Evening star., 1946-10-02
Letters to The Star

To the Editor Of The Star:
Sociologists have noted that the con-
sumption Of alcohol rises with the de-
cline in unemployment. Its sale increases
with the increased purchasing power
among substantial segments of the
masses for whom 1t provides fugitive
surcease from the diurnal, dull, dead
grind" of mechanical labor Because
this phenomenon is universal, and not
the dubious distinction Of special areas,
would protest the recent publicity
given Washington as the premier per
capita consumer OF strong water.
This publicity derives from statistics
released by national distillers' institute.
They purpsrt to show that, as market
for John Barleycorn, the District of
Columbia is several jumps ahead OF New
York, New Orleans, Chicago and COM
parable centers of relaxation. Issued
without benefit of elaboration. these
figures lend themselves inadvertently to
the invidious Interpretation that has
reflected upon the dignity and sobriety
of our fair metropolis.
1t is not an accident that statistics
so often are subject Of controversy.
Their innocence, even when buttreSsed
by respectable authority, is not seldom
deceptive. In posthumously published
letter, famous for the bitterness OF its
irony, Mark Twain deplored the ambi-
guilty of bare facts. the bizarre conclu-
sions drawn by "those who only know
the statistics. without the explanation"
Their comment, he added, "is frequently
offensive, and sometimes even violent"
Its "Scandalous implications"
Low, middle and highbrow scribes
throughout the land have been quick to
exploit the scandalous implications of
the distillers' report The theme is
exactly suited to the talents OF those
who syndicate vicarious sin and sensa-
ton to the grass roots and urban prole-
tariat. Aldous Huxley and Edmund
Wilson, among others, memorably have
limned the shimmering underworld OF
letters that caters to q widespread "psy-
chotic addiction" to the lurid and the
ludicrous Larding the inference that
we are the champion guzzlers OF the
country is right down their alley.
How evanescent is the aura Of virtue!
And how true it is that our present ad-
mirers are our future critics! Not SO
long ago these same scribes wearisomely
portrayed Washington as architecturally
the loveliest but socially the least con-
vivial. perhaps the dullest capital in the
world-ignoring the fact that architec-
ture, like poetry, mirrors the mood and
the music Of community. Between
lost week ends and longer hangovers,
these purveyors Of atmosphere with
capital A bemoaned our tavern curfews
and the abysmal dearth of facilities,
legitimate or clandestine, for making
whoopee In the Continental manner.
But now, and with malicious glee, they
point us up as Babylon of boozers.
As q native from way back (whose
Yankee and Confederate forbears found
asylum from worldliness amid the some
what dry and more or less pious pre-
cinct Of the Potomac) am grieved by
the unfortunate effect Of the distillery
it lying down. therefore rise to focus
attention upon those collateral factors
which substantially palliate its prejudi-
cial implications.
Disadvantages Of An Oasis.
am aware that demagogues often
find it expedient to attribute social Ills
to alien influences. The history Of med
icine abounds In examples of noxious
maladies whose origin never Is domestic
but always foreign. However, our A. B. G.
Board and liquor merchants will not
deny that the phenomenal step-up in
local whisky sales is due considerably
to outside patronage. That is to say, to
the inhabitants Of adjoining States
where fire water is stringently rationed.
The custodians of the joy water trade
here, those indefatigable monitors of
moderation, have been long and lugu-
briously aware of veritable hegira of
the thirsty from these regions. Informed
sources have it that caravans are trans
ported out of the Capital for the edifica-
ton of distant jewellers. Consider, in
this connection, recent news headlines
announcing the large scale tapping of
local liquor stocks to relieve the drought
caused by the truck and seamen;s strikes
in New York. The astral figures which
these purchases must involve viii un-
avoidably be credited to Washington
consumption.
Consider, too, the sizable number Of
JaIr ov,fc - u
transient population. The austere and
abstemious demographers of the United
States Department of Agriculture are
authority for the statement that the
Southland is major seed-bed for re-
plenishing and revitalizing the effete
populations of the North Atlantic States
and contiguous sections. Washington is
the stop-over both of choice and neces-
sity between these areas. 1t is incon-
ceivable that the virile immigrants from
Dixie do not, in their trek from the
National Art Gallery to the Lincoln
Memorial, pause long enough for the
refreshment that balloons our beverage
statistics.
The myriad minions who constitute
the spine of our bureaucracy are not
the slaves of Bacchus. They are, in fact,
a hard working, desperately sober lot.
AS one of them am able to say that in
their drawing rooms Bible rather than
bottle will be discovered to be the chief
spiritual tonic. Most of us frown upon
Somerset Maugham's dictum that there
is an affinity between alcohol and crea-
tive fancy" Far from being topers it
may be truly said of us, as Ludwig Won
Misses said of our opposite numbers
abroad: 1.-THE prestige and social stand