TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 20987, 29 December 1931, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

[Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.] Intoxicating liquor is and always has been one of the greatest curses of mankind. Never has there been a victory achieved by it or a compromise with it that has not been followed and paid ? for by increased agony, broken hearts, grief and tears, vice and corruption, wrecks of human lives, misery and suffering of women and children, the ruin of reputations, the blasting of opportunities, and the crushing of both the simplest and most cherished hopes of mankind.

“ HELP SAVE LIFE AND LIMB.”

Across the top of an advertising page in the Evanston (Ilinois) ‘ News-In-dex ’ stands the above heading, in very heavy type, with the warning words below : ‘ ‘ Automobiles and Intoxicating Liquors Bo Not Mix,’ and a second warning across the bottom of the page: “Play Safe! Be Careful!” The entire page, which is signed by Harry H. Porter, police magistrate, a member of Evanston’s Safety Council, is devoted to the caution thus outlined. The following thought-arresting statement in largo typo occupies the centre of the page.: “ When a drunken man is turned loose with a gun, a dangerous set of circumstances is created. Someone may be killed or someone may be wounded, and yet the drunken man’s aim will probably be so unsteady that no one will be hurt. “ But turn a drunken man loose in an automobile, and you have created a situation infinitely more dangerous. The automobile in the hands of _ an intoxicated driver is the most serious menace on tho public street. Large in bulk and capable of high speeds, of ponderous weight, and, under present traffic conditions, difficult to manage, even in tho hands of a sober and experienced driver, this_ instrumentality is almost certain to bring about calamity when operated by a person under the influence of intoxicating liquor. “ Fortunately Evanston is not afflicted with a large number of drivers of this type, but wo must remember that residents of other cities also .operate automobiles over out streets and thoroughfares. “ Since tho adoption of a most summary and drastic method of handling this typo of case there has been a marked decrease in the number of these offences. Eternal vigilance is necessary, not only on the part of the Police Department, but also on the part of each and every citizen, to see that violators of this type are brought to justice. “ llemomber that witnesses are necessary to tho trial of criminal cases, and that for the protection of yourself and those dear to you a duty is owed to the commonwealth, a duty both moral, legal, and patriotic, to assist the authorities in stamping out this scourge of little children and adults as well—the intoxicated driver. Co-operation should be cheerful and enthusiastic, because no job is well done which is not enthusiastically accomplished. “ Lend full assistance and co-opera-tion to your Bureau of Accident Prevention.”

This call to citizens for co-operation and law observance should bring results. While it may bo more needed, perhaps in tho summer than in the winter, it is always most appropriate. Other city safety councils would do well to sound some similar warning and caution to members of their communities for, “ we cannot drive automobiles in the manner in which we drove them in 1913; there are three times the number of them on the streets to-day.” CREATING A HABIT. The drink trade of Great Britain is accused, in an article to be found in ‘ Oh Active Service,’ of creating and stimulating the demand for alcoholic liquor with a definite view to creation of the _ alcohol habit in the younger generation. The letter quotes the ‘ Brewers’ Guardian ’ of June, 1928, as saying: “We must have sufficient faith to keep on advertising. . . . A continual and ever-ceasing pressure and persuasion is essential, not only to preserve old and regular customers but to capture the younger generation growing up.” The cold-blooded policy of tho brewers in Great Britain is still more clearly indicated in the statement of the ‘ Browers’ Journal ’ of August, 1928; “In the case ' of the brewery, the retention of its pre-war number of customers, under the lessened purchasing power, could not maintain output. . . . Thus it was decided that any collective advertising should be devised to attract and maintain a constant supply of new drinks of beer. “ The combining of resources would make huge appropriations available, so that a campaign of sufficient magnitude to influence public opinion and educate the coming generation in the merits of the brewery product could bo effectively taken.”