OCR Text |
Show FRANCE'S DRY LAWS. France is to try a form of prohibition which has not been without its advocates advo-cates in this country. The premier has announced that, in addition to absinthe, which already is under the ban, the sale of whiskies, brandies and liqueurs will be prohibited. Wines and beers are exempted and will .be sold as usual. Tli is is a form of prohibition which might work well in a wine-producing state like California, but a visitor to California cannot help but notice that at the bars the California ns do not drink their own beverages. Whisky and beer, in California as elsewhere in the United States, are the favorite drinks at hotel bars and in the saloons. The advocates of a prohibitory system sys-tem which should exempt wines and beers never obtained much of a hearing in this country. The reason is veiled in obscurity. It is to be noted, however, that in the northern countries liquors with a strong alcoholic content have been the most popular. We derive our drinking propensities and customs from Kngland, Ireland and Scotland and, of late years, from Germany and other Europeau countries. Custom has much to do with fashions in drinking, though, perhaps, physical conditions also have their influence. The fi;ht for prohibition in this country has raged around the stronger drinks. Each side has taken the extreme ex-treme position. There has been little thought of such a compromise as the French have adopted. The slogan of the dries in this country has been ' " down with demon rum. ' ' Rum has become practically obsolete as a beverage, but whisky has taken its place. The drinking of absinthe in France approximated rather to the drug habit in this country than to the drink habit. Its injurious effects were so appalling that the victims were more like the opium smoker and the ' ' hypo fiend" than like the hard drinkers of our own country. When it has comu to a question of prohibiting or limiting the sale of opium and similar drugs in tills country, there has been r.o talk of infringing rpon personal freedom. Such talk would be grotesquely absurd. And why? No sane person contends that a u:er of opium can be temperate in the S:se. The druc is too dangerous. It is habit-forming. The will power, after a while, cannot struggle against it wita much hope of .triumph In;;. Put when neon piead for the use of b e v c r a c s on t h -1 g r o u p. d of perioral per-ioral fvodem. it is due to the fact tl.-;t prs'iral freedom can actually be excreted, that a cer-jisin cer-jisin prp or:;."u o: the human ra-e : idcutly come 'o tie h-ii'-f that whis-.- bra iidi.-s and li-p:e..rs are of su- U a aa'are tJ.at t h maiorifv of men cau-i-.ot be t r i ,i t . - f to use them wis-iv. Tin the bee.-au'es are r-b jatei t-he t-he cias- .if ah-in!!;e and opi'jrn. For the r re-en', at anv ra'e. the l;o eminent hold- that u.o nien -a:i drink wine-aad wine-aad be-Ts and yet be tempi-rat'-. A n iiiTert-.-i jug story is tol 1 of the German soldier- who invaded the i-hain-p.iL'no district of France It is said that mn.-t of th soldiers who went into the c ha m pagne i-t rb-t beca me debauched upon champagne, and so conducted thein-selve- as to brir.g on defr-at at the battle of the Marne. Had they invaded a brewery district they miiiht have won, for they have been accustomed for many years to use beer in mode rat ion. In parentheses, it may be said that champagne cham-pagne is a wild surprise to ail who use it for the first time. Some say it can be lamed by patient effort. Franco, we take it, is exempting all wines, even champagne, from the prohibitory pro-hibitory decree. In this country no prohibitory law could be adopted whiih would exempt the stronger wines. Possibly Pos-sibly a law permitting the s-aie of light wines and beers might find favor in some states, but the tendency of Americana Ameri-cana is to put all alcoholic beverages in the same class to permit all of them or to prohibit all of them without favoritism. |