The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1931-06-01

l1DltlOn the metropolitan Lie insurance
Company has discussed with much detail
the mounting death rate among its policy
holders from alcoholism and the large
number of persons who died from drink
ing poison alcohol. The press has con-
sidered the mat-er as important news and
the opponents of the Eighteenth Amend
ment have made much use OF its figures
to prove the folly and the failure of ma
tional prohibition as they saw the rate
apparently grow until in 1927 it reached
three-fourths of that which prevailed in
the old saloon days. Since that time the
rate has remained nearly constant. Do
these figures reveal the true state of af-
fairs?
During the period of war restriction and
the first year of natio=sal prohibition. the
death rate for alcoholism among the pol
icy holders fell to IL per cent of the rate
prevailing in 1917. And even if accidental
deaths from drinking wood alcohol or al
cohol containing poisonous authorizations
are included. the rate was only "a per
cent Of the 1917 rate. AT that time the
drys made much use of the Metropolitan
figures. and similar figures for the ma
tional death rate from alcoholism, TO at
test the benefits of prohibition. Should
those figures have been taken at their
face value? In answering this question
this article will confine itself to the Met
ropolitan figures; although the same gen.
eral conclusions would be reached from a
study of the federal figures.
The article tDiH attempt TO ANSWER three
questions.
Frst-How dependable are the data for
deaths from alcoholism?
Second-How should The rates be modi-
field or augmented?
Third-what 90 the Metropolitan fig
ures actually reveal?
HOW DEPENDABLE ARE THE DATA
FOR DEATHS FROM ALCOHOLISM?
In answer to this question it must be
frankly stated that reported deaths from
alcoholism are not and never have been
safe induces of deaths from that cause.
Only a small percentage of such deaths
are ever reported and these deaths occur
for the most part among the pauper and
friendless classes. 1t is contrary to the
common standard of medical ethics for a
doctor to record as cause of death any
thing that dSparged the reputation OF
his patient. Most death certificates which
record alcoholism as the cause of death
are written by coroners and medical ex-
aminers for paupers who died without
medical attendance.
HtCtIftttoHA ltSttfto stCutG NV u NoCU
as basis for comparison OF one locality
iuith another.
The attitude of doctors and officials to-
ward recording alcoholic deaths varies
greatly in different localities. states and
countries. Places that are known to have
a high mortality from alcoholic disease
sometimes have very low reported rate
and the reverse of this statement is also
true When the Metropolitan Life Insur-
ance Company calls attention to the fact
that the death rate from alcoholism
among its policy holders in this country is
seven times as high as for those in the
Dominion of Canada, the inference that
we are seven times as drunken is not JUS
titled. If it should be asserted that the
Irish in Boston are much more drunken
than those in Ireland, because the official
death rate for alcoholism is ten times as
high. it would be contradicted by the
unanimous testimony of those who have
lived in both countries. These startling
contrasts in official rates reveal only that
the tendency to give decent death Ger
tificate to everybody prevails in the Brit
ish Empire more than 1t does in this
country. The same discrepancies appear
in the recording of deaths from Venereal
disease.
CAUSES THAT AFFECT THE DEATH
RATE IN THE SAME LOCALITY
a change in the DEAN rate for alcohol