CHAPTER IV.

ALCOHOLISM. [446]

We understand by alcoholism the social phenomenon which consists of the chronic abuse of alcoholic beverages. [447] Before touching upon the etiology of this phenomenon we must decide the biological question, why does a man consume alcohol? Always and everywhere it has been established that the liking for narcotics is natural to man. Those who believe that human nature is inclined to evil, and that the tendency to excess is innate, find the solution of the problem very simple. They reason as follows: “by alcohol this innate desire is satisfied; man is inclined to excess,—ergo ... alcoholism.” Those who deny the evil nature of man find here on the contrary the crux of the problem. For, say they, the facts are there to prove that man has not always and everywhere been intemperate; there must then be other causes than this so-called sinful instinct.

Alcoholic beverages are consumed first, because they are agreeable to the taste (at least some of them); second, and especially, because aside from the taste they have the power of awaking agreeable sensations. In his work “Der Alkoholismus” Dr. A. Grotjahn expresses himself thus upon this point: “Narcotics act ... not primarily through their agreeable taste, but influence directly the cerebral cortex and awaken pleasurable sensations which are completely independent of the activity of the senses or of pleasure-producing perceptions of the outer world. There is no other means of producing pleasurable sensations independent of the perceptions arising from the outer world, and independent of the functions of the senses. Only in this way is it to be explained that the need for the use of narcotics has attained so wide a dissemination, and struck such deep roots when once mankind had learned their use.” [448]

If alcohol is used regularly, then, to drive away disagreeable sensations, the consumption must necessarily increase if the individual wishes to attain the same psychical condition, for use continually weakens the effect.

Here, as in the case of the etiology of other social phenomena, we must treat the different causes of alcoholism separately, although it often happens that a number combine to make a man alcoholic. We shall begin with the causes which lead to alcoholism among the proletariat, for it is in this class that the abuse of alcohol is most widespread and produces the greatest ravages, first because the quality of the drinks consumed is very bad, and secondly, because alcohol has more harmful effects upon a badly nourished system.

a. There are occupations which, by their nature, lead the workmen who follow them almost inevitably to the abuse of alcohol. Dr. Grotjahn says: “The mental condition suffers when the temperature is too high or too low, more than the capacity for work. The great discomfort while at work may be removed by regulating the things which influence the temperature (clothing, housing, heating, ventilation) or the uncomfortable feelings may be blunted through copious draughts of spirituous beverages. Hence the peculiar custom of taking alcohol against great heat and great cold both, a thing which would be absurd if alcohol worked specifically against the one extreme of temperature or the other, and did not simply moderate the unpleasant sensations produced by abnormal temperatures.” [449]

In the second place come the industries in which much powder or gas are produced. To quote Dr. Grotjahn again: “The dust, which those working in the open air have at times to endure, but which those who work in closed rooms must almost always put up with, brings about, through directly irritating the mucous membrane of the mouth, a highly annoying thirst, which greatly induces the drinking of beer and brandy. We hear it on all sides from workmen who outside of working hours are entirely moderate or even abstemious, that the thirst which is excited by dust is not nearly so well quenched by water or any ‘soft drink’ as by the use of alcoholic beverages. Experience shows that in the callings which are dust-producing there is a marked tendency to beer- and brandy-drinking, and to a quick passage from moderate to immoderate use of alcohol. This is the case with masons, carpenters, cabinet-makers, but especially with grinders and quarry-men. The production of irritating vapors in chemical works has a similar effect, but more intense than that of ordinary dust.” [450]

In the third place there are the industries in which the workmen are brought into direct contact with alcohol. Thus there are, for example, the workmen in distilleries, [451] breweries, alcohol-warehouses, etc.; then wine tasters, those who have to use alcohol in their business, and finally those whose business takes them into establishments where alcoholic drinks are sold, such as commercial travelers, and the tenants of the establishments themselves. [452]

b. The too great length of the working-day. Workers who are forced to work much longer than the human organism can stand are inclined to the abuse of alcohol for two reasons. In the first place they find in it the means of repairing temporarily the diminution of force caused by great fatigue. Since alcohol gives only a temporary increase of capacity, its continued use, and consequently its abuse, is therefore almost inevitable. [453] This is the cause of the great development of alcoholism among longshoremen, who often work for twenty-four hours or even longer at a stretch.

