Arizona republican., 1920-03-12
BY FREDERIC J. HASkIN

WASHI INGTON D. C. March D. What part has alcohol played in the making of art and literature? How will the aesthetic life of the nation be afefcted by the more or less complete abolition of this source of inspiration
 This question has been raised again and again since prohibition first be came a serious probability, and an enormous and interesting mass of ma terial on the subject has been collect ed. IL was raised again just the other Gay when Hartmann. the German Japanese poet. delivered a lecture il. Greenwich Village on Great Men With Whom l Have Imbibed." Hart mann mentioned Whitman. Poe. and Swinbune as great writers who used bottled inspiration and prophesied dire literary results from prohibition. Oth- CTS take the view that a truly creative mind will find expression. drunk or sober, and say the fact that many great men have chosen to work under the influence of liquor does not prove that they would have been sterile if they had lived in the grape juice era.
 still others point out that while il k against the law 10 manufacture or sell intoxicating beVerag geS, it iS not illegal to own or to drink them. and that many wells of inspiration were filled before the prohibition law went into
 
 and scholar. who is known fo regard Ethyl Alcohol as one of the muSeS. iS known to have sold all of his automo- piles and diamonds, to have hypothe- cated much of his property, and to have invested all Of the proceeds in a large and carefully selected stock of beverages, calculated on al basis of so many drinks Der diem for the rest Ii his reasonable expectation of life. This he has done. not in any self regarding spirit. but in order that his services to American literature may not be i'm pairsd by what he regards as hastv and ill ill-considered legislation
 And his is only one of many founts of consolation which have been estab- lished by thoughtful and solvent men or letters. The situatio for them iS not serious one. But how about the young, struggling genius who regards liquor and literature as two things lneXtricably associated. and who has not been able 10 day by even q quart or so in case of sickenss? How will his work be affected. Suppose that Poe's addiction to drinking was greatly exaggerated by his early biographers there IS every reason to believe that he relied discretly. upon alcohol as q mental stimulus, and there are author ities who seriously question whether
 The Raven could have been written py Whlte-rlbbon Poe. Certainly Burns" Tam O'Shanter" with is realistic picture of the delights and ef- fleets Of conviviality. could not have. been done by a teetotaller. no matter hov independent of the bottle he may have been in the actual business of writing.
 Those who are reoelled by the idea that great and beautiful works of Iftera- ture should he associated with So sordid a thing as inebration should re- member that creative art is very often the product of an abnormal condition or some sort Diseases is believed bx modern scientists to have been the stimulus that set many great minds to work. A peculiarly loathsone one af fhcted both Wagner the great com poser. and Nietzche the philosopher w nile no one can say to what eyfen, II affected their work. it is known Olteh to act as q mental stimulus. Tu- perculosis, before ii breaks a mans strength, is said by many scientists 10 De an aid to mental effort.
 Other poisons than alcohol have played their part in literature tOo and 1t may be that to some extent they will supersede it. De Quincey, in his GonfessIons of an Opium Eater" has