DECLINE OF DRINKING IN AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 127, 15 February 1918, Page 5

DECLINE OF DRINKING IN AMERICA

fr— A MATTER OF PERSONAL COMMON SENSE. There are many arguments both for and against tho taking of strong drink as stimulant, . beverage, or medicine, writes the New York "Sun," but, taken all in all, the Prohibition party, which came into being in 1869, has had little to do with bringing home a decision to the American people. The average man ■ has been seeking his own light on the subject. He has read what the authorities on health havo written or_ proclaimed; ho has consulted his physician or studied his own constitution rather than meditated on amending the national constitution. The temperance orator of the last generation was all very well in .his way, but he would have little weight with the men of the present generation. There has been a decline in the drinking habits of men for several _ generations due to a social eauso which it would be hard indeed to analyso in the compass of a brief article, One of the big elements in the passing of tho crooking of tho elbow except on high social occasions is that tho large railroad companies, the industrial corporations and the hirers of men on a ■ large scale do not want men' who drink . intoxicants. They watch men who do, and if tho moderate drinkers make any clip those moderate drinkers even are ( likely to feel beneath them tho vibration jof tho skids. i The man who presents himself at his 1 place of employment with a wild tang | on his breath or even carries the overj hang of potations of the night before soon gets the blue envelope. The lifo insurance companies, with their continuous dinning on the drinking habits of the raco, havo'perhaps had mode to do with the decline of drinking as a recreation, amusement or fine art than have all the political propagandists of the cause of prohibition who ever drow their rumloss breath. For many years tho Germans have been regarded in our minds as a nation which was committed to the brewery as an institution. And yet Teutonic experimentation and research have shown that while beer may answer tho convivial purpose well enough, it causes men to make mistakes, to drop marksmanship records and to lose the clean-cutting edtro of efficiency. Once lot the avorage American get tho thought into his mind that his efficiency is being lowered bv strong drink the days of the liquor traffic are likely to bo few and full of trouble. Tho art of cocktail mixing, which was once so greatly in tho public eye, is in Its decadence. There are Bardolphs even .in these ,days who compound cocktails : without bitters, or tinge of lemon peel, and brutally nejlcct all tho amenities nf polite drinking, simply because the publio is growing less critical and less observing in its alcoholic leanings. Rmlawntct, candy, chewing-gum, all manner of substitutes, had been coming , in for Ihe last decade, any one of which, for all wo know, might bo a moro potent foe of the liquor traffic than all the campaigns for prohibition by politics ever planned in La Salle Street. Tlio foes of tho saloon are sanguine that they can prevail in stopping the jnaking and sale of intoxicants. All tho Upholders of tho spirits, wine, and beer industries declare that despite the fact that legislation against alcoholic beverages exists in so many States, the greater part of tho population of the. country, that is, those in tho most densely peopled States, is really opposed to national sumptuary legislation. Tt mav Jako several years to determine all theso points. A speedy termination of the war might alter the wholo outlook.