accustomed to his beer or whiskey is restless and depressed if he cannot
get it, and will sacrifice much to still for the nonce that insatiable
longing. The other and even more important fact is, that the sale of
liquor is immensely profitable to the manufacturers and sellers. The
fighters for prohibition have to encounter the desperate opposition
of those who have become slaves to the drug-many of whom may never
get intoxicated, and would resent the term "slaves," but who have formed
the abnormal habit and cannot without discomfort get rid of it. They
have to meet the still fiercer hostility of those who are making money
from the sale of liquor and do not intend to let go their opportunity.
What are the evils that result from alcoholic liquors?

The one real value of alcohol, we have said, lies in its temporary
mental effects. It raises the hedonic tone of consciousness; it brings
about, when taken in proper amounts, the well-known happy-go-lucky,
scruple-free, expansive state of mind. What now is the price that must
be paid for its use?

(1) The physical harmfulness of even light drinking is considerable.

(a) Alcohol, even in slight doses, as in a glass of wine or beer, has
poisonous effects upon some of the bodily functions, which are clearly
revealed by scientific experiment. [Footnote: See, for one testimony
out of very many in medical literature, an article by Dr. Herbert
McIntosh in the Journal of Advanced Therapeutics for April, 1912, p.
167: "Alcohol and ether are the two great enemies of the
electrochemical properties of the salts necessary to organic life."
He speaks of "paralysis of the vaso-constrictor nerves," "inhibition
of the cortical centers," etc.] Hence the temporary cheer must be paid
for with usury by a much longer depression, resulting from the poisonous