548 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



When the drinking man begins to go to excess he harms 

 his family in two ways. First, the money that should be 

 spent to support his family is thrown away for drink. As 

 a result the family suffers for lack of food, clothing, and 

 shelter. Second, frequently while under the influence of 

 liquor, the father abuses his children, causing physical harm 

 and pain. In some cases, a father who is ordinarily kind 

 to his family becomes a brute under the influence of liquor. 

 To be sure, these cases of extreme neglect form only a small 

 per cent of those who drink, but nevertheless the entire 

 total for the whole country is appalling. 



As a result of the excessive use of alcohol, the father may 

 lose his power to earn a living and be discharged from his 

 job. Then the mother is forced to work to support her 

 children, and hence the home will be neglected, and the 

 children deprived of the benefits of a happy home that right- 

 fully belong to them. 



In some cases, children are even deliberately deserted. 

 An investigation of deserted children made by the Com- 

 mittee of Fifty showed that nearly 45 per cent of the chil- 

 dren owed their destitution to the intemperance of parents. 



In an investigation made in Boston of the cases of three 

 hundred and fifty-two able-bodied men who failed to sup- 

 port their families, it was found that 70 per cent of them 

 were drunkards. 



A former Commissioner of Labor says : "I have looked 

 into a thousand homes of the working people of Europe; 

 I do not know how many in this country. In every case 

 as far as my observation goes, drunkenness was at the 

 bottom of the misery." 



There is spent annually in this country for alcoholic 

 liquors about $2,000,000,000, an amount equal to our first 

 liberty loan, or five times as much as is spent on our 

 whole educational system. How different would be the 

 condition of drinkers' families if this amount were spent for 



