Newark post., 1914-04-29

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several states, also found that onefourtt
of our poverty was, directly or indirect
ly, due to drink. You may say, only one
fourth of our poverty, but if you are
working to alleviate poverty and have
found something that is furthering even
one fourth of your problem, any wise mar
would tell you to move on it.
Physicians report that alcohol is the
immediate cause Of from one-ffth to
one third Of our insanity. Now insanity
is not only extremely distressing, it is
extremely expensive. DR.. Macdonald es.
timated that the total yearly loss to the
state of New York through alcoholic in.
sanity, must be as much as $2,4OO,OOO
(See Prof. Irving Fishers statement be-
fore Congress, p. 8. Every social work
er should possess this primer Of alcohol
costs.) Thrift alone would suggest a
campaign Of education against alcohol.
The Committee of Fifty reported that
1895 per cent of our crime was, directly
chusetts Bureau of Labor found the per-
centage 50.SS. Here are statistics again
checking up.' And this does not in
clude drunkenness. Had that been includ-
ed the percentage would have been 80.
Prison reform has our heartiest SYM
pathy, but it would be a more efficient
movement if, along with it's efforts to bet
ter the inside of the prison, it also put
stress on the causes outside that put
men inside. Alcohol education is crime s
preventive medicine; not the whole cure
but real part Of it.
AS for the great, popular movement
against commercializing vice, those who
know, according to Jane Addams, agree
that liquor is the indispensable vehicle of
white slavery. And yet, while every So
cial worker is ready to move on white
slavery, none Of them seem to think of
moving on the vehicle, liquor. At a meet
ing in Boston on Vice and the Cafe, ex-
President Eliot of Harvard, an anti-al-.
cohol convert, rose and said that people
must not forget the part that intoxicating
liquors play in prostitution.
The remark went as almost all remarks
on liquor do (before social workers) into
space. Every one was ready to move on
the cafe, but nobody seemed to think of
moving on liquor, that indispensable ve-
hicle of the cafe.
A young man in great trouble said to
the writer: "My great trouble began
there. 1 hated the sight of her when 1
went in. But after my first glass, she be.
gan to look good to me, and after the
third glass l went off with her. If you
women want to help the vice problem,
fight alcohol.'
And so one might go on showing the
costs of alcohol. In one year 40 per cent
If broken homes (in Chicago) were as
.ribed to liquor; 45 per cent of children
deserted and neglected; As per cent of |
children deserted and neglected; 4S per
mt of paupers in the almshouses of Mass
lchusetts.
But L have outlined enough of the |
osts of alcohol to ask you, the social |
worker, the question: Can you do effect |
We work in your specially and leave out |
he alcohol problem?
But to act one must be clear as to why |
men drink. To the writer there have al
Ways seemed two classes Of drinkers: the
leurotic drinker, the creature unable to
tand strain and rushing to drown it in
rugs (women are apt to be of this class)
nd the other class, men of the convivial
ype who acquire the habit because they
90 often have nowhere to 60 but the
aloon. This class, as the Massachusetts
on Drunkenness points out,
hight be helped by municipal coffee
ouses with things to do, replacing the
aloons; municipal ''poor men s clubs -
'ithout liquor. This, of course, is only
flank movement,-like better housing,
etter industrial conditions, but none the
,ss necessary.
The only lasting help is education. BY
education the Firms have re-
uced their consumption to IL liters per .
apita. By unceasing education we can
o the same. All large, organized chari-
es should have an alcohol education COM
ittee composed of leading doctors, edu-
ators, social workers who should sift the
est scientific and state evidence and
md it forth in posters, charts, exhibits.
'omen's clubs and newspapers through
lie state should cooperate, and if they
re like the women s clubs and newspap-
IS Of Massachusetts they will cooperate.
Through the clubs system of alcohol
1uco fion hnorlc chonll ho oc&ol1;,hol |