In the second place immoderately prolonged labor produces a veritable torture, which can be assuaged by large quantities of alcohol. Those who have an interest in having the workman toil as long as possible have always tried to prevent the shortening of the working-day by claiming that it would increase the abuse of alcohol. The facts have shown, however, that just the contrary is true. It has been proved that it is not the shortening of the working-day, but its too great extension that is one of the important causes of the abuse of alcohol. So it is not by chance that the retailers of alcoholic beverages are among the most zealous opponents of the shortening of the day. [454]

c. Bad and insufficient nourishment. There are many workers not sufficiently nourished for the support of the body. For the purpose of removing the feeling of discomfort arising from this they make great use of alcoholic drinks. In these cases the nourishment is insufficient both objectively (considered from a physiological point of view) and subjectively (it does not satisfy the individual). Besides these there are those who are able to procure a sufficient quality of food but lack the means to vary the dishes and to replace foods that are bulky and difficult to digest (potatoes, bread, cereals, etc.) by others less bulky but more nutritious (especially meat). The persons who rely upon persuasion in combating alcoholism, fix the attention upon the enormous sums expended for spirituous drinks, and then figure how much bread, how many beds, and other useful things could have been bought with this money. All this is well and good, only in reasoning in this way they make the capital error of representing a workman as a sort of machine who says to himself: “I do not earn enough for the support of my family—let us not buy alcohol, then, for it is harmful but rather eat more potatoes. It is true that the discomfort will persist, but ... I shall at least be nourished as well as possible.” However, since the working-man is, no more than other men, a being who is content to reason, but who feels, the calculations of these Utopists fall to the ground.

Aside from the bad quality and insufficient quantity of the food, very often the working family do not know how to give an agreeable taste to the dishes they eat; and in families where the married woman herself is employed away from home they often have to content themselves with cold viands. In these cases spirituous drinks serve to counteract the discomfort of the monotony and bulkiness of the food. Among a number of proofs which may be brought in support of what has been said above, we may cite the researches made by a Swiss inspector of factories, M. Schuler, upon the relation between alcoholism and the food of the working-classes. [455] In this investigation the following facts appear.

In the cantons of Geneva, Vaud, and Neufchâtel the condition of the people with regard to food is the best; a small consumption of potatoes and a large consumption of meat. Little brandy is drunk there, the use of alcohol being mainly limited to a large consumption of wine. The workmen in the canton of Neufchâtel, except those employed in watch-making, live in poor circumstances, eat many potatoes and also drink much brandy.

In the cantons of Berne and Lucerne the living conditions of the working class, and especially their food, are very bad; they consume much grain and little meat, and in these districts they drink an extraordinary quantity of brandy. In Aargau there is a great difference between the condition of the industrial proletariat and that of the proletariat engaged in agriculture. The food of the former is insufficient, potatoes forming the main resource; furthermore the working day is very long, and the consumption of brandy is correspondingly great. The food of the agricultural laborers, on the other hand, is much better (a greater consumption of meat and of milk) and the consumption of brandy is much less than among the factory hands. In the canton of Zürich the conditions are much the same as those in Aargau.

All this shows clearly that it is the bad material condition of the proletariat which causes alcoholism, for everywhere that the condition of the industrial worker is raised above that of the agricultural population (as, for example, among the skilled workmen at Winterthur), the consumption of brandy is less among the factory people. Just so the material condition of the small rural proprietors in the canton of Zug is worse than that of the factory hands, and the consumption of brandy there is considerable. [456]

d. Bad housing conditions. These conditions often bring it about that the workman, returning from his work, goes to the dram-shop instead of to his home. The dwelling is ordinarily small, too small for a large family, without comfort or attractiveness, gloomy, and often cold in winter, whereas in the dram-shop there is light, warmth, and gaiety; comrades are there, and other topics of conversation than the perpetual cares of life; and, above all, for a little money there may be procured the means of forgetting for the moment the miseries of life. [457]

e. The uncertainty of existence and forced unemployment. The continual difficulties, the anguish of not knowing what the future has in store, produce a depression which may be driven away for the moment by the consumption of alcohol. In the article by Richard Holst already cited, is found the following answer given by a workman to the question: What are the principal causes of alcoholism? “One of the principal factors is the difficulty of earning a living for one’s family, and also—and especially—care, the eternal care for the morrow, which fastens upon the life of the working-man like a bur, and which, as work becomes more rare, drives him to desperation. This is the principal cause of alcoholism. Remove this care and men will drink much less alcohol, for then the heart can open itself to joy instead of deadening itself, as is at present almost a necessity. For many persons this deadening is the only, although the fatal, means of ridding one’s self for a moment of the terrible thought, ‘What will happen if I have the misfortune to be thrown out of work, or fall sick?’” [458]

