Saturday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 70 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “70,” is another interesting one that tackles the prohibitionists’ argument that all alcohol consumption is bad, while the truth is that its excessive drinking that can cause problems, and in fact it’s the position of at least one research doctor that excesses in food, and even water, can be “harmful.” His position is that “Excess of any kind is the is the direct opposite of temperance.” The ad goes on to look at how Europe reacted during World War I, and how the nations at war sent alcohol to the troops fighting. Why? “The beverages are not given as medicine, but as nourishment.”
