CONFESSIONS OF ALCOHOL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1943, Page 3

CONFESSIONS OF ALCOHOL

I am as old as history. I am mightier than kings and conquerors. I have driven powerful rulers irom their thrones and overturned many dynasties through the centuries. I can render the strongest armies impotent. . I kill more men than all the wars ever waged. In times of national crisis I have occupied millions of tons of shipping space which might have been filled with food for the hungry. I have destroyed vast stores of wheat and barley, and I have ruined priceless stores of sugar which the people urgently needed. I have rotted the foundations of national life. I have caused more social degeneracy than any other agency. I make always for wastefulness and inefficiency. I have weakened the manhood of the race. I blast careers rich in promise of usefulness. I am the parent of untold poverty. I breed innumerable diseases. I spread misery wherever I go. I have blasted more homes than all the plagues of history. I have robbed more children of their birthright than all the thieves ever born. I undermine health, shorten life and deliver death and destruction. Nevertheless, I am revered by many Governments for the revenue I yield them, notwithstanding the fact that I consume more wealth than has been spent in building all the homes, railroads, steamships, schools, colleges and the churches of every nation. I am the costliest inhabitant of every country. I demand the expenditure of unreckonable millions for prisons and policecourts, for hospitals, doctors and nurses, for insane asylums, almshouses and orphanages. I pass the cost of all my wreckage on to the benevolent societies and the churches. I unload my liabilities on to the unsuspecting taxpayers. I am the arch-deceiver of all the ages.—Advt.