388 Our Surroundings 



It should be kept in mind that some so-called patent medicines 

 contain a small per cent of a habit-forming drug. Remedies 

 advertised to cure catarrh and other diseases often depend for their 

 effect upon the presence of an opiate that may, if taken regularly, 

 lead to the formation of a drug habit. 



The Pure Food and Drugs Act, which was passed by the 

 Fifty-ninth Congress of the United States in 1906, requires 

 that every manufacturer of food or medicine label his products, 

 stating the exact percentage of each ingredient. All manufacturers 

 of patent medicines must conform to this law. Therefore no 

 dangerous drug need be used without the user's knowledge. 

 Always be sure what you are taking. 



Alcohol. Alcohol in all its forms is not merely a stimulant, 

 but it belongs to the class of narcotics as well, for when taken 

 into the body in large amounts it produces insensibility; and it 

 is coming to be quite generally recognized that, even in small 

 amounts, it tends to dull the senses and thus greatly diminishes 

 efficiency. 



The Relation of Alcohol to Business. More and more, 

 employers of labor are coming to recognize that men who use 

 alcoholic drinks are not as reliable and in the end do not accom- 

 plish as much work as those who abstain from these drinks. There 

 are many illustrations that prove this statement. 



One of the rules of the New York Central and Hudson River 

 Railroad forbids the use of alcoholic drink in the following words : 

 "The use of intoxicating drink on the road or about the premises 

 of the corporation is strictly forbidden. No one will be employed 

 or continued in employment who is known to be in the habit of 

 drinking intoxicating liquor." 



The president of the Gulf States Steel Company writes: 

 "Our record with the accident insurance companies is so extremely 

 good that it has been frequently commented upon, and our staff is 

 disposed to regard the low accident rate as measurably due to our 

 freedom from drunken and tipsy workmen. 



"Looking at the matter from an entirely different angle, I may 

 say that I am also vice-president of the Bessemer Coal, Iron and 

 Land Company. Prohibition was voted in this county (Birming- 



