HV:
5253
UNIV. OF MION: 445x
MAY 1909
1909
The Drink Question
and
Suggestions for the Betterment
of the Drink Traffic
By
Henry E. O. Heinemann.
Reprint from the
Journal of the Society of Brewing Technology
CHICAGO
April, 1909
145 La Salle Street

The semi-public meeting, March 24, 1909.
The semi-public meeting was called to order by the chair-
man of the Section, MR. RUH.
THE CHAIRMAN: GENTLEMEN-It affords me great
pleasure on behalf of the Society of Brewing Technology to
extend a hearty welcome to our guests, who braved the in-
clement weather to be with us tonight. I trust they will find
this evening's paper an interesting one. While the papers
so far presented before the Society, as a matter of course,
referred to technical matters only, the Papers and Publica-
tion Committee wisely considered the subject of to-
night's paper entirely germane, owing to the anxious time
our Industry is passing through at present.
They are also to be congratulated upon their choice of
the lecturer. If they had the whole country to draw upon,
they could not, in my estimation, have found a man more
thoroughly versed in the subject, or one who has devoted
more study and time to it. The speaker of the evening is
one of the few men I know, who years ago had the fore-
sight, when the storm that is now all around us was but a
small cloud on the far-off horizon, to recognize its serious
portent. He is also one of the few men, who long ago rec-
ognized the true reasons of the movement against our In-
dustry, and, what is more, has, through deep research and
study, worked out and arrived at, in my mind, the only cor-
rect and logical remedy to stem the tide.
Gentlemen-It gives me great pleasure to introduce to
you, as the speaker of the evening, the Secretary of our
Society, the editor of the American Brewers' Review, Mr.
HEINEMANN.
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2
he-classed
The Drink Question and Suggestions for the Betterment
of the Drink Traffic.
Address delivered before the Chicago Section of the Society of
Brewing Technology by HENRY E. O. HEINEMANN,
editor of the American Brewers' Review, March 24, 1909.
The movement against the use of alcoholic drink en-
tered upon a new phase a few years ago with the begin-
ning of the work of the anti-saloon league. I need not re-
hearse to this audience the conditions that existed prior to
the advent of that organization. Since the anti-saloon
league began its work, the anti-drink movement has pro-
gressed far more rapidly than ever before, and today it is
a very real issue. The question is whether it is a passing
wave or a movement that has within it the elements of per-
sistency.
Anti-drink movement not a mere wave.
I cannot bring myself to look upon it as a mere pass-
ing wave. It is true, it has the characteristics of epidemic
hysteria and, to that extent, represents a relapse into bar-
barism, reminding us of the descriptions we read of out-
breaks of mania among barbarous races, e. g., the des-
cription by FATHER LE JEUNE of how entire villages
among the Huron Indians were wiped out under such out-
breaks of epidemic hysteria. Nevertheless, there seem to
be certain underlying currents of thought and feeling to
impart to the movement some elements of persistency.
There can be no question that there is a strong general
trend of popular feeling in the direction of greater tem-
perance in all things and the placing of all matters, bus-
iness, political, social, and personal, on a higher moral foot-
ing. The last few years have seen a remarkable awakening
in that direction, and I believe when history comes to be
written, the great merit of Mr. ROOSEVELT will be found
to lie not in concrete achievement, but in the arousing of
3
the popular mind to the possibility and necessity of con-
ducting business and public as well as personal affairs, on
a higher moral level.
General movement for wholesome living.
In the matter of wholesome living also there is a de-
cided drift of opinion in that direction. There is no doubt
that people are beginning more and more to understand and
appreciate that excess in anything is what distinguishes
bodily infirmity from health, vice from virtue, folly from
common sense. And it is this underlying progressive trend
that gives to the anti-drink movement its element of persis-
tency. While it may and will lose its "wave" character,
that is, the morbid element of epidemic hysteria, and prob-
ably get away from the control of the persons afflicted with
what alienists call paranoia reformatoria who are now run-
ning it, there will remain a strong current in favor of bet-
terment in this line as in others.
Now, the brewer has never been an advocate of excess.
He makes the best temperance drink in the world and
stands for temperance, which means health, character, and
physical and mental vigor. He is the natural ally of the
general temperance movement.
The chief question is whether the brewer is ready to
make some financial sacrifice in order to ally himself with
that part of the movement which makes for real temper-
ance, to eliminate existing maladjustments, and to recon-
struct the business on such lines as will permanently conduce
to temperance and progress and incidentally keep his own
business going.
Is the drink business right?
To
For, gentlemen, let me say most emphatically, it is a
matter of small concern to the people outside of the drink
business whether your business is conserved or not.
the general public it is not a question of saving economic
values and preventing loss and distress to those engaged
in your line. To the common man it is a question of what
he believes to be right and for the good of society and the
individual, and that is the viewpoint under which he will
act and vote.
Before we can decide what, if any, measures are called
for in order to put the drink business on a basis in har-
mony with the present cultural conditions of society, it is
necessary to come to a conclusion as to the propriety of
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the existence of that business. For the anti-drink people
challenge the right of the business to exist, and even where
they pretend to aim only at certain abuses, there is back
of their efforts invariably the intense opposition to the
drink business altogether.
I will endeavor to sketch briefly what I consider the
fundamental facts and considerations on this, the main,
question, and then proceed to the other branch. For the
saloon question, which is uppermost at present in this con-
nection, is only a branch of the general drink question.
And it cannot be rationally considered without first study-
ing the drink question in general. For, if the use of alco-
holic drink is wrong, then the saloon is wrong, as well as
drinking in your homes, clubs, or hotels. If the use of al-
coholic drink is right, then the question may fairly arise
whether the system of dispensing it, as we have it in this
country, is the best that can be devised, or if places for
the public dispensing of alcoholic drink are proper and
necessary.
The prohibition position.
Let us he clear on one point before we proceed.
The prohibitionist tells us he is not fighting the private
use of alcoholic drink but the legalized manufacture and
sale of it. That, gentlemen, is a disingenuous evasion. If
the use of alcoholic drink is right, then the manufacture
and sale of it is right, and it should be legalized, not out-
lawed and permitted to be carried on clandestinely. The
evasion of the prohibitionist is calculated to throw off his
guard the man who does not want his individual rights
interfered with, and to win his assent to a measure that
shall apparently at first cause no inconvenience to him but
only bear down on "the other fellow," the ulterior purpose
however, being to force the yoke upon all.
The anti-saloon position.
The anti-saloon man commonly says he is not working
for prohibition, but only against the saloon.
If he says
so, he is not in the confidence of the leaders of his move-
ment. The anti-saloon publications and the highest officers
of the Anti-Saloon League have repeatedly stated in print
that they aim at the ultimate suppression of the entire
drink traffic. In all states where they thought they had the
strength, they have fought for state-wide prohibition,
to the extent of openly antagonizing local option which
they generally represent as their pet measure. The anti-
5
even
saloon and option laws are in all cases prohibition laws,
and where they are in force, as in Illinois, the resident of
a town that is "dry" under the so-called local option law
cannot lawfully buy alcoholic beverages, except by sending
his order outside of the town, the goods to be delivered to
him by the carrier.
Whether we are dealing with prohibition or anti-saloon,
we are in each case facing a movement for the suppression
of the drink traffic, and ultimately the suppression of the
use of alcoholic drink, for the former is but the means to
accomplish the latter, and the chief prohibition arguments
are not against the traffic but against the use.
Drink question has not been studied.
The saloon question is thus a part of the general ques-
tion of the use of alcoholic drink, and cannot be dealt with
intelligently until we have taken ground with regard to
that general question.
Heretofore, in American liquor legislation the traffic
has been looked upon as something to be kicked and cuffed
at every opportunity, as an outlaw, an evil thing which
the viler part of man's nature maintains, but which should
be confined, restrained, curtailed or suppressed, by fair
means or foul, according to legal principle or in defiance
thereof, in any and every way. A legislator from Michigan
said to me once, after I had addressed a little society in
Chicago: "I never heard the question treated scientifically
before. In my state we look upon the drink traffic simply
as a thing to be sat upon and slapped whenever we have
a chance. I have never thought there was anything about it
to be studied."
