IT is unnecessary to say anything about the evil effects of the use of
alcoholic drinks, whether it be from the physical, moral, or economic
point of view. The recent agitation in favor of the prohibition of the
manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in Porto Rico, however, has
caused more discussion regarding the situation here than has ever before
been the case, and a brief statement of facts may not be unwarranted.
The Porto Ricans are not given to the overconsumption of alcoholic
drinks. They are not heavy drinkers, and drunkenness is not at all
common. Probably every village has its unfortunate inhabitants, few in
number, who live usually under the influence of intoxicants. But the
great majority of the people are not given to the excessive use of
alcohol. The use of wines is common, a custom characteristic of most
Latin peoples.
Porto Rico produces a great deal of alcohol, it being one of the
by-products of the sugar cane. Data are not available to show just how
much of the rum and alcohol produced is used in the Island, and how much
is exported, or how much is used for drinking purposes and how much for
commercial uses. During the fiscal year 1915-16, a total revenue of
$1,111,834.30 was paid to the Insular government on alcoholic liquors
manufactured in Porto Rico or imported into the Island. This gives a
per capita revenue of nearly one dollar, and this revenue was paid on
3,886,705 liters of alcoholic liquors either manufactured here or
imported--a per capita allowance of more than three liters for every
inhabitant of the Island. It is probably true that a great deal of the
alcohol manufactured in Porto Rico was exported, but even granting that
one half was not used here, the amount of one and a half liters for
every inhabitant is excessive.
The average grocery store carries a complete line of bottled drinks, and
often beer in the keg, as well. This is one of the first things which
impresses the visitor from the States when he enters a grocery store and
sees the shelves packed with all kinds of bottles. There is a constant
sale for goods of this sort, usually to the workingmen and poorer class
of people, who purchase in small quantities, a drink at a time, for
three or five cents; many of them, no doubt, attempting to keep up their
physical strength by the use of such a stimulant, since a more
noticeable stimulating effect is produced by five cents' worth of rum
than could be obtained through the consumption of five cents' worth of
food. When this custom becomes as prevalent as it is in Porto Rico, it
involves serious evil effects.
There are few drug users in the Island, and the strict enforcement of
the Harrison Drug Law will prevent drug using from becoming the menace
to health and morals to the extent that we find to be the case in many
of the cities of the United States. There is, however, a large quantity
of patent medicines used, many of which have a sufficient amount of
alcohol or narcotic drug element to render them dangerous from the point
of view of habit formation.
Many of the poorer people do not have the money to pay the fees of a
doctor and to purchase at a drug store the medicine which he prescribes.
Moreover, many medical men do not listen with as much patience as they
might, to the detailed list of complaints which the countryman has to
offer. As a consequence, the countryman buys a bottle of medicine which
has been recommended to him by a friend, or perhaps by the druggist, who
often serves as a consulting physician in the smaller towns. If the
medicine makes him feel better, he becomes a firm believer in its power
to cure. Whether the result produced is actually a bettering of his
physical condition, or merely a deadening of the nerves by means of a
narcotic, he does not stop to ask. He recommends the medicine to his
friends as a sure remedy for all their illnesses, and probably makes of
it a household remedy, to be used by all members of the family when they
feel indisposed. The author has known of many instances in which
medicine has been purchased from patent medicine firms in the States,
because of advertisements in the newspapers, and of several cases, where
the money was returned by federal authorities with the statement that
the company addressed had been closed by the post office authorities
because it was found that their claims were not legitimate and that
their medicines were valueless. The average Porto Rican places a great
deal of confidence in what he reads in the newspapers, and the papers
are not as careful as they should be regarding the question of admitting
advertising matter.
There is no great amount of public opinion against the use of alcohol in
Porto Rico, and until, through the schools, the press, or some other
agency, the people as a whole can be brought to see the disadvantage of
its use, there can be but little accomplished in the direction of
temperance and prohibition. The prohibition movement in the United
States is not a matter of the moment alone, it is a movement which has
been growing for years, and at the present time seems to have the
majority of the population behind it. This is not the case in Porto
Rico, and it is doubtful whether an abrupt change, unless backed up by
strong public opinion, and the authority of the great majority of the
people, would accomplish much in the way of betterment of conditions.