The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1915-10-16
A PROHIBITION LETTER.
Local Man Gives Warning to Young
Men Gained by His Years
Of Observation.

will you please publish this
letter?
MY six years on the road prompts
me to write this letter in which !
wish to give to the youths some
facts.
If | had but one message to give
to all the youths of the land it
would be this: Avoid bad company
and strong drink.
| have worked over the largest
part Of three states. and / find that
the one thing. whiskey". is kill
ing men and boys by the thousands
Whiskey poisons the system, runs
men wild, causes them to commit
crimes and it fills up the prisons.
The courts of our country would
not be half SO expensive if it we're
not for whiskey. as crime would
be greatly reduced and taxpayers
would be relieved of great inan-
cial burden. Alcohol. even in
small quantities. attacks all the vi
tai organs and the nervous system.
A large per cent Of the premature
deaths deriving from disease are
due TO this cause. The attacks on
the blood lower the efficiency of
the white bIood--the corpuscles--
to destroy the disease. Germs ex-
pose the drinker far more than the
abstaiDer to the ravages of con-
sumption. pneumonia, typhoid and
other germ diseases.
Science has thus demonstrated
that acIohol is a protoplasmic poi
son. poisoning all living things;
that alcohol is a habit forming
drug that shackIes millions of our
citizens and maintains slavery in
our midst; that it lowers in fear
full way the standard of efficiency
of our great nation, reducing enor-
mousIv the national wealth, entail
ing startling burdens of taxation.
encumbering the public with the
care of crimes. pauperisn1, insanit
ty; that corrupts politics and pub
lie servants, co-rupts the govern
ment, corrupts the plbIic morals,
lowers terrificalIy the average
standard of character of our citi-
zenship and undermines the liberties
and institutions of the nation; that
it blights the home and the family.
checks education, attacks the young
men when they are entitled to pro-
lection, undermines public health,
slaughtering. killing and wound
ing many times more than war,
the average death on alcoholic
drinks in America being q 200 daia
Iy. while the average deaths in the
European warts only 1,500 daily.
The records of our great life in
surance companies show that in the
periods from 25 to Al the mortali.
ty of the total abstainer Is only
fraction of the average. This
means that the bulk of deaths in
young manhood is due to alcohol
contend that people ought not to
die in their prime any more than
animals; still there are more than
six million and five hundred thou
sand Americans dying every year
from strong drink.
Starting at the age uf twenty
years az a heavy drinker, man
dies at the age of thirty five. there
by losing about two thirds of his
span of life. Starting at the age
of twenty as a moderate drinker,
he dies at the age of fifty one. los
ing over fourteen years of his al
lotted days Starting at the" age
of twenty as total abstainer, he
attains the average age of sixty
i've.
Upon this, all must agree. A
man may drink himself, but if he
be good man he would love to see
such conditions that the young
hereafter would grow up to be so:
ber men. Less than per cent of
the drinkers begin to drink after
they are grown and settled men
Think of the great European
war, where men are dying by the
thousands. and still the recores
show, as | have .said before. that
mare Americans are dying daily
from the results of alcoholic bever-
ages than are falling at the end of
The migf ty guns in the European
countries. There can be but one
verdict: The great destroyer must
be destroyed /" And think that
time is ripe for the fuIfllment.
The present generation. the gen.
erati0n to which we belong, must
cut this milestone of degeneracy uff
of the neck of humanity What is
the remedy fer this organic disease
that is nation wide and world wide
in its blight? Evidently the treat
ment must itself be organic and
must itself be nation wide and
world wide.
| became total abstainer when
| was a yourg man. and | am proud
to say. although ] come in daily
contact with this venom, that | am
still the same. and my six years on
the road daily seeing SO many
young men and boys going down to
a drunkard's grave. prompts me to-
write this letter.
| will close By saying that 81
taste not, drink not and handle