As long as that feeling prevails, we cannot hope to ac-
complish any good results. We are today studying sanita-
tion, hygiene, crime, insanity, pauperism, vice, delinquency
-but not the drink question. Our public prints generally
take everything for granted against it and do not deem it
worth while studying.
And yet it is a great study, gentlemen, a most inter-
esting study. It is a matter that touches almost every
department of life. It has a moral aspect, a hygienic and
physiological, a psychological, a social, an economic, a po-
litical, a fiscal, a general cultural aspect, each of them touch-
ing one's life somewhere frequently if not constantly, in
oneself or through others. If alcoholic drink is a poison,
6
it affects those who use it, their families, their employes;
if alcoholic drink impairs one's working powers, physical
or mental, it affects all who use it and their associates and
employes; if it diminishes moral stamina, it is a matter of
concern on account of our children; if it is a cause of vice,
crime, pauperism and insanity, society must protect itself
against it; if it debauches public life, it must be divorced
therefrom.
All these are intricate questions. It will no longer do
in this day and age to settle them off-hand by a simple
"Roma locuta est, causa finita est." We cannot simply
decree from preconceived notions evolved from our inner
consciousness that the matter stands thus or thus. We
must investigate, we must observe and bring together the
facts and question them, and accept the conclusions to
which they lead.
False moral atmosphere in regard to drink.
There has been much work done in the line of investi-
gation and observation, and the results are not at all obscure
if one will approach them with an open mind. But the
great difficulty is about this same "open mind." Until
about fifty years ago that "open mind" existed in this coun-
try. There was at that time a healthy movement under
way for temperance in the use of alcoholic drink, having
for its principle the temperate use of mild fermented bever-
ages and the discouraging of the use of spirits. The great
minds of the early days, the fathers of this Republic,
favored the movement. For once we find ALEXANDER HAM-
ILTON and THOMAS JEFFERSON on a common platform,
for both declared strongly in favor of encouraging wine
and other light fermented drinks as the most effective
temperance measure. Dr. BENJAMIN RUSH and TENCHE
COXE, both well-known temperance workers, spoke in the
same sense. The legislatures of a number of the colonies,
Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, distinctly and
outspokenly, encouraged beer as a temperance measure.
Gov. OGLETHORP tried to introduce brewing in Georgia
to promote temperance. GEORGE WASHINGTON was choice of
his wines, WM. PENN was a brewer of beer, the Congress
favored wine and beer from temperance motives, believing,
as JEFFERSON said: "No nation is drunken, where wine is
cheap," lager beer at that time being practically unknown
in this country.
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+
1
About fifty years ago the total abstinence movement be-
gan, and soon drifted into the prohibition movement. Tem-
perance was no longer the aim, but abstinence, voluntary
or enforced, and abstinence from all alcoholic beverages,
fermented as well as distilled. From that time began the
intemperate crusade which has lasted into the present day,
a crusade proceeding from unreasoning emotionalism, ig-
noring facts, predicating its tenets upon mere arbitrary
assumption, proceeding upon the principle of the French
professor who, when it was objected that the facts did not
agree with his theory, calmly rejoined: "So much the
worse for the facts." And yet AGASSIZ said: "A physical
fact is not less sacred than a moral principle." The pro-
hibition movement killed the temperance movement, and it
has for half a century dominated the pulpit of certain im-
portant denominations, the press, the politicians, contam-
inated our schools and infected social intercourse, until to-
day the country is oppressed with a wholly false moral
atmosphere, making people feel that the use of alcoholic
relishes is an indulgence of the flesh of which the spirit
does not approve, and even in his own house the average
man takes his nip privately or with a wink or other ad-
mission that it is not as natural and proper a thing as the
eating of a piece of beefsteak. That spiritual despotism
today tyrannizes this country and closes the mouths of most
of our scientific people. It persecuted a man, whose work
the scientific world accepts as classical, and only because he
dared utter the truth as he found it and ask: "Is ex-
aggeration better than the truth?" Even as a reformer
was condemned by the ecclesiastical despotism of the middle
ages for asking the question: "Wherefore should I be-
lieve that which I know?"
The brewer made no defensc.
I am not blaming the prohibitionists entirely for the
existence of this spiritual despotism. The brewers are
partly to blame. They have allowed half a century to go by
without opening their mouths or bringing to the knowledge.
of the public the information they possessed. They have
the most complete library on the drink question in the
world. But the information has been allowed to lie on
the shelf, and their enemies have had the field to them-
selves without contradiction. I have been for five years
urging the brewers to tell the people what they know, to
8
scatter the information broadcast, as I have faith enough
in the press to believe it will not be entirely averse to
helping in the work, although for the most part it also is
unconsciously dominated by the anti-drink despotism.
The brewer has followed the policy of "keeping the
matter quiet" and "not stirring it up." That reminds me
of a little story. There was a couple who had two chil-
dren, a boy of 16 and a girl of 14. About that time of
life another baby came along. With that prudishness so
commonly found, the parents took the greatest pains that
the children should not know anything about the condi-
tion of their mother or the impending event, and when the
time approached, the girl was sent on a vacation to some
relatives in another city. At last the great event took
place, and the father came and said to the boy: "Johnny,
you have a new baby brother." The boy said nothing.
The father sat down at his desk and in a few moments
handed the boy a telegram: "Take that to the telegraph
office," he said, "and send it to sister. Here is a dollar
to pay the charges." The boy came back after a while and
handed his father the change. "What," said the father,
"that telegram cost more than 35c, didn't it?” “Oh, yes,
the boy replied, "the one you wrote would have cost
more. I sent one of my own.' " "You did," the father
said, "and what did you say?" "Oh," the lad replied,
"I just wired sister: 'I win, it's a boy.'
-
""
And that is just about what this "keeping it quiet" has
amounted to.
I consider it necessary to speak of this condition, first
to show how it happens that there is but little of that
"open mind" in regard to the drink question which is a
necessary prerequisite for its study; and secondly in or-
der to warn you that the pretended statements of facts,
especially when they concern matters of science, as uttered
by the anti-drink people, are frequently open to that char-
acterization which was applied to them by Dr. BOWDITCH,
head of the Harvard Medical school, in a report that was
approved by the leading scientists of America, when, in
exposing the rottenness of the system of so-called "scien-
tific temperance instruction" in our public schools, placed
there by powerful prohibition influence, he said: "The
temptation has been irresistible to either manufacture evi-
dence or stretch it over points that it does not cover."
9
:
Perhaps it is fortunate that the report was not written by
a gentleman of Mr. ROOSEVELT'S strenuosity, or we might
have had an expression with less scientific reserve.
Secondary arguments have been used.
There has been some discussion of the drink question,
or rather the question of prohibition, state-wide or local,
during the past year. The arguments on one side of the
question have been mainly in behalf of the drink traffic,
rather than the use of alcoholic drink. My argument will
be for the use of fermented beverages. If the use is
sanctioned, the traffic must be.
The public has been told that the suppression of the
drink traffic would imply the destruction of vast capital,
the spoliation of farm lands, the idleness of armies of
workers, and all the economic results of such business
disturbance. Probably that argument would appeal strong-
ly to business men. They have been told of the vast sums
collected by the various governmental agencies in taxes
from the drink traffic and that the failure of that source
of revenue would upset all the systems of taxation. That
argument probably also has its effect upon business men.
The public has had its attention directed to the unnecessary
and therefore unwarranted interference with individual
liberty by laws that would regulate what you should drink.
That argument, no doubt, appealed to a somewhat loftier
feeling than that of mere acquisitiveness.
I have no quarrel with those arguments. They are all
entitled to careful consideration. I believe that no steps
should be taken to curtail individual liberty, to destroy
property and call up serious business disturbances, or to
upset existing, long approved systems of taxation, unless
it is shown with such a degree of probability as to amount
to moral certainty, that the change would accomplish good,
and that the good so to be accomplished would not only
balance, but greatly outweigh the inconvenience and suffer-
ing involved in the change itself. No such showing has
yet been made by the prohibitionist or anti-saloonist, at
least no convincing showing.
But, gentlemen, I am willing to give the people on the
other side of this question all these arguments. Let them
take them and make the most of them. I consider them
valuable, indeed, but after all, secondary.
