The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-12-04
MONDAY. DEC. 4. 1898.
CONTROL BY CUSTOM

THE states are at work on various plans
= Of control Of legal liquor to take the place
of prohibition. This is necessary and i'm
portant
But there is something stronger, surer, and
more effective than the best regulatory laws
that can be devised.
That is social custom.
With repeal accomplished let us build So
cial customs which will wisely govern the use
of liquor.
The customs which grew under prohibi-
ton are out of date. So are those which pre-
ceded prohibition. Though We learn from our
experience in both eras, we must have new
customs for a new day.
These customs can not be established by
edict. They will grow up. What the ma
Jority does in each group eventually will
become the custom
Each Of us will contribute to the build
ing of those customs by the standards and
practices which we choose. With the attempt
at prohibition out of the way. 1t is now I'D
to the individual. 1t is a responsibility which
each of US should welcome.
The legal right to drink should imply the
social right not to drink Prohibition made
drinking a vice. Repeal should not make it
a virtue 1t is neither. It is an indulgence
which adds pleasure to life for manv good
people. Other equally good people do not
find 1t enjoyable Still others eniov IT, but
think 1t not worth the price. A few think
simply that they don't need it," The wav
OF life of each of these groups should be re-
spected by the Others
rms Is a truth that was lost sight of I'M
der prohibition. Because of that tvrannv
drinking became cause" Liberals failed IN
see tnat 1t is just as illiberal for drinkers nv
social pressure to force drinks on non-drinI<-
erS as II Is for non-d drinkers, by legal pressure
TO try to take liquor from those that want IT,
The reformer who is Mortified at LIQUOR is M
more intolerant than the drinker who calls
the non-drinker a poor sport. Both attitudes
are Two phases of the same intolerance.
Under the new era a guest should not he
urged to take liquor he does not want II
should be considered bad taste to draw atten-
ton to the fact that any person is not drink
ing. 1t even might be considered thoughtful
hospitality to provide, unostentatiously. nom
alcoholic drinks for such people.
There are some people, who, when drunk
feel an instructive disapproval of the sober
The remedy for this is TO withhold social ap-
proval from drunkenness.
Make it smart to be legal. Also make II
no longer stylish to be stewed Drunkenness
will not be made questionable by merely
calling it So That can be accomplished only
by abolishing the occasion which produces it.
That occasion is the party"
The party" is a child of prohibition. It
did not exist before prohibition and should
go out with the eighteenth amendment.
The party" is a social gathering in which
the guests drink before dinner take their
cocktails to the table, and resuming drink
ing after dinner, keep it up until everybody
is drunk, nobody wants to go home, and things
are done which sober people would not do.
The party is degrading. 1t should go.
1t should be new social custom to serve
cocktails only before dinner. Wine with din
ner. and liquor after dinner, will not make
it drunken party. But the fact should be
faced that to make an unlimited supply of
hard liquor available to a group of people
throughout an evening will almost always re-
suit in drunkenness.
Outside of the home. Sobriety depends on
our ability to prevent treating. More than
any other one thing. the abuses that resulted
from the custom of treating brought on pro-
hibition
The only treat that public opinion should
sanction is the Dutch treat That is the good
old German custom in which every man pays
for his own drinks, and has as many or as
few as he wants It has made Germany a
sober nation.
We can make America a sober nation. BY
the customs which our individual acts build,
let us do it.