Evening star., 1947-02-15

the taxpayers is necessary to any intel
ligent planning to reduce their numbers
and the burden on the public purse.
Unfortunately the problem is so old
and has such sameness that there has
not been much curiosity about these
problem people. Get them off the
streets and out of sight!" has been the
only policy and as a result 80 per cent
of the workhouse population has been
drunkardS and their maintenance comes
to almost $5000O0 year.
4. Representative Hebert, Democrat, of
Louisiana, has introduced a bill to tax
liquor sales for the rehabilitation of
the drunkard.
Il want to give the ordinary drunk the
same break available to the well-to-do
one who goes to places like the Greenhill
Institute" Mr.. Hebert says.
So much liquor is purchased in the
District that a small percentage tax
Qess than 2 per cent? on its retail value
would produce $3.50 apiece annually for
the cure of each of the Districts 5000
chronic alcoholics. If money could do
it, it could be done. But the experts of
Yale's Section on Alcohol say it can't
be done; that all that can be done is to
reduce their number.
In the current interest in alcoholism
as the Nations fourth public health
problem" most of the rehabilitation has
the brotherhood of Alcoholics Anon
ymous the criterion is the sincerity of
the alcoholics desire to stop drinking
Clinics such as the Yale clinic and the
one here in the Force School on Massa-
oh &c h1y a,,1I
clinics. The word is in quotation marks
because the volunteers" frequently are
delivered right to the door by family
or friends. The attack on the mass of
Police Court problem drinkers planned
in the Hebert bill has not been attempt
ed anywhere except in Connecticut
where similar tax Is in effect-and in
Connecticut the attack has just begun.
Marriage and Drunkenness.
Selden D. Bacon, chairman of the
Connecticut Board of Trustees of the
State Fund for Inebriates, is a sociolo-
gist at Yale in the Section on ALCOHOL
Studies. In 1912 he persuaded the State
to make detailed check on employ
ment and marital experience of all
persons arrested for drunkenness in
five large and three small Connecticut
communities. Purpose was to determine
how much of a drain alcoholism was
on manpower. Those questioned in
cluded drunks released by the police in
the morning without going to court.
Half the 1900 arrested said they had
been arrested six times or more They
were predominantly middle aged men.
Their difference from the norm in mari
q StriK
cent were married; the norm for the
group would have been 81 per cent.
Six times as many were divorced and
three times as many separated as the
norm for their age group in Connecticut.
Fifty-three per cent had never married
where 20 per cent would have been the
norm.
Except for the married men among
them the drunkards had moved around
a great deal-living only short time
in a community. This applied to the
group, not only to the derelict drifters
among them. Less than 10 per cent of
those employed made more than $50
week. (The average was about 500.
Two-thirds had worked at two or more
jobs during the year. Thirty-six per
cent had not completed grade school.
(Only II per cent are in this category
In Connecticuts population. Their
social ana frecreational activities differed
from the norm: More drank alone;
fewer went to movies, etc. Professor
Bacons conclusions were that most
problem drinkers were ill-adjusted So
cially at school. with the other sex, at
work and at play. Excessive drinking,
Of course, Immediately causes social
strain, but Professor Bacon holds that
with most problem drinkers discomfort
in society preceded their drinking.
So much for Connecticut for the pres
ent-Washington, of course, is a far
different type of society. It is nom
industrial. 1t has high percentage of
employed women. And it has a 80 per
cent Negro population.
Ratio of Woman Drinkers.
Take the woman problem drinker.
One out of nine persons arrested for
intoxication in Washington is a woman
In Connecticut 1t was one out of 81.
Forty per cent of those arrested here
for intoxication are colored This is
closer to their percentage of the popula-
ton than colored arrests for misde-
meanors (other than traffic. and fell
onies, which amount to about 80 per
cent.
The number Of young women arrested
for drunkenness is striking. Thirty per
cent Of them are less than 80 years old
whereas only 10 per cent of the men are
A man arrested for drunkenness may not
give his right name; a woman is very
unlikely to give her right age
Due to the system of appointing judges
washington a
standard cannot apply in the sentenc-
ing of drunkards. Judge Walter Casey,
a Roman Catholic from Boston, gives
light sentences. Judge George D. Mel
sen, a Mormon from Utah, gives three
month sentences to repeaters. In fair
ness to Judge Nielsen, the three-month
sentence Is consistent with the ideas of
the Yale experts-when no other method
of trying to keep them from drinking
Is available. At the jail they tell of
young man from Northern city, who,
having few hours to kill between trains
in stopover at Union Station, went out
and got intoxicated. He was arrested
and sentenced to go days. His mainte-
nance cost the community $50 because
the judge did not realize the man was
not community problem.
In July, 1943, at the instance of How
ard B. Gill. then director of the De-
partment of Corrections, a check was
made on persons then in the Jail, the
workhouse and the women's division at
Lorton, for intoxication, to determine
the extent of recidivism (the penologists'
word for repeating). Members of the
custodial staff who had been there for
years looked at the figures with amaze
ment.
On the date of the check there were
529 persons committed for intoxication
in the three institutions. OF these three
had been there $50 times or more. Nine