Unemployment leads often to alcoholism. “Idleness is the mother of all the vices”, says an old adage; but among all the vices, that which arises most directly from idleness is without doubt drunkenness. What can a man do in the long hours when he has no work? The rich man, educated, well brought up, finds the means of passing his time agreeably; but the poor man has only the dram-shop, and is drawn thither irresistibly. The first time he goes for a change from boredom; then from habit, and finally from a necessity now become instinctive to his organism, which at a given moment feels the need of something to stimulate the nerves. It is in alcoholic drinks that he finds what he lacks. [459]

f. Ignorance. The lack of other means of enjoyment. One of the lesser causes of alcoholism, but important enough to be named, is ignorance. There are a great many persons who think that the regular consumption of great quantities of alcohol is not harmful, who even believe that alcohol has nutritive value, and that consequently the consumption of it is even useful. [460]

From another point of view, however, ignorance, the lack of culture, emptiness of life, are very important causes if not the most important causes of alcoholism. The desire for pleasure is innate in every man, including the working-man, whose life is a hard one in every way. But for him there are almost insurmountable difficulties in enjoying all that is truly beautiful, all that nature, art, and science can offer to man. This is due first, and principally, to material difficulties. In our present society one can enjoy these things only with plenty of money. The wages of the working-man are not enough for this. Often he is too tired when the day is over to take up anything which requires effort, and his abode is too small and too badly arranged for reading or any other form of distraction. However, the principal reason why the proletarian enjoys the products of civilization but little is that his intelligence is not prepared for it. His capacities have not been cultivated in this direction, for capitalism has developed in a great number of people only the capacity for manual work to the detriment of everything else. Dr. Augagneur, in his article already cited, has expressed it as follows: “The true cause of alcoholism is entirely of the intellectual and moral order; it is the insufficiency of cerebral activity, the intellectual indigence and distress, the mental unemployment.

“Every individual who, after the business of his calling is completed, is incapable of busying himself with something else, is a fruitful soil for alcoholism. How many, aside from their technical efficiency, are unfitted to think, to comprehend, to explain anything whatever. When the workman, after ten or twelve hours of mechanical work, leaves the factory, he is confused, does not know how to kill the time that must elapse before he goes to bed; he drinks....

“Sundays and holidays ordinary labor is suppressed, the laborer wanders about the streets, objectless, adrift, embarrassed by his liberty, and runs fatally aground upon the dram-shop. The days of rest are days of drunkenness.

“Our society suffers from this intellectual inaction, which is the true cause of alcoholism. Most men, as soon as their trade no longer makes them work their arms and in some cases their brains, know not which way to turn. Alcohol is their refuge, because it procures for the nervous system sensations which take the place of the absent ideas.” [461]

It is for this reason that the abuse of alcohol is greatest among unskilled laborers [462] and that it decreases everywhere that the workmen begin to organize in unions and political parties, since these lead to the amelioration of conditions, material, intellectual, and moral. In other words, drinking diminishes wherever the proletariat is animated by an ideal. And it is also among those workmen who foresee the future of their class and know what there is to do, that the ranks of total abstainers are mainly recruited. [463]

There are persons who maintain the thesis that poverty is not the principal cause of alcoholism among the working classes. As a proof they say that the laborers who earn the least (farm hands among others) are not those who drink the most, and that an increase in wages often brings about a higher consumption of alcohol. They are deceived, however. They lose sight of the fact that most agricultural laborers earn so little that they cannot consume alcohol regularly, that beside the material poverty there is an intellectual poverty, and that a slight amelioration of the one does not produce simultaneously a diminution of the other. The abuse of alcohol has, on the contrary, decreased regularly everywhere that the labor movement has brought about a continuous amelioration of material and intellectual conditions. [464]

