[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] the correspondence that has
been taking place recently in your columns regarding State ownership of the liquor traffic and so on, it appears to be assumed by most of the writers that the only evil to be combated is drunkenness, and, if you can eliminate this, the thing is done. But this is not the view of most people engaged in studying or fighting the drink evil. Drunkenness, they would say, is an exceptional exaggeration of what they oppose, which is, first, an incredibly large expenditure on a form of luxury that does nobody good, and, second, the taking of a drug which even in small quantities impairs mental vigour, takes the fine edge off sensibility—a most important factor in motor accidents—and dulls, if only slightly, the power of moral decision. To speak as if drunkenness was the main consideration is an irrelevance.—I am, Sir, &c., Shottery, Killiney, Co. Dublin. J. SINCLAIR STEVENSON.
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