The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-08-24
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
SOCIAL DRINKING.

IL SOG1d1 uIluh1uS III the Society
world could be made questionable
the cause of temperance would be
greatly advanced, writes Father
Landing in the Pittsburg Observer.
social drinking among men could be
made unpopular, total abstinence
would receive mighty impulse. It
is as social custom that strong drink
must often begins it's deadly work.
The young man does not take his first
drink because he likes it. He takes
it because he thinks it will make him
seem manly and up-to-date to do so.
He does not purchase a bottle of
whisky and go off by himself to
drink it. He may do that later on;
but at first he drinks for the social
pleasure he expects to derive from it.
In these days of close competition
and small margins it is necessary for
man to be at his best if he would
succeed; and no man can be entirely
fit who is ever so slightly under the
influence of strong drink.
Then there is the domestic or
home side of the drink question. The
man who drinks brings Indebtedness
and misery to his family If he is
poor they suffer deprivation and want.
If he is rich they look to the time
when bad management or neglect will
reduce them to overly, and added to
the humiliation of his habits there
will be the discomforts of perjury.
Whisky has been driven from near
ly every place of honor and trust. It
is bar to achievement, an enemy
to happiness, and a menace to health.
Even as a medicine alcohol has lost
it's vogue, and the best physicians
seldom prescribe it.
But in spite of business require
ments and domestic needs, social
drinking continues. There is some
thing incomprehensible about the toll
erance of a custom which, if contin-
ued, may ruin mans prospects.
There is a note of inconsistency in a
policy that finds it's pleasures in un.
dermining it's possibilities.
Sobriety is stock in trade for the
ambitious man. 1t opens the door of
opportunity. 1t gives him a cnance to
utilize his ability. 1t converts his
energy into cash. 1t material1zes his
aspirations. Inebriety blights ambi-
ton, closes the door to opportunity,
paralyzes energy, and destroys the
aspirations.
Social drinking does not in all
| 1oo1 %o 1rvrro
all drunkenness begins in social
drinking. The young man who be-
gins to drink does not intend to be-
come an inebriate. He means to be
moderate drinker. He knows of
prominent business men who drink
moderately, but who are respected
and esteemed. If he thinks at all, he
thinks he will be like them.
Unfortunately there are many such
men, men of wealth and prominence,
who by their example say to the
young man: "It is right and possible
to drink moderately
AS has often been said in these
columns, all men are not equally af-
fected by the poison of alcohol. Many
men never can be moderate drinkers.
For them there is no halfway
ground. They must let drink alone
or they will drink to excess.
1t must be remembered that he
moderate drinkers who occupy high
positions have reached those positions
in spite of their drinking practices,
and not because of them. While they
might defend those habits in them
selves, they would be quick to object
to them in those who asked their
assistance.
There is no profession or position
or occupation where drinking habits
are recommendation. If they are
tolerated, they are not approved.
Science and industry have pronounced
against them. It remains for fashion
to say the final word.