10
1
Stating the problem.
This is the situation as I see it. Here is a custom,
that of using alcoholic relishes, as old as the human race,
older, in fact, and more extensive. The use of natural beer
is as old as the palms, the maples, the oaks, the birches
and other plants which allow liquids containing sugar to
exude at injured points. The sugar in such liquids is al-
ways seized upon at once by the ever present ferments,
and alcoholic fermentation sets in. Plants and animals,
yeasts, bacteria and other fungi, the gnat, the fly, the bee,
the ant, the noble butterfly seek this relish on the trees.
The rain carries it down to the ground where the beasts
of the field revel in it. Man has used alcoholic and other
intoxicating and narcotic relishes from the earliest times.
and in the most primitive stages of culture, even the sav-
ages of Africa and America enjoying them each after his
own fashion.
Along comes the abstainer and says: "It is wrong to
use alcoholic relishes, it is unwholesome, immoral, un-
economic and unsocial." What says the brewer to that?
For fifty years he says nothing. The abstainer goes a
step farther, turning prohibitionist and says: "We are go-
ing to suppress the use of alcoholic relishes by prohibiting
the traffic." Then the brewer awakens and says: "Ah, but
that will invade individual liberty, destroy property and
upset taxation." Do you see, the brewer has given up the
first argument, and by keeping silent is taken to assent to
it, and only avails himself of the secondary argument. He
is driven to defend the use of alcoholic drink as a neces-
sary evil.
Alcoholic drink not an evil.
Gentlemen, that is where I differ with the campaign
that has been conducted by our trade. Others have
thrashed out the secondary arguments. I plant myself
on the primary arguments. The use of alcoholic drink is
not an evil, necessary or otherwise. The temperate use
of alcoholic relishes is good, wholesome, useful, beneficial.
It is RIGHT. I deny the position of the anti-alcoholist
from the ground up. I am firmly convinced that the use
of fermented beverages,-temperate, of course, as should
also be said of food and of everything else is right and
good. And for that position I claim the vast preponder-
ance of scientific, sociologic, philantrophic and moral
authority the world over.
11
I do not fight prohibition because it does not prohibit.
What the effect of prohibition would be, nobody knows.
It is a matter of speculation. We have never had prohibi-
tion anywhere in this country. We have had, and now
have, prohibition laws, but as for the actual prohibition,
the actual prevention or even approximate prevention of
the beverage use of alcoholic preparations, we have no
example, unless it be the Mohametans and East Indians.
And even there it is not complete, and the results of pro-
hibition among them, such as it is, are not inviting. Neither
have we any proof of any reduction of the consumption of
spirits by prohibition, and the prohibitionists themselves
admit this. Beer, yes. Beer is driven out by prohibition
laws. But the distilleries are driven hard now to supply
the Southern states that have recently passed prohibition
laws, and the thousands of moonshine distilleries are in-
creasing in number. No, gentlemen, I say that the more
successful prohibition was, the more it accomplished its
object of preventing the use of alcoholic beverages, the
more strenuously would I feel the need of opposing it, for
I believe it could operate only to the deterioration of
health, the destruction of morality, the impairment of eco-
nomic efficiency, the unsettling of social order and the
general retardation of cultural advance.
To arouse a spirit of inquiry.
I have devoted so much time to an outline of my posi-
tion in general, at the cost of a more detailed statement of
the different points under it, because I deem it most im-
portant, under present circumstances and in view of the
prevailing false moral atmosphere, to arouse the public
consciousness of the wrongness of the sentiment in regard
to the use of alcoholic beverages that dominates public
and private thought. I deem it the first step in the rational
solution of the so-called drink problem to realize that the
existing views are not incontestible. That feeling gained,
the way is open to inquiry, and inquiry is what the public
needs. If facts and arguments are wanted, we can supply
them. But first of all I want to arouse a spirit of inquiry,
and I want only honest inquiry. I shall have to treat the
other matters rather cursorily this evening, as I am afraid
I shall transgress the limit of your patience. Briefly, how-
ever, let me touch on some of the points on which the
above position is based.
12
Temperance is the nub of the question.
I assert, then, that the temperate and knowing use of
fermented beverages is conducive to health. I confine my-
self to mild fermented beverages. I hold no brief for the
use of distilled spirits as a beverage.
I said "the temperate use."
We come here right to the nub of the whole question.
The difference between virtue and vice, between food
and poison, between common sense and unreason, lies in
the word "temperance." I refuse to yield to the anti-drink
propaganda the exclusive right to the word "temperance"
because it is constantly abused by them. Having your con-
sent to a statement about "temperance," they will by a com-
mon logical trick, carry your consent to apply to the sec-
ondary use of the word, which makes it equivalent to ab-
stinence. Temperance means temperate use, it means neither
abuse nor disuse. To use "temperance" as synonymous with
"abstinence" is a perversion of language and covers up
dangerous fallacies.
"Virtue is the mean between the vices, and equally re-
moved from both extremes," said HORACE. "The lines of
morality," said EDMUND BURKE, "are not like ideal lines.
of mathematics, they are broad and deep as well as long."
It is a well known principle of pharmacology and phys-
iological chemistry, that differences in quantity of sub-
stances ingested into the human system work decided dif-
ferences in the nature of their effects.
Gluttony worse than drunkenness.
It is being recognized more and more extensively among
scientific men that an enormous amount of evil is done by
irrational and excessive eating. Bishop BROWN of the Epis-
copal Church at Little Rock, Ark., in a letter last year in
which, an abstainer himself, he recognizes his abnormal
peculiarities that made such living seem advisablę, said:
"I have long been of opinion that gluttony is quite as
much of a vice as drunkenness. Indeed, I believe that a
careful inquiry would show it to be the consensus of opin-
ion among médical men that intemperance in eating really
has a more widespread and deleterious effect of stupefac-
tion upon mind and body and carries a greater number of
people to premature and obscure graves than drunkenness.
Now, this being the case, the drink prohibition party has
13
:
about as much ground in common sense to stand upon as
the food prohibition party would have."
We should not stop eating, but eat temperately. Prof.
CHITTENDEN, of Yale, possibly the foremost physiological
chemist of America, has concluded from extensive experi-
ments that we not only eat a great deal too much altogether,
but that especially do we eat too much albuminous food,
principally meat.
Widespread evil of irrational eating.
And the effect of irrational and excessive eating is far
more widespread and disastrous than that of overdrinking.
While the effects are not so obvious and instantaneous-
which makes overdrinking less dangerous, as its conse-
quences are quickly observed-still when you consider the
insidious and widespread effects, it is indeed a far more
serious peril than drink. I do not mean only the aggravated
cases of disorders of the alimentary tract, the case of the
confirmed dyspeptic or hypochondriac, as they used to call
this wretched being, I mean the chronic "grouch" of the
man who does not feel right and doesn't know why-after
eating half a pound of meat and eight ounces of potatoes
and a few ounces of vegetables, and bread and butter galore,
and some pickles, and sweetmeats, and cheese, altogether
enough to sustain a man for two days-the ill temper vented
on office help or factory hands, the whimsical discharging
of faithful employes, the spiteful "knocking" of a com-
petitor, the quarrel with the wife, the scolding of children.
Or the woman whose nerves are "on edge” and she doesn't
know why, who is ready to "fly to pieces" at a cross word,
venting her ill-humor on servants, herself inaccessible to her
children, if she has any,-they are so noisy and pester one
so, the little brats-the woman who could not bear the
nauseating smell of the kitchen and savory cooking,—it's
beneath her, you know, woman was born for better things
-the woman who complains of aches in all parts and re-
sents your imputation that it comes from the stomach, in-
sisting her stomach is all right, and at the same time exhal-
ing a breath that she has been obliged to perfume in order
to conceal its offensiveness-when that man and that woman
meet in the evening, what sort of a home circle is it going
to be?
