TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 108, 8 May 1909, Page 12

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[The matter for this column is supplied by a representative of the local temperance bodies, who alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in it.l PRESIDENT ELIOT ON ALCOHOL. President Eliot, who a few weeks ago resigned the position he has held for thirty years as head of Harvard University, is one of the most distinguished men in the United States, and the change was regarded as an event of national interest. Edward Eveard Hale, writing in the Outlook, says thai of the twenty-three men who since 1635 have occupied the post, there is none whose term equalled that of President Eliot, either in length of duration or importance. This administration has been truly said to have marked the era when the college ceased to be a college and became a university. Men of the calibre of the late Harvard president, and accustomed to great responsibilities, are not given to speaking inadvisedly, and the greater weight attaches therefore to his public utterance on 29th October last, in which he stated that he had abandoned his former stand in favour of the "moderate" use of intoxicants, and announced his adherence to the principle of No-license. In the course of an address to the Massachusetts No-license League, of which he had been appointed honorkry president, he said : — I want to explain a bit • why I have been so late a comer, because I think that my reasons might possibly influence a number of persons who have not yet joined this cause. I was not in favour of Nolicense in Cambridge when it was first proposed. I have been all my life what is sometimes called a moderate drinker. That is to say, I have used beer and wine on occasions, not habitually, and have never experienced any ill effects whatever in my own person from either beer or wine, and I recognise the truth of the Bible saying about wine, that 'it maketh glad the heart of man.' That is true. Whether it be expedient or not that the heart of man should be made glad in that way should be doubted. I have recognised tho fact that alcoholic drinks have a tendency to cheer the people up and make them jolly and noipy, but the question of expediency of that kind of elevation has gained on me as the years have gone on. It seems to me that the recent researches in physiology and medicine tend very strongly to show that the moderate drinking of alcohol is inexpedient. "For instance, one old theory is now absolutely . abandoned. As a result of experience it is known as a fact that men who are to be exposed to cold or heat or hardships of any sort are not prepared or braced for such encounters by any form of alcohol. You know it was considered essential that a sailor in the merdhant marine or in the INavy should be braced for his arduous work by grog every day ; that was really and simply considered as a necessity. Now grog has been abolished in our navy absolutely, and is no longer served in wellconducted ships of the merchant marine, and the result is a demonstration that that rough hard life was not really helped by alcohol, but hindered. "It is well-known uhat alcohol, oven if moderately used, does not quicken the action of the mind or enable one to support mental labour. We have had a great deal of German investigation, and some American investigation, in psychological laboratories in that direction, and the results are perfectly plain, and they are all one. "The effect of alcohol on the timereaction of the human being has been studied carefully, tested in (hundreds of thousands of cases, and there is no question about the ill-effect of alcohol even in very moderate doses on the timereaction. That moans that 'alcohol in moderate doses diminishes the efficacy of tho working man in most instances, makes him incapable of doing his best in the work of the day. ""So I say that the recent progress of medical science, largely accomplished through animal experimentation, has satisfied me that even the moderate use of alcohol is objectionable; that the habitual use of alcohol in any form is lowering to the intellectual and nervous power. *Tf a man be leading a purely animal or muscular life, I will say he can perhaps feel no evil effect from this drug; but if he is leading an intellectual life, if ho is engaged in an action which interests him keenly, stirs him, impels him to the use of his mind, then he will inevitably feel the slowing effect, the deteriorating effect of this drug. "I have tried all my life to keep an open mind, particularly on burning questions, and I suppose that is tho reason why, as I have grown older and seen more, I have changed my view about license and no-license. I feel as if much had been proved indicating that it is^hysically and mentally and morally for the advantage of a population as h whole to go without alcoholic drinks, as a rule." Two accounts of a very tragic occurrence at Totaradac, near Nagy Becskorek, in Hungary, have been teiegraphed to the press. The first is as follows : "A party of fifty persons assembled to honour the memory of a prominent parishioner, the proceedings taking the form of a banquet. As the company made no return to their homes, enquiries were made, and the room was entered, when fourteen of them were found to be dead. The cause of the tragic affair 4 s at present unknown, but it is supposed that poison must accidentally have entered into the composition of one of the dishes." The other reads : "The funeral of a local innkeeper had a tragic sequel. In accordance with Hungarian custom, the widow invited all her friends to a lavish funeral supper, and she provided two whole casks of schnapps for the refreshment of the fifty guests who attended. Before the evening was overthey succeeded in drinking the whole of the contents of both casks, with the result that seventeen of them died, including the widow, whilst most of the other guests are seriously ill." There appears to be no necessity to infer "accident," nor to look for "poison" outside of the two casks of gin. The ingenious way in which the real cause is concealed by the first narrator is typical of many published accounts of drink fatalities. Whether conducted as private or public concerns, liquor shops will always be run with a view to gain. Even the Labour paper of 'West Australia is overjoyed at the profits accruing from the single State public-house established in 1893. 3Tor the first year the credit balance was £589; foi> 1907-8, £3000 14s 2d ; and that, sum appears likely to be exceeded during 1908-9; the total net profit for five-and-a-half years equalling £10,979 3s 6d. The chief matter for congratulation seems to be that the experiment has not been repeated. The account "per contra," unhappily, is one that figures cannot express. But there is the ever-present danger, when this method is tried, that some Treasurer, in quest of revenue, will exploit so lucrative a department "for all it is -worth."

As shown by the camera, a flash of lightning is made up of innumerable small flashes, each one following the other by an almost imperceptible period of time). ]\e\v6papers left by travellers in railway c.irs in Belgium are collected — about 260^0001b a year — and used in the manufacture of pulp for making a certain quality of cardboard, .