What Can I do About It?

What can stem the tidal wave of alcoholic indulgence that is sweeping the United States?

By GRACE CLIFFORD HOWARD, Research Secretary, Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston

What can stem the tidal wave of alcoholic indulgence that is sweeping the United States? Not until it strikes close home do we who are abstainers begin to realize how overwhelming it is, or to what ter­rible depths it can plunge a person. Recently I returned to my home town where, as a teacher, I had known the boys and girls for a period of almost twenty years. As I waited for the morning mail to be sorted, I met one of my former pupils and exclaimed in dismay, "Why Dorothy, it surprises me to see you, so young, grown so gray!"

"It wouldn't surprise you," replied the motherless girl, "if you had a young brother to look out for." As she left us, someone who had overheard the conversation ex­plained. Her brother, just out of high school, was spending his time and money on little else than drink.

A young woman with her husband and two small sons drove by. "I hate to think what her aunt would say if she knew how Sally and her husband are drinking," continued my in-f orrnant. "They stopped at our house the other night on their way home, both well under the influence of liquor. I picked up their little three-year-old, and kissed him. The odor of liquor was strong on his breath."

This heedless mother was not only unmind­ful of what drink would do for her and her husband, but she was also unaware that she was making her young son a slave to the alcohol habit.

"Well," I said to my informing friend, "I don't believe your son drinks, -for he said to me only the other day, 'I am twenty years old today, and I haven't been drunk yet.'"

"No," she replied, "I don't think he does. A lot of the boys don't want him along on a party because he won't drink."

All these boys and girls in my old home town who are so carelessly wrecking their health and chances in life for such question­able pleasure, were not so long ago pupils of mine to whom I was teaching the principles of healthful living and good citizenship. Wherein did I fail them? What can I do to help make restitution and to point out to those who have not yet joined them, a better way?

These same questions face every one who works with young people. Pressure of public opinion, probably as much as anything else, determines our acts. At present, public opin­ion appears to favor drinking, but there are many of us who do not favor it. We need to let our voices be heard in no uncertain, but in dignified, tones, thereby drawing to us a nucleus who also believe as we do. Like a snowball rolled along the ground, such move­ments grow, if only someone starts them. If, instead of giving up in utter hopelessness, leaders uphold their belief in the harmfulness of alcohol and the effectiveness of total ab­stinence, there is reason to believe that the tide will turn and that many who now in­dulge will come to their senses.

Ultimately, public opinion cannot help but be awakened if we persistently and untiringly tell our story. The most effective way to tell that story today seems to be through the find­ings of science. Almost every class, both young and old, respects the opinions of scien­tific men. A proved fact stands. It cannot be laughed down, or intelligently overlooked. Science has taught us much regarding the na­ture of alcohol, its effects on the individual, and ultimately its effects' on the race. Both the biological and psychological effects of al­cohol have been portrayed through carefully controlled laboratory experiments.

The social effects of alcohol also afford an interesting story. Learn about these things yourself, and then present them to your young people; for they will listen to such things and have respect for them.

It sometimes helps to know how others have attacked a problem. About a year ago, a young assistant pastor came to our office to talk over plans for enlightening his young people regarding the liquor situation. He was so aglow with his idea that I wrote to him afterward to learn how it had worked out. This is his story.

Functioning as a college seminar group, and treating the members as mature individuals, the young people met every fortnight to make themselves intelligent on the subject of tem­perance. Certain aspects of each problem to be studied were assigned to different members, who brought their findings on the subject to the next meeting. They chose a discussion leader, he said, and "met at my house and sat around a large table, taking notes on the dis­cussion and feeling as important as a circle of physicians called together for an important consultation."

After each session, one person was chosen to draw up a summary of the essential points and conclusions. This was then discussed, approved by the group, and filed for a final report. Copies of the report were sent to the newspapers, to the licensing commission of that city, and were publicized in the church and wherever else opportunity offered itself. 

out against it. Social pressure is probably the leading cause for inaugurating the drink habit among both young people and older people. Added to that, hero worship plays a leading role with young people. What their heroes and heroines of the magazine and movie world are seen doing, they, too, want to emulate. Substitutes that are more worthwhile than drinking must be presented, and life be kept so full of interesting and healthful occupa­tions that the young person will have no desire for drink. This is not an easy task for the leader, but it is one that urgently needs to be carried on.

The minister today has a much broader task than mere preparation of doctrinal sermons. The adequate care of the social needs of his flock brings a rich reward through the satis­faction of seeing his group of young people separated from the undermining influences of the drink habit. The physician, nurse, and medical worker also have a broader task than merely caring for the immediate physical need of the patient. True, fundamental health and temperance education demands the combined earnest, prayerful effort of all.


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By GRACE CLIFFORD HOWARD, Research Secretary, Scientific Temperance Federation, Boston

September 1938

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