Or, take the poor man who has to bolt his food in a
hurry, some soggy baker's bread only half done, with raw
14
beef fat, flavored to resemble butter, some cheap tough
meat, often cooked stringy and with the savory juice boiled
out and thrown away, a piece of factory pie of doughy con-
sistency and unknown composition, made more indigestible
by copious drinks of coffee thoroughly boiled so as to ex-
tract all the injurious matters from the bean and drive off
the aroma-perhaps, in some cases, the only redeeming
feature of the meal a can or bottle of beer; or the wife at
home struggling with her work and her children-she
is sure to have them and will do what she can for them ac-
cording to her light-snatching a bite of food now and then
and swallowing it almost whole, then sweating in a stuffy
kitchen to prepare the husband's and children's supper
made up in large part of food on which the highest art of
the adulterator has been expended-what sort of a home
circle is that going to be?
We are getting more temperate.
Now, gentlemen, we are getting more temperate all the
time. If we read that the ladies of honor of good Queen
Bess drank four quarts of beer with their breakfast, we
have advanced much indeed. And here is a menu from
the year 1854, when a banquet was given at Springfield,
Mass., upon the occasion of the 148th anniversary of the
birth of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. I take it from The Hotel
World of Feb. 13, 1909:
Soup-Mock turtle, barley broth.
Fish-Boiled cod, oyster sauce; boiled haddock, cream sauce:
baked pickerel.
Cold dishes-Boned turkey, ham decorated, beef tongue, chicken
salad, a la mode beef, lobster plain.
1
Roast Beef; turkey, cranberry sauce; chicken, stuffed; breast
of veal; goose, apple sauce; pork, mutton.
Boiled-Turkey, oyster sauce; corned beef tongues; chicken,
parsley sauce; leg of mutton, caper sauce.
Relishes French mustard, horse-radish, strawberry sauce, cran-
berry sauce, currant jelly, apple sauce, tomatoes pickled, peppers
pickled, cabbage pickled.
Entrees-Escalloped oysters, mutton chop with spinach, tender-
loin of beef, pickle sauce; chicken's liver, Italian style; blanquette
of veal and currie, marcaroni a la Napolitaine, chicken pies, turkey
en Capilotade, Prussian cutlets, oyster fritters.
Game-Mongrel goose, English style; canvasback ducks, orange
sauce; redhead ducks, a la Aubergiste; mongrel ducks, potted with
peas; black ducks; gray ducks, tartar sauce; grouse, Scotch style;
partridge, sportsmen's style; quails, roasted, tomato sauce; pigeons,
broiled; venison, roasted; venison steaks, strawberry sauce; venison,
English style.
15
Vegetables-Baked potatoes, boiled potatoes, mashed potatoes,
squash, turnip, green corn, Italian style; lettuce, celery, radishes,
tomates, green peas.
Pastry-English plum pudding, wine sauce; cocoanut pudding,
cream sauce; omelette souffle, apple pie, mince pie, custard pie,
squash pie, pumpkin pie, cranberry tart pie, apple tart pie, lemon
pie, marcaroons, orange and lemon kisses, cocoanut pie, apple cus-
tard pie, blackberry pie, grape pie, orange puffs, strawberry puffs,
blanc mange, Charlotte russe, calves foot and lemon jelly, Italian
cream, strawberry and lemon ice-cream, boiled custard.
Fruit-Almonds, pecan nuts, grenobles, Brazil nuts, parched
corn, figs, prunes, filberts, apples, pears, oranges, raisins, hickory
nuts, coffee.
How would you like to work through such a bill of
fare?
Gentlemen, we are getting more temperate all the time,
both in food and drink.
But, the point is, that on account of some excess exist-
ing, there is no sense in prohibiting drinking any more.
than eating. Social evolution is accomplishing moral evo-
lution, and extreme measures can only delay that trend of
things.
Improvement from natural causes
HERBERT SPENCER said in that connection :
Elsewhere I have illustrated the curious truth that while an
evil is very great it attracts little or no attention; that when, from
one or other cause, it is mitigated, recognition of it brings efforts
to decrease it; and when it has much diminished, there comes a
strong demand that strong measures shall be taken for its extinc-
tion; natural means having done so much, a peremptory call for
artificial means arises. One of the instances I named was the im-
mense decline in drunkenness which has taken place since the
eighteenth century, followed during recent times by a loud advocacy
of legislation for suppressing it. The occasion for recalling this
instance has been the discovery of evidence showing how extreme
were the excesses of our great-grandfathers.
What has produced the transformation that has since taken
place? Not legislation, not stern repression, not coercion. The
improvement has slowly arisen, along with other social improve-
ments, from natural causes. Nature's power of curing has been in
operation. But this large fact and other large facts and like implica-
tions are ignored by our agitators. They cannot be made to rec-
ognize the process of evolution resulting from men's daily activities,
though facts forced on them from morning till night show this in
myriadfold ways. Undeveloped brains cannot recognize the results
of slow, silent, invisible causes.
Small changes wrought by officials are clearly conceived, but
there is no conception of those vast changes which have been
wrought through the daily process of things undirected by authority.
And thus the notion that a society is a manufacture and not an
evolution vitiates political thinking at large, leading to the belief
that only by coercion can benefits be achieved. Is an evil shown?
16
Then it must be suppressed by law. Is a good thing suggested?
Then let it be compassed by law.
Psychic influence of food and drink.
Recent researches in the broad realm of food chemistry
and physiology have opened some remarkable and interest-
ing outlooks. One of the most interesting is that of the
psychic influence of food and drink.
It is today recognized that appetite and taste, those
peculiar nervous and psychic functions, the effects of which
are observed, but the nature and excitation of which are
so little understood, are of extreme importance in all mat-
ters concerning food and drink. Food introduced into the
mouth not only excites the flow of saliva, but also, by
nervous action, starts the secretion of gastric juice, prepar-
atory to its reception and digestion in the stomach. Even
though the food never reaches the stomach, this excitation
of stomachic action takes place, as PAWLOW showed by his
experiments with dogs in whose esophagus he developed a
fistula, i. e., a permanent opening, so that the food dropped
out instead of reaching the stomach. The more savory
the food, the greater the secretion of digestive fluids. It
is not intended here to advocate high seasoning of food.
But the general psychic effect, the appetizing preparation
of the table, the clean, pleasing serving of the food, the
delicious odor, and last and most important, the enjoyable
sensation of the food itself on the palate and tongue are
most powerful aids of digestion. If, then, a glass of beer
or wine serves to heighten the pleasure of eating, it thereby
performs a highly important function in aid of digestion.
This is quite aside from the nutriment supplied by the
beer, and the direct stimulating effect of the alcohol on the
digestive apparatus. ·
Helpfulness of beer.
I am not advocating gluttony. Quite the contrary.
Savory food, not seasoned so as to exert an abnormally
stimulating influence, if thoroughly chewed and mixed with
saliva-which is an essential condition in all food and with-
out which it should never be swallowed-will so satisfy
both appetite and hunger as to induce moderate eating.
But such food as is taken should appeal to the eye, the
touch, the smell, and the taste, in order to produce the
most beneficial results upon the system. All the ordinary
foods, properly prepared, masticated and insalivated, are
practically of equal digestibility. Their chemical composi-
tion and their physical condition, under these premises, are
17
alike of secondary importance. The main question is not
what we eat, but how we eat. And if we eat in the right
manner, we shall not overeat, but can correct even that
abnormal appetite which most of us possess in the matter
of eating as a result of false bringing-up and indulging so-
called instinct. Instinct is a will-o'-the-wisp. The savage,
who is supposed to have instinct, overeats-if he has any-
thing to eat. Civilized man learns to train the mis-called
"natural" instinct, and to develop a wholesome appetite.
At least, he has the means to do so.
The psychic influence of a glass of beer with a meal is
thus of direct, positive value in promoting digestion. But
there are also indirect effects to the same end. The quick-
ened spirits of the man, the stimulated flow of conversa-
tion, the sallies of wit, the good fellowship-all these things
exert similar influences in promoting the beneficial effects of
eating. I have heard of physicians prescribing the theatre, a
good comedy, as a cure for indigestion. If a good laugh,
the enlivening of the spirits, in a word, pleasure, joy, in the
proper sense of the term, can aid digestion after food has
been improperly taken, how much greater must be the tonic
effect if they accompany the taking of the food and can
act upon it in the early and important preparatory stages
of digestion and absorption?