To close these remarks upon alcoholism among the workers I will quote the following from Engels in which the causes are concisely set forth: “All possible temptations, all allurements combine to bring the workers to drunkenness. Liquor is almost their only source of pleasure, and all things conspire to make it accessible to them. The working-man comes from his work tired, exhausted, finds his home comfortless, damp, dirty, repulsive; he has urgent need of recreation, he must have something to make work worth his trouble, to make the prospect of the next day endurable. His unnerved, uncomfortable, hypochondriac state of mind and body arising from his unhealthy condition, and especially from indigestion, is aggravated beyond endurance by the general conditions of his life, the uncertainty of his existence, his dependence upon possible accidents and chances, and his inability to do anything towards gaining an assured position. His enfeebled frame, weakened by bad air and bad food, violently demands some external stimulus; his social need can be gratified only in the public-house, he has absolutely no other place where he can meet his friends. How can he be expected to resist temptation? It is morally and physically inevitable that, under such circumstances, a very large number of working-men should fall into intemperance. And apart from the chiefly physical influences which drive the working-man into drunkenness, there is the example of the great mass, the neglected education, the impossibility of protecting the young from temptation, in many cases the direct influence of intemperate parents, who give their own children liquor, the certainty of forgetting for an hour or two the wretchedness and burden of life, and a hundred other circumstances so mighty that the workers can, in truth, hardly be blamed for yielding to such overwhelming pressure. Drunkenness has here ceased to be a vice for which the vicious can be held responsible; it becomes a phenomenon, the necessary, inevitable effect of certain conditions upon an object possessed of no volition in relation to those conditions. They who have degraded the working-man to a mere object have the responsibility to bear.” [465]

As for the causes of alcoholism in the lower proletariat they are the same as for the proletariat (if we except the two first named), only they are much more intense. A very insufficient diet, frightful housing conditions, the demoralization consequent upon inaction, ignorance, and the absolute lack of any intellectual life have made of the man a brute who can forget his misery only by drinking.

The same is true of prostitutes, among whom the abuse of alcohol is very wide spread. Parent-Duchatelet says: “The taste of these women (prostitutes) for strong drink may be considered to be general, although in different degrees; they contract it early, and this taste ends by plunging some into the last state of brutishness. All the information that I have gathered proves that they began drinking only to blunt their sensibilities; gradually they become accustomed to it, and in a little while the habit becomes so strong that it resists any return to virtue;...” [466]

Dr. Bonhoeffer says: “In many cases alcoholism is the result of the manner of life of prostitutes.” [467]

The etiology of the abuse of alcohol in the well-to-do class is principally as follows:

a. A part of the well-to-do class, those who live exclusively upon the income from their invested capital, consider one of their occupations to be the spending of a part of the surplus-value that they receive. Among the means they make use of for this end is alcohol, which has also the faculty of dissipating the ennui resulting from the emptiness of their existence.

“Many persons, belonging for the most part to the well-to-do classes, have no fixed occupation and feel the need of none. These persons do not know what it is to love work for work’s sake. Having all that they need to live upon they imagine that work exists only for those who have to earn their bread, and they themselves are created for ‘dolce far niente.’ Unfortunately the ‘far niente’ is not always sweet! Having nothing to do, these individuals do not know how to use their time; they are bored, they seek distractions and pleasures. Alcohol presents itself to them as procuring the pleasure sought for, but as this enjoyment is only momentary, they are forced to renew it and to prolong it....” [468]

b. Another part of the bourgeoisie is composed of those who pass their lives in the fierce combat of competition, who are bent under the burden of material cares, and whose mind is occupied with a single idea, that of getting money. This is why in these surroundings also they frequently have recourse to alcohol to dissipate their vexations, especially when things go badly.

Having treated of alcoholism among the idle portion of the bourgeoisie, Kautsky says in the study quoted above: “Not all, of course, and perhaps not even the majority, of the moneyed class are idlers. Many work as long and hard as any working-man, even if the work they do is often superfluous. But it is always one-sided nervous work. Muscular exercise among the property-holding class has been constantly pushed ever further into the background since the sixteenth century, and the demands upon the nervous system have correspondingly increased. Besides the continual struggle with the working-class, from whom the surplus-value is taken, there is going on an equally uninterrupted battle of the spoilers among themselves for a share of this surplus-value. All these battles are carried on today by nervous, not muscular, energy, and the contests become constantly more bitter, the crises more tremendous, the battlefields more colossal, the forces involved more incalculable.

