The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-04-13
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
POISON THAT CAUSES DRUNKEN
NESS.

The Washington Times under its
new manager and owner keeps ham
mering on the phrase that distilled
spirits lis the poison that causes
drunkenness" All history contradicts
the assertion
Distilled spirits were not used in
! Egypt at the time of Moses, but beer
was, and it caused drunkenness then
| as now.
IF beer gets into man." wrote
an Egyptian official about the time of
Moses, sit oyercomes his mind. Then
like an oar starting from its place he
| becomes unmanageable." Not bad
description of drunkenness.
Distilled spirits had not been COM
mercialized in Germany and used as
la drink in the time of Rome's great
ness. The people were drinking beer,
and the Roman historian Tacitus de-
scribes their process of making it from
barley and wheat. He called it an ex-
ample of mans cunning" in making
water itself 'intoxicate."
Beer was still the national drink of
/ Germany in the time of it's great en-
peror, Charlemagne, who saw to it
| that the brewers were instructed as
to the best ways of making beer But
he had his hands full combating
| drunkenness. He decreed that no in
! toXicated person should appear in
court, and that judges should not sit
to try cases unless they were sober
! But the allnight Tevelries, the guest
| drinking, the health toasting, the
drinking for wages, all went on in
spite of the emperor's example and
eXhortations to moderation. His sue
cessors, Frederick III and Karl ",
had no better luck in stemming the
| beer drunkenness of their subjects.
| The latter said that it led to bias
| phemy and murder and caused the
Germans to be despised by foreign
nations.
! SpiTitS-drinking became general in
| England about the time of William
and Mary and helped on the aban-
donment to drunkenness that ale and
beer had previously fostered. Con-
ditions became so bad by 1880 that
efforts were made to reform the people
by providing them with plenty of
cheap and wholesome" beer. The
Duke of Wellington was one of the
advocates of the measure. An act
was passed whereby anyone who could
get two householders to vouch for
his responsibility was licensed to sell
| beer.
| Drunkenness at once increased to
such an extent that commissions of
inquiry were set Investigating and on
their report that the beer was the
| cause, the law was repealed. The
Duke of Wellington urged it's repeal
as strongly as he had it's passage,
| having seen the results of making
beer easily accessible
A curious part of the history of this
beer fallacy is that in one or two gen.
erations it's lessons are forgotten.
! New beer and light wine advocates
spring up and revive the old theory
without looking up the old expert
ences.
Thus Massachusetts in 1870 had
revival of the theory that letting beer
be freely sold would solve the tenn
perance question. Even medical men
like DR.. Henry l. Bowditch were
/ caught by the plausible argument of
the beer propagandists and lent their
influence to an act of the legislature.
permitting the prohibition law to be
broken in upon by beer selling.
|
ant evils at once increased so con-
spicuously that in three years (1873)
the beer-selling permission was re-
pealed.
| No stronger condemnation of the
theory was ever pronounced than that
gwen some time afterward Q8S4) by
DR.. BoWditch, who, like the Duke of
| Wellington, reversed his former opin-
ION on seeing the theory work. Be-
fore the liquor committee of the Mas
| sachusetts Legislature in 1884 he said
he had come to believe that the idea
OF encouraging the use of light wines
and beer with a view to- decreasing
lntemperance lis a delusion and a
humbug"
Alcohol is the poison that causes
drunkenness, and the lightest wines
and beers contain, enough alcohol to
make them dangerous seducers to
/ heavy drinking.
| e L. TIonsfay