New-York tribune., 1920-02-05
Ethics as a Vice
A Wet Criticizes Prohibition
and Our National Failings
} the Editor of The Tribune


Sir I was in Christiania last April
during d meeting of Norway's medical
association. Physicians from Sweden
and Denmark also attended. The in
fluenza was raging then, and much
time was given to its sideration.
There was no dissent from the state
ment made by many physicians pres
cnt that aquavit-a potato Or cereal
brandy OF about 90 proofs not only
valuable remedy against influenza,
but that it is the best remedy
There are a few European physicians
who oppose the use of alcohol in the
treatment of disease, but there are
mighty few. The overwhelming bulk
of testimony is against the w. c. I. u.
so is the overwhelming bulk of per-
sonal testimony. Neither Mr. Ander-
son nor any physician is so we'll ac-
quainted with my body, its idiosyn-
crasies and reactions, as | am. After
more than forty years Of life, with
average experiences with physicians.
| listen with impatence to doctors
who would tell me- that hot rum does
not more quickly cure my hard colds
than any of their therapeutic agents.
and | will not listen to teetotalers at
all They are not competent to speak.
Since Mrs. Allen wrote we have read
the complaint of the physicians of the
steamship kaiserin Auguste Victoria
about the absence of spirits hampering
their fight against influenza on board.
Are these men, too, the victims of a
delusion?
| would not be understood to init
mate that the physicians who oppose
the use of alcohol are consciously in
fluenced by the fact that their COM
munlties regard any consumption of
spirits as sinful per Sc. They are
merely the unconscious victims Of the
general national inability to consider
on its merits any matter that has an
abstract ethical side or into which
ethical considerations have been i'm
ported. This characteristic of our
people manifests itself in various ways.
In the single matter of sexology, for
example, we lag far behind the rest of
the world. Sociology is exclusively
matter of physiology and psychology.
SeXologlsts conclusions are valueless
if influenced by any other considera-
tions, but our Puritan spirit will not
permit them to reach conclusions at
variance with our conceptions of mo-
rallty and immortality, and if unhap-
PLY they do reach such conclusions.
1T will either not permit them to make
them public or will ostracise them if
they dare do so.
In my community prohibition has,
In practice, become a part of the re-
ligious creed of the churches. / cam |
not enter church to pay homage to /
my ideal Of manly Christ. who
changed water into wine for wedding
feast, without running the risk of be-
ing held up to scsrn from the pulpit
as an infidel and an immoral man
because / make no secret of nv on
position to the Infamous and un-
American law that would Danish wine
and beer from my table and compel
me to alter radically the eating GUS
toms of a quarter century-and this
at the dictation of fanatics, male and
female, who are not intellectually fit
10 be my guardians.
VI all peoples on earth We could
least afford to Danish alcoholic drinks
ihe soulless materalism that meas
ares human progress and happiness
oy savings-bank accounts and indus
trial efficiency needed occasional mo-
"ents of exaltation, even though arti-