In other words, we should eat, not feed. And this
is not in conflict with "the simple life." Simple food
can be enjoyed just as well as the most complicated pro-
ductions of the French chef. As by adding the psychic
element to the procreative instinct man elevates it into
the sublime passion of love, so by adding the psychic
element to the simple act of feeding, man can make of it
the kernel of the noblest associations, the starting point
of high friendships, the source of close soul communion,
the center of fellowship, the birth of high thought and
unselfish action, the spring of wit and eloquence.
Expense for pleasure not a waste.
In his book on Foods and Their Adulteration, Dr. H.
W. WILEY, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United
States Department of Agriculture, who has achieved so
much popular prominence of late as the champion of pure
food, has in the introductory parts some interesting pas-
sages:
The term "food" in its broadest signification includes all those
substances which, when taken into the body build tissues, restore
waste, furnish heat and energy, and provide appropriate condi-
ment.
18
-
It (food) also includes those bodies of a liquid character which
are classed as beverages rather than as foods. All of these bodies
have nutritive properties, although their chief value is condimental
and social.
That large class of food products, also, which is known as
condiments is properly termed food, since they not only possess
nutritive properties, but through their condimental character pro-
mote digestion and by making the food more palatable secure to a
higher degree the excellence of its social function.
Beverages are those liquid food products which are more valued
for their taste and flavor than actual nutritive value.
It must not be considered that mere nutrition is the sole object
of foods, especially for man. It is the first object to be conserved
in the feeding of domesticated animals, but is only one of the objects.
to be kept in view in the feeding of man. Man is a social animal
and, from the earliest period of his history, food has exercised a
most important function in his social life. Hence in the study of
food and of its uses a failure to consider this factor would be re-
grettable. For this reason it is justifiable in the feeding of man to
expend upon the mere social features of the meal a sum which often
is equal to or greater than that expended for the mere purpose of
nutrition.
This has a bearing also on the so-called Nation's Drink
Bill, by which the anti-drink people seek to show a sup-
posed waste of money by the people in spending large
sums on drink. As a matter of fact, the American people
spend less than one-fourth as much for drink as for food,
according to the United States census. Yet, Dr. WILEY
says it is justifiable to spend upon the mere social features
of the meal a sum which often is equal to or greater than
that expended for the mere purpose of nutrition. So, as a
matter of fact, the American people are very economical
in their expenditures for their "social features." And it
is absolutely false that expense for pleasure is waste.
is only from the low materialistic viewpoint of the anti-
drink people that the concrete goods as clothes, shoes, or
meat are better equivalents for money spent than the re-
juvenation of the mental and physical constitution derived
from the joy of living.
The alleged poisonous nature of alcohol.
It
But we are told by the anti-drink people that alcohol
is a poison and that it creates a growing appetite which
leads the temperate drinker to become a drunkard.
Neither of these statements is accurate. Alcohol in
excess has a poisonous effect, no doubt. So has meat.
19
Prof. MUNSTERBERG of Harvard speaks of the "poison-
ous consumption" of meat. It is the irrational eating, not
the thing itself, that makes it poisonous. Sugar is an al-
most perfect food, and also a stimulant much appreciated
by athletes. Concentrated sugar solution is poisonous.
Salt is a necessary food adjunct, but concentrated salt so-
lution is a violent poison. Caffeine is a poison, coffee taken
in moderation is a useful relish and food adjunct. Oxygen
is a necessary element of the air, pure oxygen inhaled
would be fatal. And so on down the line.
It is a violation of an elementary principle of pharma-
cology to seek to draw conclusions as to the action of a
substance on the body when taken in moderate or dietetic
doses, from its action when ingested in grossly excessive
quantities. That point requires no demonstration or ar-
gument, it is axiomatic, and so stated in the report of the
Committee of Fifty on the Physiological Aspects of the
Liquor Problem, which was written and approved by the
foremost specialists of America.
The alleged progressive appetite.
As to the progressive appetite, there is no such thing
in a normal individual. That it may occur in a person of
defective physical and mental constitution will not be de-
nied. But it is well known that alcoholic overindulgence
is not a cause of such defect, but invariably an effect.
Among normal persons the appetite commonly decreases
with advancing age. The young man often wants to eat
everything in sight and may sometimes overindulge in
drink. But as he gets older these passions subside, and the
well-matured man becomes more temperate.
If there were such a thing as a progressive appetite for
alcoholic drink, what would have become of the white
race? We know all the European races used to indulge
freely in wine and beer, far more copiously than we do to-
day. As a race, our appetite has been declining in a most.
marked fashion.
Relaxation an indispensable requirement for morality.
The question of health is closely associated with that of
morals. The frequent resort to relaxation and recreation,
the indulging in the joy of living is not only a restoration
of health but an invigorator of moral stamina. The per-
20
4.
son who devotes himself wholly to the economic grind,
does not compare in physical, mental or moral buoyancy
with him who enjoys. The manager of a boys' club in New
York, supported by E. H. HARRIMAN, expresses the opin-
ion that recreation is the most important element in form-
ing character. Morality is the child of happiness. Tem-
perance, especially, is the virtue that distinguishes civil-
ized man from the savage.
In an address delivered August 20, 1908, at the laying
of the corner stone of the Cape Cod Pilgrim Memorial
monument at Provincetown, Mass., President ROOSEVELT
said: "We have gained some things that the puritan had
not—we of this generation, we of the twentieth century,
here in this great Republic. We have gained a joy of
living which he had not, and which it is a good thing for
every people to have and to develop." Prof. JAMES of
Harvard, in speaking of the partial inhibition of certain
mental faculties such as is produced by alcoholic beverages
and is denounced by the anti-alcoholists as "partial paral-
ysis," says: "Inhibition is not an occasional accident; it
is an essential and unremitting element of our cerebral life."
Prof. MUNSTERBERG, also of Harvard, takes strong ground
in favor of alcoholic beverages as the chief means of re-
creation.
Economic efficiency heightened.
If it is conceded that the temperate use of fermented
beverages gives physical, mental and moral buoyancy, it
is needless to point out that it heightens the economic ef-
ficiency of man. For, after all, in productive work as well
as anywhere else, the human element is by far the most
important, far more so than machinery, or system, or or-
ganization, or specialization, as was recently discussed by
WALTER M. MCFARLAND in The Engineer Magazine. Man
is not a mere machine, and I hope he will never allow
himself to be made so; prohibition would have a strong
tendency that way.
No evidence of impairment of efficiency from drink,
Gentlemen, I cannot continue in the details of these
things. Time will not allow. I will only say in a genera!
way that there are no conclusive scientific facts that sus-
tain the contentions advanced against the temperate use of
alcohol. The physiological and psychological laboratory
experiments which have been recently referred to in mag-
azine articles by professional writers masquerading as sci-
21
entific authorities, not only were inconclusive to begin with,
but have been shown to be without value even as experi-
ments, owing to palpable defects of experimental method.
There is no evidence today to show that the temperate use
of alcohol impairs the capacity for work, either physical or
mental. The tests of Dr. RIVERS, of Cambridge, in that
respect were recently referred to with approval by Dr. C.
L. DANA, of New York.
Alcohol and crime, insanity and pauperism.
I feel inclined to leave this branch of the subject at this
point. But I anticipate you will ask: "What about the
connection of alcoholic drink with crime, insanity, pauper-
ism?" That is the point the anti-drink people harp most
upon, because it appeals to sentiment and arouses action
on an emotional basis without mature reflection and earn-
est study. Were it not for the prominence given to the
subject by the "antis" and the fact that they have im-
pressed the supposed connection of alcoholic drink with
social delinquencies upon the public mind, I should not
consider the matter at all.
For, in truth, it has little to do with the question of
the temperate use of alcoholic drink or with the question
of the public dealing with the traffic.
Drunkenness a result, not a cause.
It is no longer a matter of opinion, but of statistics, as
Miss MARY DENBY, a British authority, says, that drunk-
enness is a RESULT and not a CAUSE of defect in the unfor-
tunate individual. A normal man has hardly ever been
known to become a drunkard. The criminal, the insane, the
professional pauper, the drunkard, are of the same class.
They are defectives, degenerates, delinquents. Dr. BRANTH-
WAITE, inspector under the British Inebriates Act, who has
had better opportunity to study this question than any
other person that ever lived, says: "I am very skeptical
indeed as to the probability of any normally constituted in-
dividual becoming a habitual drunkard even if he permit.
himself to indulge occasionally in a fair measure of care-
less drinking, without the intervention of nerve shock or
other influence sufficiently potent to disturb the equilibrium
of nervous and mental balance.
