The Washington herald., 1912-09-12

4
sinthe drinker. there were well meaning
| people enough in France who considered
| the picture overdrawn and the danger
1 arising from the abuse Of this particu-
] larly pernicious form Of alcohol consid-
| erably exaggerated But Coupeau and
his kind. II they really were rare In
Zola's days. are common enough In the
France Of to-day.
It would appear that the French 1egis-
lator. as q rule 30 mindful Of the nation
al welfare, shows himself TO be Grim
inally Indifferent when some prophyiactic
remedy or other Is presented In the
chamber. OF course. there is q reason
for this singular apathy. and II IL not
far to seek. The drink purveyors In
France, as In other countries. are well
| organized with view to looking sharply
after their vested interests This trade"
as well as others. is able to provide
votes on election day. The candidates
for Parliament are well aware of this.
| Woe betide the one who would dare to
run counter to the wishes Of the liquor
men. Politics does seem to be thus pref
ty much alike In all countries, when 1t
comes to getting at the voters.
Only recently France was afforded the
modifying spectacle OF seeing the ma
tional welfare subjected to threatened
financial interests. After about. ten
years Of strenuous effort on the part Of
| handful Of temperance advocates, a
bill aiming at a limitation Of the num-
Der Of debts de BLOSSOMS drinking
| shops was submitted TO the Senate. This
body, which on the whole showed itself
| well disposed toward the proposed law.
\ sent the bill to the Chamber Of Depu-
ties with certain , amendments. The
chamber referred II once more to a COM
mission. This was nothing but a method
Of quelching IT. but 1t was quite scien-
tific method, because no one could ac-
cuse the members Of rejecting the meas
ure outright. Had 1t been thrown out.
new bill pretty much on the same
| lines as the old one might have been
| introduced, which, Of course, cannot
happen as long as the bill is hung up"
| in committee indefinitely. Here we are
used TO this sort OF legislating a bill to
death, and France seems to be an apt
pupil.
The Institute" the Academic of
Medicine, IN fact, the entire scientific
| world of France, stood aghast at this
| setback to the cause of human prog
ress. Bars are springing up unchecked
on every hand. not only in Paris, but
in the big provincial cities as well. In
one busy street in an Industrial quar-
| ter OF Paris there are no fewer than
eight debts de BLOSSOMS" in a radius
| of fifty yards. Scientists whose spe-
cial study is chronic alcoholism in its
| relation to crime and insanity. wiring
| their hands in despair as they find
themselves face to face with the tabu-
lated results OF their own investiga-
lions.
The consumption of absinthe as dis
tinct from other forms of aperitifs or
liqueurs with a strong alcoholic basis
has increased at an appalling rate
within the last thirty-eight years. Side
by side with this there has been a
marked increase in serious crime, in
lunacy. in epilepsy. and in general
physical and mental degeneration. A
leading Paris physician recently char
acterized absinthe as being the most
deadly OF all known alcoholic poisons,
yet II is retailed openly and without
the slightest legislative restriction
from one end of France to- the other.
For twenty years a number OF par
liamentarians have attempted to check
the growth of the evil. They have &C
complished nothing. chiefly because OF
the powerful commercial interests that
were srrayed against them. Absinthe
in France has millions OF invested cap
ital behind 1t. Some one has likened
the unsuccessful task OF these reform
ers to that OF Sisyphus condemned to
push a rolling stone uphill as fast as
II rolled back. But, nothing daunted.
the party OF reform has now very
coura geousIy resumed the fight in both
houses OF the Diet.
Finding II useless to further attempt
the restricting of the sale of absinthe
by legislative enactment, the temper
ance men in the Chamber and the Sem
ate have declared war "a outrance"
against this deadly decoction. Their
aim is to Danish absinthe altogether.
la, h M
pie set by Switzerland and other ma
lions. they are trying TO prohibit, I'M
der drastic penalties, its manufacture
or sale, even its importation into
France.
The projected law already has been
considered by a parliamentary commits
sion. which has strongly recommended
its adoption. There is a second bill aim
ing at the same purpose, but this as yet
is still in the hands Of committee.
There is a third measure. which was
Introduced in the Senate some months
ago. This bill aimed at the total sup
preston Of the absinthe traffic. The
proposal was discussed at length in the
Senate a few days ago. II met with
strong opposition. for the Senators
showed a marked disinclination to vote
for the abolition of the manufacture or
sale of absnthe. What they did was
to decree that henceforth a certain aro-
matte plant called thuyone, which is held
to be particularly hurtful, must not be
employed in the manufacturing Of alb
sinthe. But. as a doctor among the Sem
ators pointed out. even II the noxious
thuyone be eliminated some other equally
deleterious essence can be substituted, so
that the new absinthe will probably
prove as harmful II not more harmful to
its consumers than did the old. At all
events, the bill, in its amended form,
has been sent to the Chamber Of Depu-
ties for its consideration.
The parliamentary commission which
considered the first measure, as pre-
liminary to the drawing up Of its official
report, heard a great deal Of evidence
for and against absinthe. Doctors and
distiIlers, cultivators, workmen, and rep
resentatives of the wholesale and retail
trafficants in the green poison" all had
their say in favor of or against it's COM
plete eradication. NJ. Schmidt, who was
reporter to the commission. had got to-
gether a mass of statistical information
which places in sinister relief the moral
and physical destruction worked by the
absinthe curse.
Statistics furnished with the bills go
to show that up to the end Of 1908, the
consumption of absinthe per inhabitant
in France was nine times as great as II
was in 1870. In the latter year the aver
age was five centilitres per head. In 1908
1t was 45 centilitres. A centilitre is
something like one-third of fluid ounce.
Physicians in France classify overin-
in hcip haipo