the last ten years in France.
The people of the other countries
still keep to their custom of drinking
only the natural light wines of their
country, and they remain sober, indus
trious and law-abiding, but in France
tho GRADUAL Introduction of onirite hoe
brought into existence a generation
possessing a lower mentality, a less ro-
bust physique and filled with unsound
principles.
France is facing a big problem. The
thinking Frenchmen all are using
their united strength and brain to
check this evil, the sorry conse
quences of which are so manifest to-
day. The whole beautiful country of
France Is in the throes of the green
plague. A greater adversary han
even Napoleon had to fight against is
in her cities, with powerful allies in
the towns and the countryside. Napo-
leon is generally accredited with rob
bling France of her most stalwart men,
thus leaving in his wake only the
weaker, the sayants now claim
that alcoholic drinks, the most for
midable of which is absinthe, are the
cause for the degeneration of today.
In the minds of the majority of Eu-
ropeans the army and navy are the
backbone of every country, and there
Is much reason in this conclusion. I'm
til a more enlightened era, when a
universal peace conference will set
tie all international disputes, the coun-
tries OF Europe must protect them
selves with a strong army OF stalwart
men. 1t is in the French army Thai
the disastrous effects of too much al
cohol or absinthe drinking are felt
first. Most of the recruits indulge
more or less in the poisonous drink,
so that h very foundation of the
army is undermined and weakened.
According to the statement made by
a famous officer the garrisons are
filled with men physically unfit, the
hospitals are encountered with sick
soldiers, the police stations and
prisons are filled with insubordinate
men, the undoubted cause being drink.
IN ptSpb 10 lhC dIth Ghtn1J W
discipline,
This sad state of affairs has ex-
tended even to the colonies, and the
native Africans are being decimated
by the alcohol habit introduced to
them by the O~ccidentals. Regions that
were very productive are slowly be-
coming denuded of labor, for the col
onists must depend on the native ne
gro, inasmuch as the white man is
not acclimatized and perhaps, in GER
tain districts, never can be.
Statistics show the appalling de.
crease of the population in the prov,
fnces of Brittany, Normandy, Picardy,
etc, where the race has beer hereto
fore so strong and vigorous. In Nor
mandy alone there has been a loss in
the last 25 years of 200, 900 inhabit-
ants. In some districts the rapid de-
cline of the race has been so per cent
of the population. When one realizes
that the French as a people are not
emigrating to other countries, one
must look for the cause for the ter
rible falling off. Children born of al
coholic parents die by the hundreds
peIore leaVlng ne cradle, and the mil
itary authorities claim that alcohol
costs France an army corps each year.
and the French army contains only
20 corps.
France has a unique custom-that
Is, the "aperitif hour" What the
French people call "aperitif" is, In the
American parlance. ar appetizer. Each
day from five o'clock ON practically
all men cease whatever work they are
engaged in to indulge in their habitual
aperitif, which is in the great majority
of cases a glass of absinthe. Other
countries in Europe depend on their
afternoon tea or coffee, but the
Frenchman in general absolutely de-
mands his absinthe, This is a daily
routine that is followed out almost
without a break, and the custom is no