New-York tribune., 1918-04-30

row may be traced to unnatural habits
or lIfe--unnatural because contrary to
the designs Of wise and benevolent
Creator--habits Of life that have in
sidiously done their work generation
after generation.
Two social evils are mainly respon-
sibie---abuse Of the sexual instinct
and abuse Of alcohol.
Alcohol is the twin demon OF i'm
purity. Only young men of Spartan
VIII, temperate in eating and COM
pletely abstaining from alcoholic
liquor, may consecrate their bodies to
the sacred function of the procreation
of healthy and happy race. The i'm
portance Of the relation Of alcohol
to impurty cannot be overcstimated.
Let us be frank. 1t is no time for
prudery and compromise while the
Anglo- Saxon race is pouring out its
life blood for national liberty. Only
the truth will make us free.
institutional statistics may be ex-
aggerated, but statistics can never
record the train of evils in the wake
OF the liquor traffic. Of the millions
OF men who become passe, of de-
moralized homes, of suffering women
and children record is kept in the
hands of Justice. Who can foretell the
destiny of a nation that compromises
its virility by tolerance of vice?
GERTRUDE LEACH.
Remove the bars, breweries and
distilleries, and exhaust the whiskey
stocks and prohibition will be a sue
cess, is the reply of Charles E..
Hayes to those who believe that
homemade beverages will be used
extensively if national prohibition
becomes effective.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: Some of your correspondents
claim that because alcohol is easy to
make, either in the form of spirits or
hard cider, prohibition will always be a
failure. This statement, l am con-
vinced, is a fallacy.
1t is qui i>e true that the topper will,
without doubt, obtain his alcohol
in one form or another under any sys-
tenn of laws that may be devised, but
the important question is this: How
many men will continue to drink if
high in price and unpalatable in taste
In my opinion the number will be
small.
has to be accustomed to it before it
will absorb the stuff without revolt.
That is why drinkers commence with
beer, sweet wines, highly favored cock
tails, etc, drinks in which the harsh
flavor of alcohol is covered up and dis
guised by syrups, malt or fruit juices.
The youth finds dry wines and the un-
disguised flavor of whiskey and gin
undesirable, and if the only available
beverages were sour hard cider or fiery
whiskey or spirits few would become
drinkers.
Take the average moderate drinker
his tipple is, say, Scotch highballs
of particular mellow brand, or a
certain cocktail mixed with care and
precision. Does any one think that
such man will be satisfied with crude
hard cider or fiery spirits? To my
mind the answer is plainly no, he will
not.
The beer of to-day is fiat, unpala-
table beverage, and the number of
beer drinkers who have practically
given up their favorite drink in dis
gust is legion. Why will not the same
thing happen when the stronger bev-
erages are obtainable only in unpleas-
ant forms, and when, in addition, they
are high in price and difficult to get?
Prohibition will be more or less of
a failure as long as the country is
wet with whiskey stocks, and law
makers will be wise to defer such a
law until said stocks are exhausted.
Then will prohibition not only be pos
sible, but it will be success
CHARLES f. HAYES