The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1916-04-29
NUMBER n | ] ! Y B. 80
uPHoLDs USE or BEER.
Dr. Stein Says Beverage Helps Morale
OF Troops at Frant,

4 Il 4 s y
! The assthor of the following article.
Dr Max Stein, is director Of The Asxoeias
ton tor the Distribution OF Reer in Ger
many his organization copes with the
| tremendous task of supplying the entire
German army with beer Direca,r Stein. .s
1 who is a Swiss citizen recently visited he
Ghated States for q short stay and his
safewd observations will interest chose who
safe tor constructive criticism and en-
BY DR.. Max Stein.
Every day the Association for the
distribution Of Beer in Germany, of
which | am the director, sends 4, ,5oo,-
Ooo llters OF besr to our soldiers at
the front.
Everyday railroads, motor trucks,
pack animals, steamships, are carry
Ing great shipments of beer to our
soldiers in Russia, in Germany and
IN the Balkans.
The average American cannot un-
derstand why the German government
spends millions Of dollars and uses
valuable transportation space in car
rying what you consider luxury to the
front. But that is Just the point.
We do not consider beer luxury, we
consider 1t a necessity, and we be-
heve the health of cur troops would
suffer greatly Il for any reason the
beer supply were cut Oft,
Before 1 came to America / could
not understand this attitude OF the
american people. To me it seemed
unbelievable that America should
send an army into d waste country
like Mexico and subject them TO the
dangers of poisoned water holds and
typhoid, when you might SO easily
transport beer. But since coming to
America ] begin to understanoseI
have visited your drinking plaGaoR
which are only frequented by nehl;ge
where men stand up at a bar and one
man treats the other in succession,
and where drinking is more Of a busi-
ness than a pleasure, and where one
never sees a woman, Or If there is a
woman, not Of the better class. In
Germany. it is different. One goes
into q German restaurant where the
whole German family sits at a table.
orders food and drinks beers. The
first thing Ia the morning the Muenich
woman drinks her stein of beer. and
yet { know that German women do
~ Y tse's oi.a Go IL Lie 4idDlG tfiG
way American women become slaves
to the cigarette and the cocktail.
You notice that the men who have
been foremost III the fighting around
Verdun are the Brandenburgers, the
Badeners and the Rhinelanders.
Those men come from provinces
where more beer and wine are con-
sumed than probably any other ter
ritory In the world. You can draw
yaur own conclusions from this, al
TO whether the moderate drinking of
beer and wine destroys the whole
some strength of the people or breaks
&sloagE1 a slx.Yirili tieal
prom bltionIst sa ys Elsleg do.
Another thing not generally known
abroad il. that the Austrian army was
Under strict prohibition during the
early part OF the war After the
battles III the Carpathians, the Aus
tfiam army was reorganized, and one
of the first reforms was the introdtlc-
tion Of beer into the army Now the
Austrlans have organized d bureau,
such as our German bureau, and the
Austrian army gets about the same
amount of beer as our own army.
Since the reorganization, you know
that the morale OF the Austrians is
GO per cent better than it was. 4 do
not mean to imply by this that the
improvement is due to beer, but beer
evidently played a part and today the
Austrian military chiefs would no
more think of sending out an army
corps without beer than 1t would with
out bread.
On the side of the Allies / want to
cali your attention TO the fact that 1t
is not the prohibition Russian army,
nor the English who have made the
best showing The backbone of the
Allies is the French army, who drink
their wine as we Germans drink aBwn
beer. .beap
] am not attempting here To - Is
parag ge the temperance movement.
9aly you IN America and we on the
Continent have an entirely different
view OF what constitutes temperance.
[ do not consider that the German
who takes his beer with his meals,
nor the Frenchman who takes light
wine in the same way, is Incorporate.
I consider the Russian peasant, who
used 10 get drunk every day on vodka,
but who, now that Russia has pro-
iaihition, has substituted vari1ish for
vodka, intemJerate. But suppose
your American psohibitionists would
class ell three nations as intetnperate,
and the only truly temperate nation
Turkey which drinks neither wine
noas beer, nor hard liquors.
My own view of what constitutes
tsssal perance agrees pretty much with
the French. If you wild read the
tract sent by the French Medical So
eieeg to the soldiers at the front you
will see that while the men In the
trenches are warned that a nip of
brandy Is delusive. and strong liquor
of every kind habituallv taken leads
without fail to diseases of the sto1n-
ach, liver ard mind, distinction is
made III regard 10 feranented liquors,
such as wine, beer and cider. Fer
mented liquors, the French soldier is
told. may be safely used in rnodera-
ton. This is what we. on the Com
tinent, consider real temperance re-
form.
Do You KNOW That
Walking IS the best exercise and
The cheapest
The United States Public Health
Service administers typhoid vaccine