The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-10-07
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
ANOTHER FALLAcY NAILED BY
FACTS.

Always the last shelter behind
which the liquor ring seeks to hide
is the moderate drinker"-tfle man
who does not misuse" booze.
The drunkard long ago was dis
owned by his creators. He is not a
good advertisement for their wares.
He reflects no credit on a business so
honorably run that all it's records must
be destroyed once a year or oftener!
Their hope is in the moderate
drinker. Look at Germany" they
say. For a year and a half the whole
world has been doing SO. And one
OF the most interesting sights it has
seen is the cutting down of the beer
allowance to all German soldiers.
Long ago Sweden taught the world
that beer drinking and good markham.
ship do not go together. Of late
Germany has needed good markham
ship. Still, the brewers and distillers
and their faithful allies in other walks
of life have continued to point with
pride to the moderate drinker.
Just what they now will do with
the Carnegie Institution, in Washing.
ton, remains to be seen. The institu-
ton is so rigidly scientific that none
ever could accuse it of prejudice or
personal bias. And lately it undertook
a demonstration of the alcohol uues-
ton.
A demonstration, because this ques-
ton already has been investigated by
several scientific agencies. But the
Carnegie Institution never is quite GER
tain that such Investigations have
been as detailed and exact as they
should be. So, in the coolest and
calmest manner possible and armed
with every available instrument and
every iota of knowledge thus far re-
vealed, it took up this question.
Thus far its work has had to do with
the physiologic consequences of alco-
hol in small manufacturers some.
what smaller than the average mod
crate drinker" takes in the course of
his daily allowance of beer, whisky or
wine.
For experimental purposes the MI
triton Laboratory of the institution
selected college graduates who were
very moderate drinkers and patients
who had been under treatment for
alcoholism. Naturally, it would have
been unfair to make the test on nom
drinkers. For even unscientific folk
know how small quantity of alcohol
will unnerve or more seriously affect
one not used to it,
You may be sure these Carnegie in
Vestigators went about their work in
the most precise and unprecedented
manner. They are neither for nor
against liquor or the men behind the
booze. They want absolute facts.
After administering the small doses
| OF alcohol, they submitted the chosen
subjects to series of tests which,
as set forth in the report, are so ultra
technical as to need translation for
the benefit of everyday persons. But
| in recent issue of the Journal of the
American Medical Association, under
the heading, New Evidence Against
Alcohol" the primary results of this
super-scientific quest are set forth in
language reasonably understandable.
After dealing in mass of technical
terms, the Journal says:
These observations bring further
evidence of the general depression of
the neuro-muscular processes at all
levels of the cerebro-spinal system.
There is depression of even the sim
plest forms of motor processes, such
as are found in eye and finger move
ments. Certainly nothing in all of
this suggests any true stimulation
any increase in psychologist or physio-
logic efficiency. Impairment seems to
be the keynote expressed by the de-
preston. Here is the statement of the
Nutrition Laboratory investigators:
In conjunction with the pulse ac-
celeration, the general neuro-muscular
depression may be regarded as pre-
sumptive evidence of the effect of al
cohol on organic efficiency. In none
OF our data is there any indication of
pure facilitatiOn effect of alcohol"
These scientific findings leave the
conclusion of Quensel unimpeached.
Work and alcohol" he said, do not
belong together, especially when work
demands wideawakeness, attention,
eXactness and endurance"
"Wideawakeness, attention, exact
ness and endurance"
These are fundamental needs in any
kind of work. And the Carnegie
scientists have proved there is no in
dication that alcohol facilitates any
function, physical or mental. They
have proved that even in most moder-
ate quantities it depresses even the
simplest body movements.
The moderate drinker cannot handle
a pencil as well as the non-drinker.
He can't think so quickly. He is I'M
able to rivet his attention to such a
degree. He tires sooner. In short. he
is in every way less able to do good
work than the non-drinker.
This is the verdict of the supreme
court of science. There's no more
sentiment or bias in this than i'm a
potato peeling. What will the booze
folk now do with their highly priced
moderate drinker?