ALCOHOLISM AND SOCIAL VICE.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 286, 19 April 1919, Page 2

ALCOHOLISM AND SOCIAL VICE.

iai measures to diminish sexual temptation divide themselves into two sort of activities: (i) Repression of prostitution and of the liquor traffic; (j) promotion of proper social surroundings, and of opportunities for ncication and diversion.

However unjust it may scent to

some, the repression of prostitution, and of the liquor traffic are logically classed together. The liquor traffic in numerous ways is the fosterer of prostitution. And the effect of the alcohol traffic is a factor that cannot be overlooked in the diffusion of venereal diseases, because of the inhibition it produces in the restraining influences that under ordinary conditions prevent man’s giving way to his impulses. It has been recognised by the army that keeping liquor away from the soldiers is of fundamental importance in the progress of the attack on venereal diseases. It is not necessary to go into the measures which the Government has enacted to keep alcoholic liquors from soldiers. It inav he said, however, that these measures are being enforced and that tin* amount of alcohol consumed by the present army of the United States is negligible. There is an occasional bootlegger, and a small amount of liquor gi t* to the soldier in devious way, but it is in the total inappreciable. For all practical purposes the I’nited States Army at the present time is a body of total abstainers. I his fact i* undoubtedly a very great factor in keeping down in the Army the incidence of venereal diseases. I he above extract is from an article appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, September 2.X, iq 18.