Chapter 7

BEER IS NOT A TEMPERANCE DRINK

It can not be denied that people drink beer for its alcoholic effect--and that most of the intoxication is caused by beer.

Brewers claim that beer is a "true temperance drink," but they are careful to add--if taken in moderate quantities.

If beer were ever consumed in moderate quantities it would result in a fifty per cent reduction of the beer output of the country. It would force most of the brewers out of business--and I doubt if any saloon could earn enough money to pay the rent of the place. For that reason brewers can not afford to encourage the enactment of laws abolishing "treating," despite their public statements that they are in favor of its suppression.

In discussing the question with an acquaintance whom I know to be a very moderate drinker of beer only, he advanced the much heard argument that a glass of beer will harm no one. He said that he occasionally dropped into a saloon to take a glass of beer. When I asked him if, when he had gone into a saloon he had ever run across some friends and, to be a good fellow, he had been obliged to take a number of glasses, he replied "yes"--and that they had made him drunk.

"_Brewers can not afford to abolish 'treating'_"