SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF INEBRIETY

James Ford '05, Ph.D., Professor of Social Ethics, has recently presented his report on Conditions of Inebriety in Massachusetts, acting as expert for a committee of five appointed by Governor Foss last August.

The committee, consisting of M. J. Murray, chairman, Q. H. Neff, W. R. Peabody '95, E. E. Southard '97, and E. O. Childs Jr., '99, was authorized to make thorough investigation of conditions of inebriety and the state's methods of treatment therefor, and to make such recommendations as were needed for making the appropriate legislation.

In the investigation of actual conditions, startling facts were revealed, chief of which have to deal with the cost and size of the problem. Since 1901 the number of arrests for drunkenness has increased by 49,272, or 88 per cent, and the annual average increase has been 4,106 arrests per year; statistics of grave import to the state. Although it is impossible to estimate in dollars the yearly cost of inebriety to the Commonwealth, yet an idea of the expense may be obtained when it is considered that the cost arising from 63.4 per cent of all arrests and 67.6 per cent of all commitments to prison made during the year, together with a considerable percentage of the cost of probation, trial and transportation of prisoners, are due to public intemperance. More important than cash expense is the great economic loss to the state which lies in the idleness of capable men, and in the reduction of efficiency through alcoholism. Turning to the curative methods employed by the state, serious defects were found, among which were the lack of provision for women inebriates, the need of adequate accommodation for men, and the necessity for special hospitals for delirium tremens cases.

As a result of these investigations, the commission, aided by Professor Ford, made ten suggestions for legislation, seven of which are already drawn up as bills. Such remedies as state prohibition and the elimination of private profit from the sale of liquor, were considered as not directly feasible, and the commission's proposals chiefly had to do with the enforcement of existing laws, amendments to existing statutes, and with the training of public opinion by temperance instruction in the schools. In summing up the report, it was submitted that mere imprisonment is an inadequate treatment for inebriety, that it is greatly desirable that habitual drunkenness be no longer considered as a crime, but as a form of disease, and that accordingly the state should adopt an immediate substitution of the hospital for the prison. These suggestions the legislature is considering now and it is probable that great improvement will soon be made in the treatment and prevention of inebriety.