The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-04-27
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE
DRINKS HAND ON THE FAMILY.

The Boston Children's Aid Society
has had an honorable service of over
half century in caring for children
needing homes or relief. The fifty
second annual report for the year
ending September, 1916, has Sec
ton devoted to the factor of alcohol
ism in the work of the society. 1t
shows that in about one-seventh, 1875
percent of the 731 new families dealt
with in the course of the year, at
least one parent was alcoholic. An
| interesting feature of this report is
the fact brought out that these alco-
holic fathers who fail to provide for
| their children are not, in general, I'M
skilled laborers of low mentality, but
capable, when working full time, Of
earning good wages.
! We do not come into contact with
as many cases of alcoholism as the
| Associated Charities and the Society
for Prevention of Cruelty to Children,
for example. We do, however, receive
a fairly large number of applications
from homes where one or both of the
parents are alcoholic. That is, people
| who cannot get along without some
alcoholic beverage, who cannot be
temperate in the use of it, are fire.
quently intoxicated by it, and thus
lose their work and wages to the real
distress of their families and them
selves.
Usually it is the man who is the al
coholic and who by reason of the pa
tient support and endurance ofsa good
wife struggles through intermittent
drunken periods, often lasting for
years. In 101 families, or thirteen
and one-half per cent of the 731 new
families dealt with intensively, dur
ing the year, at least one parent was
an alcoholic and in eight of these
homes both were alcoholics.
There are many saloonkeepers in
Boston who will not sell liquor to q
man who is bordering on intoXicatiOn,
and there are many who are reluctant
to sell to the man who is being evil
IDENTIFY injured by reason of his drink
ing. Yet there are many others hav-
ing no such computations and who
frequently sell without question to
whoever comes to buy. If Boston is
not to have a nO-license regime, it
should at least have fewer saloons.
The keen competition for business
amongst the liquor dealers is evil
denced in many of these 101 families.
It would help the Licensing Board
in the process of wedding out saloons
if it had a card index of all men and
women known to the courts, penal in
situations and public and private char
tiles as alcoholics, or as people whose
drinking was reacting on their fam
| lilies. There may be legal complica-
tons in the way of keeping such a
| "black list" now but some way can be
| found whereby the large number of
! known inebriates can be registered.
If the names were checked by neigh
borhoods, an intelligent step could be
| taken to reduce the number of sa-
| looms in certain sections of the city
already over-provided. Certainly it is
|
men and women brought into the
courts for inebriety and also to re-
uuire all public and private hospitals
treating inebriates or persons suffer
| ing from alcoholism to report their
names and addresses.
1t would be of value if for a period
of five years, or even less, each char
| table society in. the State should be
asked to report annually the names of
| all alcoholics and semi-alcoholics
aided by them. The total would give
some knowledge of the real extent of
alcoholism and would certainly be in
excess of all arrests for drunkenness,
for many alcoholics are never arrest
ed Few of the ia parents in the
| 101 families referred to have been in
court on the charge of drunkenness.
| One man known to us has been a
| hard drinker for years. His chronic
condition is that of partial intoxica-
ton, yet he is able to work and bring
a certain amount of support to his
wife ana five children. Words fail
| the writer of this statement to de-
| scribe adequately the depressed abuse
which he metes out to his family dur
ing practically every minute he is at
home. 1t is un-get-at-able abuse, yet
| it has ruined the mothers health and
is running the health of his children.
Scientific Temperance Journal