There can be
no doubt whatever that our insane inebriates are mentally
unsound first and inebriates afterwards."
* * *
22
The same is true of criminals and chronic paupers.
These are all forms of defectiveness and degeneracy.
should like to read to you, if I had time, something from
a study by OSCAR E. MCCULLOCH on the descendants of a
pauper family named by him "Ishmael," in the city of
Indianapolis. It is, of course, only an illustration, but it
enforces the point that crime, pauperism, vice, insanity,
go hand in hand and are practically confined to certain de-
fective strains in the human family, and, as President JOR-
DAN of Leland Stanford University says: "It is true, as
has been said, that vice, crime and madness are called by
different names only through social prejudice. In like man-
ner, virtue, purity and wisdom are largely convertible
terms." And, elsewhere: "The withered branches (of the
race) are only kept in existence through misplaced char-
ity, which continues the paupers, or through bad social
conditions which propagate the criminal. Pauperism, crim-
inality and folly have their lineage, but it is not a long one,
and wiser councils will make it shorter than it now is
* * * A remedy for degeneration cannot be applied in
an easy fashion. Sanity is the antidote for insanity, clean-
liness of thought and action in life for folly and crime."
The assertion that alcoholic drink makes crime, insan-
ity, pauperism, is not capable of substantiation, as a gen-
eral proposition. There is an occasional emotional crime
which is promoted by alcoholic indulgence, but the real
criminal is not of that sort. The insane person almost al-
ways is a voracious eater and unable to control that appe-
tite. Did eating make him insane any more than drinking?
Excess in drinking is often associated with criminality,
vice, insanity. pauperism, as a matter of course.
So are
other vices. They all issue from the defective constitution
of the unfortunate individual, they are co-ordinate symp-
toms of degeneracy, that is all.
In this, as in many other cases, the scientist has been
anticipated by the poet, for SHAKESPEARE says that
"Virtue, as it never will be moved,
"Though lewdness court it in the shape of Heaven,
"So lust, though to a radiant angel linked,
"Will sate itself in a celestial bed
"And prey on garbage.”
23
Transmission to offspring.
It is asserted by the anti-drink people that those who
use alcoholic drink are likely to have degenerate offspring
as a result of such use.
That statement is without logical foundation. It is
true that the offspring of a drunkard is likely to be crimi-
nal, vicious, insane or pauper. It is true that, where two
drunkards mate, their vice may become accentuated in
their descendants. But, that is due to the inherent defect,
which produces the drunkenness of the ancestors. De-
fective ancestors are likely, unless the strain is corrected
by a healthy atavism, to have defective offspring, although
the defect need not necessarily express itself in exactly the
same way as in the ancestor. Thus a criminal ancestor
may have insane offspring, a pauper may have criminal
offspring, a prostitute may have a family of criminals or
drunkards, or a drunkard may continue his defect in an
imbecile.
But the fallacy of the anti-alcoholist lies in the asser-
tion that a person not afflicted with inherent defect may
become a drunkard and transmit that defect to his off-
spring.
It is one of the open questions of biology whether ac-
quired characters are ever transmitted by heredity. From
the simple cell through plant life and the animals to man,
there is no evidence as yet of the transmission of acquired
characters. All artificial breeding of plants and animals
proceeds by selection, and while an individual plant, ani-
mal or man may acquire certain characters in a lifetime,
it remains to be shown that such acquired characters are
ever transmitted to offspring. The anti-drink people airily
ignore these conditions and calmly assume that the acquired
character of drunkenness-if there is such a thing-is
transmitted from parent to child.
Abnormal individuals should be cared for.
Now, drunkenness being an effect or a symptom of an
abnormal nature, it will be said society ought to care for
the abnormal as well as the normal. Certainly, it ought to,
but not by treating normal persons the same as abnormal.
On the contrary, they should be treated quite differently.
In one case this is beginning to be recognized. We often
find in school that one or two children out of a room of
24
50 are unmanageable and incapable of keeping up with
the rest intellectually or morally. Still, they are treated
the same as the normal children. This not only is a hope-
less proceeding and will have, if any, only an unfavorable
effect on such abnormal children, but it delays and inter-
feres with the progress of the great majority of normal
ones. Society is beginning to recognize these conditions.
by the establishment of special schools for defectives, as
it did some time ago for other classes, the deaf and dumb
and the blind. So, abnormal adults ought to be taken care
of, but not by forcing the great mass of the people to live
under rules made for the government of the abnormal.
The criminal, the pauper, the insane, the vicious should
be taken care of by society, treated with kindness to their
end, and absolutely prevented from propagating their de-
generacy. But we cannot transform all human society
into a reform school in order to accommodate the crimi-
nals and remove them from opportunity for crime, nor into
an insane asylum in order to accommodate the small per-
centage of insane, nor into a poor-house to accommodate
the few paupers, nor finally into a sanitarium or a hospi-
tal to accommodate an infinitesimal percentage of drunk-
ards. When you get ready to transform society into a
prison or a reform school, or insane asylum and poor-house,
then will the time have arrived, gentlemen, also to con-
sider adding the features of a hospital or sanitarium by
adopting prohibition, whether national, state or local.
The Saloon Question
Public drinking places a necessity,
Since the temperate use of fermented beverages is
right, useful, beneficial, and from the higher cultural view-
point indispensable, there should be places for publicly dis-
pensing them. Many people are able to keep supplies in their
homes, but the poor man needs recreation as much as the
man who can keep a wine cellar or an ice box with beer;
nay, he needs it far more imperatively. And even the well-
to-do should have places for social gathering where they can
have beer and wine as well as coffee, tea or other drinkables
and eatables. I have gone into the general question of the
propriety of the temperate use of alcoholic relishes because
that matter is fundamental. It cannot be swept aside as
having nothing to do with the question of the saloon. In
fact it is impossible to approach the saloon question ra-
tionally without first taking a position in regard to the
25
former question. And furthermore, while the business is
allowed to rest under the curse of partial outlawry, at
least in the public mind, it is made impossible to put it on
the plane where it should be. Recognize the temperate
use of fermented beverages as within the limits of pro-
priety, dispel that false moral atmosphere that hangs over
us like a fog obscuring the sun, teach people how to drink
and what to drink, just as you teach your daughters and
your sons to know themselves in the matter of sex rather
than let them pick up this knowledge from polluted sources
and you will then free the practice of drinking from its
character of forbidden fruit, from its mental association
with uncleanliness and vice, and you will open the retail
trade to many self-respecting men who now keep out of
it, and who will conduct it as it should be conducted.
Public drinking places can be made what they should be.
This can be done. The public drinking places CAN
be made what they should be.
I say confidently it can be done, because it has been
and is being done elsewhere, and I have faith that what
others can do, we in this country can do. I refuse to be-
lieve, as some of the anti-drink people assert, that the
American cannot be temperate. To make such a state-
ment is to place him on the level of the barbarian or even
the savage, for, temperance is the typical virtue that dis-
tinguishes civilized from primitive man.
Evolution of the saloon.
The saloon, as we know it to-day, is a product of he-
redity and evolution. From the British we inherited the
drinking bar and the habits of stand-up drinking. The bar
does not occur on the continent of Europe except in the
Scandinavian countries where it is used for the dispensing
of spirits only, and in a few cases in continental capitals
where American tourists congregate. The American pio-
neer was strong in his passions as in his body, his energy,
his resourcefulness. His was a lonely life. He felt the
need of an outlet in his psychological life as much as any
one. Whiskey was plentiful, in fact the most convenient
form for the farmer to transport his grain. So there were
occasions at the saloons in the towns when the pioneer
and frontier man "blew off" surplus energy or had his
"outlet."
The saloon of those days and conditions was not an in-
viting place from the viewpoint of the present day.
