The Washington herald., 1916-05-13
The Culprit and the Pretense.

The National Wholesale Liquor Dealers AS
sociation, in convention at Louisville, has begun
war on the exceptional drunkard, as the greatest
factor OF Misrepresentation that legitimate bust
ness has to deal with. The association repre-
sents investments of more than $1,000, 5000 in
the direct production of wines, malt and distilled
liouors. and like amount in allied industries.
All these legitimate investments are the sub
ject of attack on account of the exceptional
drunkard That is the claim of the association
and it must be admitted that there is some
basis for the claim. The drunkard is not a
common character in this country He is ex-
ceptional and the more exceptional in the cities
where the liquor trade is licensed and regulated.
He is more often heard from in the police courts
of prohibition States than in the license States,
but even there he is exceptional in that he con-
sttutes but a small part of the whole poPula-
ton.
The time was when men prided themselves
on the amount of rum they could consume, and
it is recorded that in the early days, no ban
quet or festivity was completed until every
man was under the table. But even then men
did not continue in their drunkenness 1t was
exceptional. Now the man who fails to go
home from a dinner or festivity sober, is con-
sidered as undesirable company. This change
has come about through long years of educa-
ton as 10 WHAT CONSTITUTES SOOu DiSNNiiS, nv
through Puritanical laws.
A woman who devotes much time and effort
10 charity and settlement work. recently said
that the most universally recognized sin was
drunkenness and that the drunkard is the rarest
sinner to be met with in such work That
would be the testimony of the average citizen
who stopped to make note of the number of
intoxicated men women met during the
course Of the year. The old rule holds good
that few men can face the reproach of being
Stunned by their neighbors and society in gen
cral
Notwithstanding this change in the habits
of men due to the change in the general atti-
tude of the people toward the sin of drunken
ness, have organizations that collect millions
of dollars every year to reform the drunkards,
and they assal, not the exceptional drunkard,
but the great mass of the people who do not
subscribe to their doctrines. They make war
on the common practice of the people who are
industrious, consdcrate of the rights of others,
and show no evil effects from a glass of beer
wine a drop of stronger liquor. 1t is
not surprising that the great majority of the
people look upon prohibition a mere pre-
tense, when the exceptional drunkard is re-
ported to be less exceptional in prohibition
States than in those States where drink
is not considered drunkenness
There is no subject so close to the hearts
Of the people as temperance, and there is no
people sober those of this country
This temperance has been developed by tenn
perate teaching and example, not by hysterical
attacks the common customs of the
jority. The wholesale liquor dealers have
started better reform than the prohibitioniSts
in making war on the exceptional drunkard.
There is place in decent society, in any
professional industrial class in this country,
for the besotted drunkard. If the liquor deal
crs can dispose of this exception to the general
run of humanity, they will not only preserve
their own rights business men who repre-
sent great industries, but they may in time
show that Puritanical laws arc built on fictions
now as they were in the old Puritan days when
they burned imaginary witches and branded
Christians who did not conform to the ritual
Of the Established Church of England