New-York tribune., 1918-04-24
Ratification Puts Liquor
Question Forever Out OF.
Reach of Public
Big Dry Wave in 1840
Explains Increase Now
America Should Be Warned
by Dry Russia, One
Writer Suggests
In a fourth instalment The Trib-

une to-day presents further contri-
buttons to its discussion of the
liquor problem. The sweeping re-
suits Of the proposed Federal
amendment are viewed by some
with apprehension, by others with
unabated joy. One contributor, re-
viewing what sad world this might
have been without drink, shrinks
from the spectacle of dry United
States.
Moreover, the Federal prohibition
amendment, if ratified, would serve
to put the prohibition question for
ever beyond the reach of public
opinion, we learn from the follow
ing discussion by Richard Morse
Hodge, who is extension lecturer
in Biblical literature at Columbia
University.
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Psychologists claim that man seeks
alcohol because it induces self-praise
and furnishes him with a sense OF
achievement when he has failed in act
uai achievement. The value of this
observation is twofold In the first
place. no man likes to be obvious where
his weaknesses are concerned, and
every drinker should know that his
drinking is confession to himself and
an advertisement TO the public that he
is q disappointed man.
This should be as thoroughly under
stood by everybody as that whiskey is
intoxicating. Once this is common
knowledge the might-be drinker will
hesitate to use alcohol and the actual
drinker will have gained a powerful
motive for giving up alcohol. In the
second place, the community becomes
>the more obviously responsible for
furnishing to every man adequate op-
pertunity for actual achievement. De-
mccracy has this purpose, and has
made substantial progress in accom-
plishing this very thing, but the eff
fort of democracy will be stimulated
by the prospect of solving its liquor
problem, as we'll as of enabling its
citizens to earn livelihood
Again, We owe each other encour-
asement, and especially in the home
and shop. One may achieve without
knowing it, and remain therefore with
faults are more obvious to others than
to himself. So are his powers. Ap-
probation, which identifies your sue
cess as such, is essential SO is the
confidence of another that you are on
the way to success. Trust and praise
are stimulants, and of a better sort
than alcohol.
II wife upbraids her husband for
being only half man for not bringing
home more than half the wage which
the family requires, he may take to
drink, kill her, lose his health or go in
ssne. Not unlikely, of course, she up
he never praised her, for we are deal
ing with unconscious motives.
Obviously, if men drink for self
praise. the alternatives are not con-
fined to q choice between insanity and
achievements Of violent and destruc-
tive character, as more than enc con-
tributor 70 this symposium appear to
think Sympathy provides for another
alternative, by recognizing actual
achievenent wherever it appears, and
By furnishing the opportunity for
wholesome achievement within the
ability Of sueh as are now drunka rds,
seditious Or insane
Not for Psychology Alone
We cannot solve the drink problem
without the aid of political economy
and psychology alike. Prohibition it
self ;s an appeal to political action.
Prohibition, however. is counsel
and initiative. 1t is humiliating to
the majority, who do manage already
to do without alcohol without the help
Of the state, and 70 drunkards them
selves, also, all Of whom cherish the
hope that they can abstain if they
should try, while noraIists, physicians
and psychologists combine in assuring
TIE weakest that they can overcome
this habit. Prohibition is autocratie.
II is appropriate 10 a Russia under q
car. National prohibition seeks TO
put the liquor question forever beyond
The reach Of public opinion. Prohibi-
tion, moreover, is cheap, in preferring
legislation to paying better wages, but
Il IS not economical
RICHARD MORSE HODGE.
Here follows an answer, and,
possibly, the answer, to the start
hng apparent increase in liquor
S~ASAF%tOu NOW OtEf ACHO, Ik<I<
GATE, we learn from e. Tilton, was
tae zenith of "dry wave" posi-
osy the mate to the wave which
looms on the horizon.
The Dry Wave Of 1s40
70 the Editor of The Tribune.
or: l noted picture in your paper
" tws bottles-~one small, the other
very tall. The small one represented
yur drink consumption in 184O-the
large one to-day.
fou said that in 1s40 we we're very
~et, yet drank much less than to-day
"nsa we are dry.
ri ~ you will turn to our drink history
dorchester Liquor Problem in All
sse15 sss Is4Sy goa a., viii find that in picking
msaF ene zenith Of an old total absti-
nencs .sncs dry wave that rioted through
shis country from about 1926 TO 1850,
sha " the old figures are correct,
nloaEh< our drink consum ption to the
'%wsst ~ has eyer been.
~ was Increment led by the leading
sH-tt demanded total abstinence
rom ell liquor and supplemented this
usmAnd with wide Withdrawals Of
siesnsss to sell liquor.
80 remarkable was the movement
nas the King Of Prussia wrote across
tsf information. Juztin Edwaydn re-