It
26
has developed and changed greatly since that time and ac-
commodated itself more to the gentler conditions of mod-
ern life. But it has not developed fast enough. It still
retains some of the characters of its earlier form of exist-
ence, and, in the present day, they are objectionable. It
is here as everywhere in life, good and evil are relative
ideas. What is satisfactory on one level of development
is considered. evil when seen from a higher viewpoint. A
few years ago there was a great outcry against the meat
packing houses. They had not kept up to date in arrange-
ments for cleanliness and sanitation. They were brought
up with a round turn. Today they are working under bet-
ter conditions and are more popular than ever with the
consumer.
It seems the saloon is to have its turn. It is a more
complicated question than was that of the packing busi-
ness. We have to do with thousands of small places in-
stead of a few score big ones. These retail places have
been subject to an economic evolution at the same time as
the general social. The concentration of capital and in-
troduction of economies in production and distribution to-
gether with superficial legislation have thrown many sa-
loons under the control of the brewer. Is that a desirable
development?
The increasing competition has led to a multiplication
of stands often without regard to the requirements of the
market. This in turn, together with hostile legislation and
popular prejudice, has multiplied temptations to seek an
income from sources not properly connected with the busi-
ness of dispensing beer or wine, and at times improper, and
has discouraged people of character from entering or re-
maining in the retail business.
Some objectionable features inherent in present system.
But I need not picture to you the objectionable features
of the saloon business as it exists today. Some think these
features are confined only to a small number of saloons.
As far as the unlawful accessories go, that view is true.
Others think, there are features inherent in the business as
it is conducted today that call for betterment.
I am constrained to adopt the latter view. To a cer-
tain degree, the objectionable features of the saloon busi-
ness are inherent in the present system.
27
.
i.
It follows, not that the saloon should be abolished, but
that it should be brought up to the standard of present
day life. If my child misbehaves, I do not kill it, I cor-
rect it.
It cannot be denied that the opportunities whereby the
person with a morbid appetite can secure strong drink
ought to be curtailed if they cannot be eliminated; that
children under puberty ought not to be able to secure al-
coholic drink without the consent of parents or guardians;
that people who cannot afford it, should not be tempted to
spend money for drink; that drinking beyond appetite, as
for instance under the "treating" habit, should be discour-
aged; that drinking should be dissociated from vice; al-
together, that intemperance should be discouraged and made
difficult.
►
Comparison of successful systems.
How can this be done in such a way as to preserve the
full opportunity for indulging a natural and proper ap-
petite for alcoholic relishes and without undue interfer-
ence with individual rights? In other words, can outward
aids to temperance be made successful? For I believe that
temperance can be developed only by education and proper
environment, but can be promoted by adapting environ-
ment to the end to be attained, and that means external
aids to temperance.
Several other governments have grappled earnestly with
the drink problem, so-called, as far as external aids to tem-
perance are concerned, and we have much to learn from
them. For, after due allowance for differences of envir-
onment and habits of life, we are essentially of the same
physical and mental structure as our European cousins
from whom the bulk of the American people are descended,
and occupy the same level of civilization.
The Scandinavian systems.
Some of the most advanced systems of dealing with the
drink business in Europe will pay examination. The old-
est and most talked-about is the so-called Gothenburg
system, now extensively adopted in Sweden. The retail
traffic in spirits is placed in the hands of public corpora-
tions, the profits, after deducting 5 per cent on the capital
invested, going to public purposes. This is to eliminate
28
private profit.(?) The public spirit shops are very few in
number and unattractive, where a man goes in and takes
his dram and leaves. He can buy all he wants by the bot-
tle in other places, not to be used on the premises. This
company control does not extend to beer and wine, which
are not considered in the same class with spirits. Neither
does it extend to any spirits and wines containing less than
25% of alcohol. Local option obtains largely in the country
districts, but does not cover the sale of beer or light wines.
In Norway this system has been modified, but is in the
main similar. The number of spirit shops is very small-
in Bergen, the principal city, one to over 3,300 of popula-
tion-in the greater part of the rural districts there are
none.. But a popular highly fortified wine, called läddevin,
is imported and extensively sold, not being controlled by
the "companies." Beer and light wines are free, the pub-
lic places where they are consumed paying merely an oc-
cupation tax and being under police control like all other
stores and shops, except in country districts where pro-
hibition partly prevails.
In Sweden and Norway the consumption of spirits at
the public bars has greatly decreased, but there are con-
flicting estimates of the amounts of strong drink consumed
that do not come under the "companies." Beer is becom-
ing more popular, being considered an agent of temper-
ance. There is believed to have been a great diminution
of public drunkenness.
The Swiss system.
Switzerland has a government monopoly of the traffic
in spirits, leaving beer and light wines free. The consump-
tion of spirits has been almost cut in two and their quality
greatly improved. "Temperance restaurants" sell beer and
wine as a matter of course, but no spirits. Absinthe has
been recently prohibited.
The Dutch system.
Holland has no government monopoly and does noth-
ing to eliminate or curtail private profit. It has three
classes of licenses-one to sell "soft" drinks, one at a nom-
inal fee to sell nothing stronger than beer and light wines,
a third to sell spirits and all other drinks. The number
of the third class licenses is very small and the fee compara-
29
tively very high. As in the other countries, the laws are
strictly enforced. Holland is being rapidly weaned from the
gin habit, and the new law, only a few years in force, is
seemingly doing wonders for temperance.
The Danish system.
Denmark has freed all beer containing not more than
24 per cent by weight of alcohol, so that such beverages
pay no tax or license fees. The temperance societies se-
cured the passage of this law and have built "Temperance
Homes" all over the country, having restaurants, reading
and billiard rooms, and halls for meetings, social gather-
ings, dances, etc., at all of which these light beers are
served together with chocolate, coffee, etc. In rural com-
munities where no halls are available, the school houses
are used for these purposes. The consumption of spirits
has been greatly reduced, while the use of beer, and es-
pecially the tax-free kinds, is advancing. The arrests for
drunkenness in Copenhagen, a much bigger city than Goth-
enburg and known as a pleasure-loving place, where the
greatest freedom exists in the sale of alcoholic beverages,
and even on Sundays the hours are the same as on week-
days, are sixteen to 1,000 of population, as against fifty-
two in Gothenburg.
Promotion of mild fermented drinks the leading feature.
The Swiss system was not adopted until after most
thorough-going study. Twenty-five years ago a commis-
sion of the federal government made an exhaustive re-
port, which led to the formulation of the present system.
That report dwelt upon taxation as the most effective means
of regulation, and upon the value of the mild fermented
drinks as promoters of temperance. The Dutch studied
all the existing systems with equal thoroughness, includ-
ing the American, then discarded them all and formulated
their own, which appears to be the most effective of all.
It places the promotion of mild fermented beverages at the
head as the leading principle of temperance legislation. The
Danes go farthest in that direction by freeing the low-al-
cohol beer-answering to 2.62 per cent alcohol content by
volume, as it is generally measured in the United States,
the regular American beer averaging only 3½ per cent—
and looking after sanitary and building regulations in the
public houses, the people, under the influence of this free-
30
dom, making the drinking of spirits less fashionable and
drawing the people away from their use by light beer.
Through all these systems-the only ones that, as far
as Government interference is concerned, have had any
measure of success in diminishing intemperance-there
runs one common principle, viz.: The encouragement of
the mild drinks as a temperance measure. Some make that
principle the leading one, and they seem the most success-
ful. Others make it second in importance, and they seem
to be less successful than the former, though still more so
than all other countries.
The distinctive common features o the successful systems.
The distinctive common features of these successful
systems are:
First-Discrimination in favor of mild, fermented beverages as
against distilled spirits, in one case freeing entirely from tax, beer
containing a trifle less alcohol than the average American lager beer,
and affording gratification for the social instinct, music, literature,
art, etc.
Second-Limitation of the number of public drinking places,
more particularly those where spirits are sold.
Third-Requirements as to construction and sanitation of public
drinking places.
Fourth-No drinking bar, except in the Scandinavian spirit
shops.
Fifth-Suppression of impure drinks.
Sixth-Wide discretion of the licensing authorities and strict
enforcement of rational laws.
To this should be added the absence of the "treating" habit, for
it is an insult in continental Europe to offer to "treat” a man.
