This is only one of many reflections which must occur to the inquiring mind occupying itself with this problem. We have made innumerable laws dealing with, and fondly supposed to control, the sale of alcoholic beverages, but as a matter of fact only one sort of law has ever been devised which possibly could control it, and that law provides for absolute prohibition.
THE NEED OF AN ORGANIZED EFFORT TO HELP THE ALCOHOLIC
If the world wishes to be relieved in any measure from the human waste attributable to alcohol, the time must speedily arrive when municipalities will recognize it as their duty to provide definite medical help for every man who wishes to be freed from the craving for alcohol, and who cannot afford to pay for treatment. It must be recognized that it is society's duty to hold out this helping hand to every man who has a job and is in danger of losing it through the trap which society itself has set for his feet by authorizing, and thereby encouraging, the sale of alcoholic intoxicants.
Notwithstanding the presence in our social fabric of innumerable charitable bodies, churches, religious societies, and other groups of people who mean well and work hard to aid the unfortunates, it is a fact that nowhere in the United States or, as far as I know, anywhere else is there a single organization which is effectually working along definite and intelligent lines for the preservation of the endangered man who is still curable.
No mother, wife, employer, or magistrate can effectively reason with a man whose brain is befogged by alcohol, for that man cannot reason with himself. Tears, threats of imprisonment, and loss of position do not have upon him their normal reaction. He is a sick man whose mental and physical condition is abnormal; it must be made normal before anything real can be done toward his assistance.
There is but one way out of the sad muddle in which alcohol has plunged certain branches of our judiciary. In every city must be established emergency hospital wards to which committing magistrates may send persons with excessive alcoholic or drug histories. Treatment in these emergency wards will be neither difficult nor costly.
Once this has been done, the patient may be returned to court, where his clarified brain will greatly assist the magistrate in deciding upon the proper course for his assistance and the protection of society.