Evening star., 1911-01-12
Various Causes Assigned.

| Various Causes Assigned.
First the agitation against the excess
sive consumption Of beer. by medical men
| and others. II is now common for physi-
clans to advise their patients against
drinking beer or other distilled liquors
and prescribing tea and coffee instead.
Ten years ago. when a friend of mine
was operated upon for appendicitis in a
Berlin hospital. he was given a foaming
mug of cool beer Immediately after the
| operation and was not allowed to drink
anything else Tor several days. Ioday
| beer is not served to patients in the hos
| litals.
| Second an abundant fruit crop annually
| for the last ten years has resulted in the
| manufacture of a great deal of cider and
other homemade beverages ip the FARM
| houses and villages, which haze been used
| in the place of beer
| Third, the introduction of bananas in
| the factory towns throughout Germany
| has been universal since the development
of that industry in the German colonies
on the west coast of Africa. Steamships
| arrive at Hamburg and Bremen regularly
| every week laden with bananas. great
deal of German capital has been invested
| in plantations and the railway managers
have made special efforts to promote the
distribution of the fruit among the work
ing classes. as in the United States. a
factory hand or mechanic who has been
| in the habit of spending 40 pfennigs for
! beer to drink with his luncheon at noon.
now buys 20 pfennigs worth of beer and
20 pfennigs worth of bananas.
| Fourth, the increase in wages and cost
Of living have resulted in increased pro-
duction; the prices of barley and hop have
been unusually high for the last decade.
and the taxes assessed upon brewers and
| wholesale and retail dealers have been
more than doubled to meet the expendi-
| lures for naval and military expansion.
1t is estimated that the cost Of beer to
the consumer has advanced 35 per cent
| and the purchasing power has not kept
| pace with It. For this reason less beer is
consumed in the households. particularly
| by the women in the rural districts. They
| spend just as much money as they spent
! before. but they do not get SO much beer.
| Statisticians insist that the decrease in
the drink bill has not kept pace with the
| decrease in the amount consumed.
Fifth. the increased imports OF coffee.
| tea and cocoa furnish another key to the
problem and shcw that the consumption
Of those beverages is growing much faster
than the population. The Germans have
| always consumed a great deal of co1ee,
| but they have never been tea drinkers,
like the English. The ''5 O'Clock tea"
habit has only recently been introduced
| into Germany. but has become almost
| universal among the Wealthier classes,
| and tea and coffee are diSplac1ng beer to
| a considerable degree.
| These Ave causes probably united to
| produce the phenomenon that created 50
much surprise and which Is receiving so
much attention at present.
Same Conditions in Great Britain.
The same phenomenon appears in Great
| Britain, however. An official report OF
the commissioner CT customs and excise
of the United Kingdom shows that since
1901 in England, Scotland, Ireland and
u Wales there has been an increase of %
per cent in the consumption OF tea, Is
per cent In the consumption OF cocoa, and
a decrease OF II per cent in the consump-
ton OF coffee, 1S per cent in the consump-
ton of beer and 80 per cent in the con-
sumption of distilled liquors. 80
| The total expenditure for liquors in the