Does This Favor Alcoholism?
By M. C. W.
IT is stated that one hundred thousand to one hundred forty thousand die annually from the use of alcohol. This is denied on the basis of the death record. We wish to note this fact for the benefit of the reader, and we are sure he or she will see its reasonableness: It is almost an invariable thing that a death from alcoholism is never so recorded, unless the victim dies of delirium tremens, where the case is so clearly evident that there is no evading it. But even in these cases, a different cause is sometimes given. The reason for this is that no relative of a deceased person wishes it to go on record that he died of alcoholism. Possibly some other term is substituted for that. But when we take into consideration the inciting and contributing causes of death, it is almost impossible to estimate the vast number who die from alcohol. Many succumb who would not if the system had not been weakened by alcohol. It is safe to say that in this way one hundred thousand, and perhaps many more, die every year in the United States as the direct result of liquor drinking.