The lesson conveyed by these figures is irresistible and as such is accepted by all impartial students of the drink question. Prof. Henry W. Farnam says, in his preface to “Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem,” published under the auspices of the Committee of Fifty:
“Since 1840 there has been a steady substitution of malt liquors for distilled liquors in the consumption of the people. While there has been an increase in the total quantity consumed, the substitution of light drinks for strong drinks has brought about a diminution in the amount of alcohol consumed per capita. Moreover, though the per capita consumption of malt liquors has been nearly stationary since 1890, the consumption of distilled liquors has fallen by nearly one-third in that time. How far modern methods of production have influenced this change, how far it is due to German immigration or other causes, cannot be stated with certainty. The fact remains that our progress has been in the direction of moderation.”
Although the statement that the per capita consumption of beer has been nearly stationary since 1890 is no longer correct, we have nevertheless quoted these words because they reflect the views of unbiased students as to the rôle of beer.
A comparison between the consumption of beer and spirits shows at a glance that, as a nation, we have progressed in the direction of true temperance at a rate and to an extent unequaled in history. Instead of being at the head of the list of hard-drinking nations—as we undoubtedly were fifty years ago—we now rank foremost among temperate peoples. By a singular coincidence, our Department of Commerce and Labor lately published comparative liquor statistics almost simultaneously with several official and private publications of foreign origin, dealing with the same question. In all these documents one important fact stands out in bold relief, and that is, as the Department of Commerce and Labor expresses it, that “this country is well-nigh at the end of the list of spirit-drinking countries.” We may be permitted to quote the official table:
| Countries | Spirits Gallons | Beer Gallons | Wine Gallons |
| United Kingdom | 1.38 | 35.42 | 0.39 |
| France | 2.51 | 7.48 | 34.73 |
| Germany | 2.11 | 30.77 | 1.93 |
| Italy | .34 | .20 | 31.86 |
| Russia | 1.29 | 1.13 | |
| Belgium | 1.42 | 56.59 | 1.28 |
| Sweden | 2.13 | 8.83 | .18 |
| United States (1903) | 1.33 | 18.04 | .48 |
Leaving out Italy, our country should really stand at the very foot of the list, for the Russian figures, notoriously incorrect, are not ordinarily accepted at their face value. In fact, this is the only official publication in which they appear without some explanatory note casting doubt upon their correctness. The true significance of this official table, so far as our country is concerned, will only be fully appreciated, if it be borne in mind that the per capita consumption of beer in Bavaria, where distilled liquors are rarely used, amounts to about fifty-nine gallons and that alcoholism is practically unknown in that kingdom.
Commenting on the marvelously increased consumption of beer in this country and the coincident falling off in the quantity of spirituous liquors consumed, the New York “Sun” in a striking editorial (August 22, 1905) reaches the conclusion that “BEER DRIVES OUT HARD DRINK.” The “Sun” also notes the fact that public drunkenness is comparatively rare in all the cities of America to-day, among all classes of society.
Mr. James Dalrymple, Glasgow’s commissioner of municipal railways who was recently in this country, was constantly struck by the same fact as contrasted with conditions abroad. Drunken workingmen are rarely seen in any American community.
Yet the time is not so far back when a different state of affairs prevailed in this country. Hardly a generation since, whiskey was the common drink and drunkenness the national vice. The change has come through the substitution of malt liquors for ardent stimulants. As the “Sun” says, beer drives out hard drink. Moderation and temperance are supplanting excess in the use of liquors. The American people owe their sobriety to the brewing industry.