The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-11-03

to in couple OF sentences only where the
States responsibility for this condition Is
serted to be Its too eager grasping after the
easy revenue that directly indirectly flows
into Its treasury from the license tax bar
rooms and allied sources And why charge
man with crime and all the while the State is
doing that which Is sure to make him commit
crime?" The argument Is also made that the
State. through such an institution. will change
a nonproducer into producer-turn liability
into an asset
While the writer admits that such an institu-
ton would assist In the restoration of some OF
the present victims of alcoholism and would
be an effort towards a just restitution for con-
dltions which the State itself has imposed upon
Its citizenship, there Is another method. OF q
wider sweep. which the Virginia Medical So
ciety in connection with Its proposed memorial
to the next Legislature might well propose and
al, va. The prompt ana absolute re-
moval OF the cause of inebriety--the destruc-
ton of teh legaiized liquor traffic in State,
root. branch and fruits. II the Legislature will
destroy. or make 1t possible to destroy, the dis
tilleries. Wholesale liquor houses. dspensaries
and saloons of the State. there will be need
OF a permanent inebriate institution, and there
will be a diminishing need for insane ;lsylums,
poorhouses, hospitals. Jails and penitentary. In
stead OF reconverting nonproducers into pro-
ducers. the State. by this method can retain
all Its manly assets without their value ever
having been impaired. In prohibition Kansas
40 counties out Of 1os did not send a prisoner
to tho penitentiary In 1909. Fifty seven OF the
105 counties have no inmates ia their poor
houses, and 80 poorhouse farms have
been turned into agricultural experiment sta
tons Fifty-four counties are without an idiot.
and 81 counties have no insane
Such action by the Virginia Medical Society
would be in line with the work of the modern
medical profession in other departments OF
practice That profession Is constantly warn
ing us Of the danger of typhoid and tubercu-
losis and other germ diseases-of the care nee
ga.aSt- of destftetaefa 81
the sources of Infection. In these diseases the
effort OF the profession is to have no Victims
Why not make it practically impossible that
there can be alcoholic victims? No physician
in the State would advocate opening up or
maintaining a resort through which typhoid or
tuberculosis smallpox could De comm uni
Gated Why should the State. unchalenged bs
the medical profession be permitted TO estap-
fish or maintain resorts which produce tnebriety
with all its fearful results? Why should the
medical profession be satisfied with The estao-
ushment of an Institution which at most can
correct or alleviate, but In part the results OF
seeks first to ascertain the causes OF disease
and then to remove those causes 1t treats
causes-not symptoms. Should the Nlrgfnia
| Medical Society appear before the next Legis
/ lature in support of enabling act by Whlcf
! the cause Of the misery it describes may bs
! removed and then use it's large influence &c
! secure the passage OF such an act. 1t would %
| justified in asking also, temporary alleVia
/ ton for an institution such as It proposes Uni!
i would be a rational scientific and effective pro
| gram for the treatment of the ineoriety cues
ton The Virginia Medical Society has fairl,
, well diagnosed the OF fnenrfety in th'
! couple of sentences above quoted; but The so
| cety has not realized the radical and heroic
! treatment which the situation warrants VIVA
the State OF Virginia needs is a Statewide aoat
toir for the slaughter of all forms of the IL
censed liquor traffic and not merely saivag'
institution in which a few OF the traffics VIC
| tins may be reclaimed. j. r., -
/ Winchester Va Oct. 81, 1sl].