Chapter 6

WHY BEER IS NOT A FIT DRINK FOR THE HOME

The alcoholic content of beer has been about four per cent. The alcoholic content of the quality of whiskey generally sold over the bar is about forty per cent--and frequently much less. It can therefore be readily seen that the quantity of alcohol contained in a large glass of beer, even with the recent slightly reduced alcoholic content, is equivalent to about that contained in an ordinary drink of whiskey, which is sufficient to intoxicate any person not accustomed to its use.

It is nothing unusual, even in the case of confirmed drinkers, to feel at times the intoxicating effect of a single glass of beer, especially when taken upon an empty stomach or when the system may not just be in proper condition.

Brewers are recommending beer to expectant and nursing mothers and as a fit drink for the home. But, on the other hand, they prefer to employ men who have not acquired the beer drinking habit.

The most valuable men advocating the "wet" cause fight shy of beer. They know what it is made of. Many saloonkeepers never touch it, nor will they employ bartenders unless they are total abstainers.

"_If the saloons and other public drinking places were ousted, but the breweries permitted to operate, drunkenness, crime and vice would invade the home_"