In all these countries, which were spirits-drinking coun-
tries like the United States, intemperance has been greatly
diminished, and it is a well known fact that drunkenness,
or even intoxication in a less pronounced degree, is far
scarcer in the wine and beer drinking countries than in
those which use spirits, marked differences existing even
between different regions of the same country according
to the habits of the people in that respect. The French tem-
perance societies are praising wine as an agent of temper-
ance as against absinthe.
These points also touch the sore spots in this¡country.
Is it not true, gentlemen, that the points I have enu-
merated as characterizing these successful systems of hand-
31
ling the drink question, also touch the sore spots of the
problem in this country? Is it not true that drunkenness
is far less frequent where beer is the prevailing drink than
where whiskey is used more extensively? The United
States Brewers' Association, in its publications, demon-
strated that fact long ago. Is it not true that the drink-
ing bar promotes "treating," quick drinking, and drinking
of spirits? Is it not true that a large, airy, sanitary, at-
tractive café encourages people to sit down at tables and
drink beer and wine and take their time to it? Look at
the fine restaurants and cafés in this city, and tell me if they
do not represent the most wholesome development of the
drink business! Do not the results in prohibition districts.
prove the injurious effects of impure drinks? For, where
there is prohibition, whiskey flourishes, and impure whis-
key in a large measure.
As to the limitation of the number of places, especially
those where whiskey is sold, will anyone deny that the ex-
cessive multiplication of stands has much to do with the
undesirable features of the retail business? If we had,
say, one place where whiskey is sold to every 50 or so
where beer and light wines are sold, the former being sub-
ject to a very high tax, the latter to a much lower one, all,
of course, subject to regulation and supervision, would not
the business be on a more satisfactory basis? It has so
proven where the plan was tried.
As for the wide discretion of licensing bodies-I mean
business discretion, not mere legal discretion, whereby the
licensing authority has the right to grant or withhold and
to revoke licenses on business principles-we have an ex-
ample in Pennsylvania, to say nothing of European coun-
tries. The courts there act as licensing authorities, as in
England, and their powers are discretionary and not sub-
ject to review by a higher court. I understand the law is
working very satisfactorily.
In Pennsylvania there also is a provision which makes.
it unlawful for a brewer or wholesaler to be interested
financially in any retail stand in the same county. I am in-
formed there is general satisfaction with this law, although
to be really effective it ought to be state-wide instead of
being limited to the county. At any rate, it prevents the
brewer from being the purveyor of the distiller's goods.
The brewer cannot, as he does elsewhere to a large extent,
invest his capital with the practical end that a lot of whis-
•
.
32
key is sold over the bar, for the retailer makes more money
out of whiskey than out of beer. Prof. COULTER, of the
Department of Economics in the State University of Min-
nesota, recently declared in favor of complete brewery own-
ership of saloons. In England, it is claimed the tied-house
system has worked for the elevation of the trade rather
than the other way.
That is a question on which I have no decided opinion.
But I do believe that the Pennsylvania law, if made state-
wide, would operate to keep the saloonkeeper out of the
brewery business just as well as to keep the brewer out
of the saloon business. And that would be a desirable
result.
Brewers must inform the people and propose remedies.
Gentlemen, I have only indicated the general lines along
which I believe betterment of the traffic must lie. Precise
proposals cannot be made in such a form as to apply every-
where or in many places. To formulate provisions for each
state would be a matter of detail work to be taken up after
general principles shall have been accepted.
But I want to say with all the emphasis of which I
am capable that something must be done, and the brewers
must do it. I have met many people, I meet them all
along, who like beer or wine or even whiskey, but who
say they are opposed to the saloon as it is today and will
vote against it if they are called upon to decide one way
or the other. Whenever I have been able to get enough
of their time to talk to them about the question I have
succeeded in showing them that there are many stages be-
tween the tough saloon on the one hand, and prohibition
on the other hand, and they have expressed a wish to learn
more about the subject. I tell you, gentlemen, the people
are hungry for information and argument on this topic.
And it is the business of the brewers to see that they get
it, for the brewers, collectively, are the only ones in this
country who possess all the information.
But do not allow yourselves to think that the people
are going to defend your interests from any motives of
philanthropy or sympathy or fear of economic or fiscal
troubles. You must show them that you are RIGHT in
MAKING beer, and also that THEY THEMSELVES are RIGHT
in USING your product. And you must show a willingness
33
to better present conditions of the traffic, even at consid-
erable sacrifice.
It is necessary to show courage and to stand up for
yourselves. Last spring when the Illinois Manufacturers'
Association was importuned to pass a resolution opposing
the local-option tendencies, the Board of Directors of that
Association allowed the matter to lie over for some time
because not a single brewer appeared before them to stand
up for the resolution. The directors were unable to under-
stand such backwardness.
A member of this Society informed me of a conversa-
tion with a member of the present Legislature of this State,
in which that legislator said he was certain, if the brewers
would prepare some definite, reasonable legislation of a
constructive nature it would be passed. He complained
that, while the anti-drink people are flooding the Legisla-
ture with bills and petitions, the brewers do nothing, but
allow matters to go by default.
Two things needful at present.
And now, gentlemen, having taken up your time alto-
gether too long, let me say in conclusion:
There are two things needful at the present time, above
all other things, viz: publicity and a constructive program.
It is necessary to go to the people and tell them what
you know. It is necessary to take the public into your
confidence, to explain the rightness of your general cause
and admit such flaws as may exist as to matters of detail.
And it is equally necessary to prepare a definite, construct-
ive program of betterment. Let us not use the word "re-
form.' What we want is not going back, but going for-
ward, hence not reform, but betterment. The people sim-
ply feel that there are some things that are not as they should
be. We do not tell them what should be done to correct
them. But the anti-drink "fan" is forever at them with his
program of radical change, or revolution, of burning down.
the house to kill a rat. And, in the absence of sound, con-
structive, conservative advice, what can you expect the
common man to do? He will in the course of time yield
to the agitator, for he cannot help but take your silence as
a confession of guilt.
1-
34

Suggestion for a Committee of Research.
a suggestion, tentative merely, and intended more
e purpose of getting something started than of seek-
to enforce my own notions, I think it might be the
rting point of a very beneficial movement if this Society
nvited the trade generally to join in an effort to interest
other business men and professional men in the creation.
of a committee of National scope which shall study the gen-
eral drink question and publish its findings, together with
recommendations to the people at large. I believe it would
be possible to get together a committee of men of such stand-
ing that their findings would have to be published by the
newspapers of the country. In that way it would be pos
sible to place the public discussion of the matter upon
sane basis, and put the people in possession of facts a
arguments that would permit the formation of a sound pu
lic opinion on the subject, and thus, in a few years, lead
rational legislation to assist the brewing trade in its effo
to better the traffic and eliminate existing objectionable fo
tures. I should like to have this suggestion taken up
the discussion which is to follow at a future meeti

Suggestion for a True Temperance Socjet
Putting this suggestion in a little different or
alternative form, it may be worth while to cons
advisability and feasibility of the formation of
somewhat after the pattern of the True Tempe
ciation recently started in London, England,
lowing avowed aims:
1. To create a healthy and reasonable public opinion on the
subject of temperance in drinking.
2. To encourage the development of the public house in the
direction of making it in the best sense a place for the present-day
social needs of the people, and to help in the removal of all legis-
lative and administrative hindrances to such development.
3. To promote fairness, justice, and common sense in dealing
with the problem of intemperance.
(4. To investigate methods for the further reduction of drunk-
enness.)
(5. To assist, where expedient, existing agencies for reform-
ing drunkards.)
6. To promote inquiry into the physiological effects of the
component parts of alcoholic beverages.
7. To ascertain what is being done for the promotion of tem-
perance in other countries.
8. To assist all efforts for securing the wholesomeness of
beverages.

35.

To which I would add, from the program of the
tional League for Liberty and Culture recently forme
Norway the following under Section 4:
"and to oppose the misuse of alcoholic beverages, especially
the form of improper drinking customs, chiefly the 'treating' habit.
And perhaps another paragraph suggested by the Nor-
wegian society might be added, something in this form:
9. To make the so-called "drink question" part of the general
work for wholesome living instead of dealing with it as a distinct
problem.
But, whatever steps may be taken, I insist on the ne-
sity of two things above all: Publicity and a construct-
rogram. The people are waiting for both.


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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