TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3996, 14 October 1930, Page 10

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. 1

GOLFERS DEBATE TOTAL ABSTINENCE. " ’

By Walter W. Van Kirk/

Two men with 18 holes of golf behind i were ?. n their wa V home. They: inn °fi casuall y on . many things. Before long the conversation turned to the question of. drinking. I can t for the life of me see,” said one of them, “why I should be deprived ot my occasional glass of claret or Scotch.' 1 can use the stuff with moderation. If doesn t hurt me, and what I spend for/ it doesn t make my children go barefoot. It looks to me, Bill, as though these temperance people expect one to go too far. " ine other man, known in his community as a dry, shifted his golf bag? an << meditated a moment. ‘ Well Jim,” he replied, “ supposing. " e admit just for the sake of argument that these reformers, as you call them,' have no business asking you to shut off your supply of liquor, let’s ask..ourseives. then ■whether you have any business drinking it even if you can get it. Did you,’ ever wake up the morning after a birr/ bun feeling better than when you went’ out to the party, feeling all peppy for the days work, or did the world seem to have; turned into a dark brown fog trimmed with lead-coloured fuzz? ” Heh, heh! Ask me a hard one,”» countered Jim. “Sure, I know what a hangover is.”

You only know the half of it,” continued his dry friend. “Of course, you seldom drink enough to get that result/ but if you will read what competent' medical investigators have found out, you' will see that even small amounts of alcohol have proportionately the same effect in dulling your faculties and slowing down your work. Alchol in whatever quan--titles simply has a drug-like effect on the whole human organism, and the effect/ moreover, is cumulative.”

“Well, I’ll admit that this poisonous) stuff we are drinking doesn't do a man a lot of good,” came the rather barbed' reply.

“ You wouldn't spend time barracking for liquor that didn’t have kick enough to be intoxicating, would you? ” asked Bill. ' “ No.”

“Well, did you ever stop to think what the word ‘intoxicating’ means? The maiq ingredient in it is the word ‘toxic,’ whiclj means simply ‘poison.’ There was more than humour in the old phrase ‘Pick yer pizen ? ’ ’ “ The State Health Commissioner of Massachusetts said not long ago that the chief poison causing alcoholic fatalities now is just the same one that caused then; before 1920, namely, plain, ‘ pure ’ grain alcohol.”

“ Then I suppose you think 1 am di,g. ging my grave, with cocktail glasses, th?■ , grinned Jim, to which Bill replied: “ I’d like to see your family enjoy your companionship as long as possible, and I recall that the combined experis ence of a large number of life insurance companies, including 2,000,000 policy: holders, showed some time ago that the mortality among moderate drinkers, men who took, say, a glass of whisky a day, was 18 per cent, higher than the average for the group including abstaineis and that mortality among heavier drinkers was 86 per cent, above the average. “ Besides that, I was looking over some figures from the United States Census Bureau the other day and I found that the average annual death rate from alcoholism during the last nine years was 3.03 per 100,000 population as compared to an average of 4.94 during nine years before that date—a decrease of more than 38 per cent.” “ Oh, well,” said Jim. “ nobody but a toper is going to drink enough to get himself counted in those figures, and I have no intention of getting the habit.” ' Neither does one out of a hundred of those who do get the drink habit,” rejoined Bill. “ But that is one of the rk'ks you run every time" you drink. Hundreds of people can tell you either their observation or experience with alcoholic liquor is that it is a habit-forming drug.’’ “ Maybe you are one of those rare persons who can ‘take it or let it alone.’” he continued. “But are you sure your boy is? And what would you do to any young freshman you caught giving your daughter a drink? Yet they have your example for thinking it is all right. Moreover, I happen to know that John, who played with us in that foursome this afternoon has the devil’s own time of it to keep from drinking himself under the table if he once takes a taste of the stuff. He’d like to go around with you more, but he doesn’t dare to. Wouldn’t you just as soon do without some of your drinks to help him keep hold of himself? ”