Page 10 Advertisements Column 4

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 257, 30 October 1925, Page 10

THE FAROE OF IT. ■;. The Making of Drunkard*. (By SIR PERCIVAL PHILLIPS, K.8.E., in the "Daily Mail," London, August 12, 1925). BUFFALO (New York State), August 5. Prohibition is creating a new type of drunkard in the United States. In the old days of open publichouses no young woman or young man of decent upbringing would have even thought of drinking whisky at a dance or other social function. To-day they slip easily into alcoholism as a kind of sporting adventure. The mere fact tha*. a pocket flask is now illegal invests the sordid business of tippling with romantic excitement. Girls in their 'teens encourage this false conception of courage. The young man who goes to a dance or a dinner without his well-filled flask is voted dull, if not a. coward. Sitting-out time is drinking time. The girl who hesitates to drink is considered "slow." It is as much the fashion among the go-ahead "up-to-date" members of the rising generation to consume whisky between dances as it is to use a lip-stick and to wear rolled stockings in hot weather. The farce of Prohibition is apparent to any stranger who keeps his eyes open. The law is mocked at even by many of its official supporters. More Secret Drinking. Not only are new drunkards being made in the rising generation; they can bo found among the older men -who once upon a time drank moderately. There is a tendency to slip down to the club in the middle of the afternoon for a "snifter" or two. There they meet a pal on the same errand, and the bottles pass and re-pass. Lunch is laid upon a solid foundation of alcohol—often bad alcohol. In these days of artistic forgery even the labels on a bottle may be spurious. There is more secret drinking in the honie. Victims of delirium tremens pass quietly into private institutions, their malady frequently camouflaged by a ! friendly physician. The flood of bad liquor let loose since ! the United States went dry is responsible for many deaths from poisoning. Blindness, paralysis, and insanity are some of the effects of "bootleg" indulgence. J All grades of society are permeated by this iniquitous system. I attended a dance at which a young and pretty girl staggered arid fell help" J less to the floor. I thought she had I fainted. She was merely drunk. "' I The supporters of Prohibition tell you , that when this generation is dead, the taste for alcohol will be dead too-'that the young folk will grow to maturity free from the curse of whisky. They I are wrong. Drunkards are bein°- made earlier—that is all. The way to avoid the evils of Prohibition coming to N.Z. is to vote for .Continuance by striking out the two j bottom lines.—(Ad.) i