“Thus the nerves of the bourgeoisie become wrecked through their activity as well as through their idleness.... If part of the bourgeoisie befuddle themselves out of wantonness, another part grasp for stimulants or for means of benumbing themselves, alcohol, morphine, cocaine, any thing to take away their feeling of sickness, to conquer their pains, to make them forget their cares; and as it is with the proletariat, so is it with the moneyed class, the power of resistance to these agents declines.” [469]

Finally, we must notice some causes of alcoholism which influence the whole population.

a. Imitation. This is reckoned among the important causes. In the first place there are many children (for whom alcohol even in small quantities is extremely harmful) who are accustomed to the use of alcohol as a consequence of the example set by their families. Dr. R. Frölich mentioned the following facts at the 8th International Congress against Alcohol at Vienna: [470]

Out of 81,187 children from 6 to 14 years of age going to school in Vienna, there were:

49.5% who already drank beer and 32.1% who drank beer regularly 82.1% ,, ,, ,, wine ,, 11.2% ,, ,, wine ,, 94.2% ,, ,, ,, brandy ,, 4.1% ,, ,, brandy ,,

But imitation is also important among those who have attained their full development. In the course of time certain circles have taken up the habit of drinking, and any one who frequents these circles must do the same under penalty of being looked down upon. However, I think that the importance that abstainers give to imitation is exaggerated. The number of those who are guilty of the abuse of alcohol from force of example and nothing else is certainly not very great. The other factors which have been at work at the same time to bring about this result are not so obvious. Finally we must not forget that imitation is not an independent factor; what does not exist cannot be imitated, and consequently there must be other causes primarily responsible.

b. The climate. Although so much importance is not attached to climate as formerly, it is nevertheless certain that a cold climate, especially if damp, favors the consumption of alcohol, since this dissipates temporarily the discomfort resulting from cold and humidity. It is for this reason that the inhabitants of the northern countries (for example, England, Denmark, and Holland) consume on the average greater quantities of alcohol than southern countries (like Spain and Italy). However the facts show that the social environment is a much more important factor, and is apt to modify or overcome entirely the influence of climate. In Sweden and Norway, for example, the consumption per capita is smaller than in countries farther south, like Denmark and Holland. The great changes which occur at different times in the same country, where the climate remains a constant factor, are a further proof of the truth of this. And notwithstanding the climate the abuse of alcohol increases greatly in the southern countries in which industrialism becomes more and more prevalent (like northern Italy). [471]

c. Race. There are many persons who attribute much importance in the etiology of alcoholism, as in other social phenomena, to the influence of race. Where two nations differing racially have not the same consumption of alcohol, they think they can explain the difference by race. But in reasoning thus they forget that two nations may present great differences in their manner of life, and that the greater or less consumption of alcohol may be explained better by these than by race (without counting that racial difference in the tendency to alcoholism is still to be accounted for somehow). To cite an example; the peoples of the Germanic race are more intemperate, than the peoples of the Latin race (a fact already explained by the climate, and further accounted for by the cheapness of wine); this difference it is said is to be explained in part by race. And yet the use of brandy in northern Italy increases with increasing industrialism, northern industrial France gives a very high figure for brandy-consumption, and the Belgians of the Latin race do not yield to their Germanic compatriots in the use of alcohol. [472] The proverbial temperance of the Jews is often attributed to their race, while we should ask whether this temperance is not rather to be attributed to their manner of life, which differs from that of other peoples. It is probable that the Jewish industrial workers, for example, who have broken with the habits of their coreligionists, have also become consumers of spirituous beverages. As far as the diamond-cutters of Amsterdam are concerned this fact is at least averred. [473] The tendency which is observed among the Slavic peoples of becoming intoxicated periodically in an extraordinary fashion, is attributed to race, but the same thing is observed in other countries where wages are very low, thus preventing regular drinking, and limiting the consumption of alcohol to paydays. [474]

I believe that the influence of race upon alcoholism is enormously exaggerated, which does not, however, imply that I deny its influence. The slight expansion of the use of alcohol among the Mongolians (among whom, it is to be added, this is replaced by other narcotics, principally by opium) is to be explained in part perhaps, by race.