Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-12-26
Thursday, December &c, 1912.
Misleading Literature of Rum Trust.

Misleading Literature of Rum Trust
Is that 100000 booze trust fund
working in this case2 We hate TO be-
Heve IT, but if not, why this series of
out-and-out. obvious untruths under
the title rs 1t True" in d magazine
that must know the difference: a re-
view slip comes to our desk, starting
Oft as follows;
In an article in the January American
Magazine entitled rs 1t Truce appears
the startling and convincing results of
Karl Pearson's investigation of the fam
flies of drunkards and teetotalers made
in the Cation Laboratory for Eugenics,
at the University of London.
The author says that he was always
taught that drunken parents are apt to
produce imperfect children. IL was a
surprise to him and probably II VIII be
to most readers to find the following re-
suits:
First putting all ages together. they
found that the average height OF the
children whose parents drank was 47.9 in
ches, and of non-drinking parents, 40
inches The average weight of the for
mer was 500 lbs. and the latter 53,S lbs
'tBut the children whose parents drank
averaged 9S years old, while the children
of sober parents averaged "a years
Making allowance for this correction by
strict mathematical means the eonelu-
sion was that the drinking of parents had
no appreeiable effect upon the height or
weight of their children. The old maxim
of intimate household hygiene, Drinking
stunts ones children was shown to be
devoid of foundation as far as the ma
terial of this investigation was concerned
Further along we find:
s"d) The larger proportion of normal
eyes is found among the children OF
.t1-1Fn inc n
#"f2) The larger proportion OF hyper
inetropia, myopia, mixed and myople as
tigmatism, is found among the children
of sober parents.
{. f. Stoddard, corresponding Sec
rotary of The Scientific Temperance
Federation, asks the publication of the
following:
An article in the January American
Magazine entitled rs 1t True?" aims
to show that alcoholism is symptom
of a defective stock rather than one
cause, as is currently believed. The
only support presented for this view is
an account of the Cation Eugenics
Laboratory Study published two years
or more ago which the American writ
er introduces under the heading
startling and Convincing Results OF
Karl Pearsnn's Investigations OF. the
Families of Drunkards and Teetotal-
ers.''
This heading is doubly false. Pro-
lessor Pearson did not himself make an
investigation; he simply studied the
figures of Investigations made by 9TH
ers. But what is more important, he
made no comparison of the families OF
"drunkards and teetoalers," as the
American writer states. What he did
do was to classify and compare the
children of moderate drinkers with
the children of immoderate drinkers.
The data for this comparison Was
taken from two reports: % a report
made by the Edinburgh Charity Or
ganization Society of the condition OF
families in one of the worst sums OF
that city: and ~ report Of the con-
dition of families in Manchester which
had one or more feehlem minded child
rem in the special schools for feeble
minded in. that city.
Evidently children selected from such
conditions can scarcely be designated,
as they are by the writer in the Ameri-
can, as large. collective samples OF
English childhood
The Edinburgh report contained par
ticulars of 81 families, only Is of which
were abstainers, so small number
that Professor Pearson explicitly
states that they could not be consid-
cred in class by themselves bur were
put in class of families eco termed
sober" OF these the Gallon study
also explicitly states, by sober is
not meant total abstinence. The
right Of this class to the designation
sober was based upon the opinions
OF Policemen, employers, and social
workers who visited them and report
ed that they did not appear to drink
enough to do themselves er their fami-
lies harm. The Manchester report
made no mention of abstainers. but
roughly grouped the parents Cf the
feeble-minded children as temperate
or Incorporate.
Professor Pearson arbitrarily desig-
mated AS on-alcoholic7 the sober"
Edinburgh families and the temper
ate" Manchester families, and used
them TO compare with the Edinburgh
heavier drinkers and the Manchester
"intemperate' as the alcoholic class.
The two classes compared, therefore,
were not 'drunkards" and ''teetotalers,
as the American writer asserts, but
moderate and immoderate drinkers.
To offset the Misrepresentation of
Abe American article. there are in exist
ence several careful scientific studies in
which total ahstaining class is used
for comparison with more or less al
eoholized classes. These Investigations
have been made both with human and
animal families
One of the most important inveStiga-
tons Of human families was made by
Prof. Taav Laitinen, and extended over
a period of . years. He obtained par
tieulars concerning the drinking habits
and living conditions of over 5000 f1mi-
lies from which he was able to make
q large group of total atstaining par
ents, another of moderate drinkers,
that is those who did not use the
equivalent of over quart Of beer a
dav, and third class called immod-
crate drinkers Who used more than
that amount.
. Like Professor Pearson, DIR. Laitinen
did not find a striking difference be-
tween the children Of moderate ard
lmnloderate drinkers, but he did find
a marked superiority in the children
~ fnfal n hstainers The full report OF