SANE DRINKING

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 94, 14 February 1947, Page 7

SANE DRINKING

STEPS IN AMERICA CAMPAIGN WITHIN TRADE ' Opponents of the change in liquor hours ih New South Wales say that the liquor trade won’t do anything to help clean up the evils of drinking. This story from Theo Moody tells how the liquor trade itself in America is campaigning for intelligent drinking. Whisky distillers are playing a major part in the fight to combat alcoholism and excessive drinking in America. Several large distilling companies are the heaviest contributors to a £50,000 fund to enable Cornell University to undertake a five-year research into the causes of chronic alcoholism. In San Diego, the Californian Distilling Company is financing a school for bartenders, at which the main subject is the prevention of hangovers.

Tutors instruct bartenders in methods of encouraging moderate, inteligent drinking, and of dissuading bar clients from getting drunk, Licensed Beverage Industries, Incorporated, central body of the American liquor industry, has encouraged the social scientist, Dr. William Cherin, to conduct a.public relations campaign on methods of dealing with the “problem drinker,” or drunkard. Preventing Excess Through L. 8.1. Newsletter, the weekly organ of Licensed Beverage Industries, Incorporated, which circulates among liquoi’ retailers a'nd bartenders, Dr. Cherin advises the encouragement of moderate drinking to prevent excessive drinking.' ... The organisation also issues pamphlets and posters counselling bartenders on the proper methods of dispensing liquor. One poster—Ten Rules for a successful bartender—reads:— No sale of liquor to minors. No'sales to intoxicated persons. Encourage moderation. Avoid drinking while working.

Abide strictly by the local closing and opening hours. Don’t permit questionable or undesirable persons on your premises. Insist on orderly conduct by patrons. Follow all the rules of cleanliness on the premises. Maintain a neat and clean appearance. Take a pride in your job and your industry. Industry Concerned The liquor industry’s concern with the fight against alcoholism and excessive drinking is purely one of self-interest, Dr. Cherin told' me. “Those who would reimpose prohibition in this country are only too ready to use statistics on alcoholism as propaganda against the liquor industry. “But America’s unfortunate experiment with prohibition K should have proved that you canpot legislate public drinking out of existence. <

“So long as the process of fermentation exists and it always will, people will drink.

“The liquor industry’s view -is that America should pattern the-sale and dispensing of alcohol for 40,000,000 Americans who 'drink moderately and intelligently, and not for the 1,000,000 or less who abuse it. “The liquor industry does not make alcoholics. They would find their escape whether or not liquor was legally available. “Scientists now generally* agree that the solution of the problem drinker is in the man, not in the bottle.” Remove Restrictions - Dr. Cherin said the industry believed that the fewer restrictions on the sale of liquor the more intelligently the public would treat liquor. “We agree with the opinion of the late Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis, that unenforceable or harassing liquor laws tend to make criminals,” Dr. Cherin said. “I know Australian licensing laws with their severe restrictions on the hours of sale of liquor, and I just don’t see how it can work out.

"If people want liquor they’ll get it at any time. “In America the liquor industry is now a major industry and our aim is to make itas respectable as possible and "have it conducted by the best types of citizens. "Some States are now even insistingon educational tests for bartenders.” Dr. Cherin said the distilling companies had contributed more than £275,000,000 to the study of the problem of alcoholism. Some distilling companies were conducting their own private researches into the question.