Wednesday’s ad is still another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. The ad shows Uncle Sam (who first appeared today in 1813) peering out on a sunlit landscape, with a road spreading out before him. He’s stop, holding his hat behind his back, deep in thought trying to decide which of three roads to take just up ahead. What are his choices? “It is not blindly that we of today must choose our path. Many men before us have travelled each of the three roads … the dead-end road to excess, the harsh road of intolerance, the straight road ahead which is the way of moderation and sobriety.” I vote for the way of mod sob. But I also love the text from the inset box:

“Beer is one of the oldest and best of beverages; its use is widespread in every land; it is within the reach of every purse … The growth of its use in this country is bound to make for general temperance; for there is nothing more promising to combat the evil of too much alcohol than the opportunity of drinking good beer.”