Omaha daily bee., 1922-04-12
PROHIBITION IN 80 YEARS.

/
Even the most sksptieal are con,
WINGED William Allen White Wal
fisht when he said that il takes a
people about 80 years TO get on the
water wagon, Not even eonstitu.
ilehai amendments can bring the re,
suit about over night,
Al this date We are somewhere
between one-tenlh and ons.seyentb
the distance IN time We must travel
before We arrive at practically com.
plete prohibition, since most al
the people who live in the rural dis.
tfieIs, and. In fact. more than hall
me entire population. started on the
sp'year journey some years before
ihs passage OF tho federal amend
inent, the average citizen In more
than one-seventh over the road
nut not even the average man il
half way toward the goal.
until tho end ikDn sight We can
pfontably discuss the effects OF
drinking alcoholic beverages on life,
then.
The life insurance companies nre
In favor OF prohibition because their
very careful studies show that drink
Ing costs them money.
Dr. Oscar II. Rogers supplies a
study OF this subject 10 his assoc
elates on the medical stan OF the
New York Life.
This study relates to the expc-
rienee OF "a life insurance COM
panies In this country and In Eng
land. IL covers groups OF insured
toialing more than 5000. 900 people.
To begin with. none of the COM
panies insured heavy drinkers.
When they insured man who
drank the applicant was required TO
convince the examiner and the in
spectors that he didn't drink to ex-
cess and that his habit did not def
nitely increase his danger to acci-
dents or OF organic disease.
Very careful comparisons show
that II the death rate OF total alb
stainers was set at 100. that of nom
abstainers was 1872. When II was
argued that the relatively low death
rate OF the abstainers was due to
occupation or to temperance In
other directions. DR.. Porter Of the
Mutual Life and DIR. Lounsberry
studied that question.
They found that the difference
was not due to difference in occupa-
tion. nor to temperance in other
matters.
Very close examination as TO the
effect of the quantity OF alcohol used
by these moderate users on the death
rates was made.
One study showed that. putting the
rate Of total abstainers as 100, tenn
perate mot daily users had a rate of
125 and moderate daily users one of
1856.
A study by DR.. Fisher OF the
Northwestern showed: Total abb
stainers. 100; moderate (that is, oc-
casionaD users. 119; daily users of
beer, 1888: daily users of spirits. 1866.
A comparative study made by the
New England Mutual showed: Total
abstainers, 100; those who rarely use
it, 1874: temperate users, 143; mod
crate users, 213.
The figures furnished by the med
investigation were: Con-
servative daily users, 11S; liberal free
users, 1856.
A long time ago Austie said that a
long as he kept below a daily dose
of one and a half ounces of alcohol.
This. expressed in terms of once pop
ular beverages, is:
Whisky, 8 ounces, about table,
spoonfuls.
Fifteen per cent wine, 10 ounces.
Eight per cent wine, 20 ounces.
Four per cent beer, 81 ounces, or
a little over a quart. .
Two per cent beer, "A ounces, or a
little over one-half gallon. !
DR.. Rogers study leads him to the
opinion that the Austie limit is far
too liberal. An insurance company
that would insure a man drinking
that much daily would pay heavily
for it's folly.
He says: "There appears to be no
limit within which alcohol may be
entirely harmless. The damage per-
sists long time after the use of al
cohol has been discontinued. Any
one who uses alcohol now, or has
used it in the past, is less desirable
risk, all other things being equal,
than a total abstainer; and his un-
desirability is in proportion to the