THE DRINK QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 12027, 27 October 1903, Page 3

THE DRINK QUESTION.

to the BDrroa Sir,—Your oerrespondent." Moderate," in his letter of the 28th ult., and again in that of the 12th inst., has attempted to make out a case for alcohol in reply to statements made by myself and others as to the injurious results to individuals and communities of the use of alcoholic beverages. In support of his position and claims he, in his first letter, presented the evidence of a writer in the 'Gentleman's Magazine,' whom he. I presume unintentionally, misquoted and misrepresented, but whom, , in his second letter,' he again ' relies on as his only authority in support of the social use of alcoholic beverages. Let me again revert for a little to that magazine article which '* A Moderate " still stands by. It will be remembered by those who take any interest in this controversy that the writer of the article sets up a standard of moderate drinking which would "do no harm." The amount of alcohol should not exceed two ounces, which would be represented by a bottle of Moselle, or hock, or claret, or a pint of " natural" sherry, or three half-pints of ordinary ;'!e or beer, or about three glasses of whisky and soda in twenty-four hours. Now, while not assenting for a moment to the stare- ' ment that such an allowance of alcohol as ■ the above taken habitually would "do no harm," yet I may venture to say that if such moderate drinking was the universal rule of society neither the Abstinence nor the Prohibition movement would have been heard of. It is because all endeavors 10 establish such a rule have in the past utterly and, as I believe, necessarily failed, ■ and must in the nature of things inevitably ■ fail in the future, that men who have realised the true state of the case, recognised the far-reaching, all-pervading curse of the drink habit and the drink traffic, have been impelled by the " enthusiasm of humanity u to raise the standard of " abstinence for the individual and Prohibition for the State." The explanation of all this will be found in the nature of alcohol and the results of ■ its use, as presented on indisputable autho- ' rity in my letter of the 26th September. The reference by your correspondent to the intemperance of past generations snd the "men of might" they produced is irrele- ; vant unless he will contend that there is a necessary connection between the drinking 1 of alcohol and the development of great men. Would he have us infer that if we desire another Shakespeare, and Bacon, and ■ Drake, and Raleigh, and other such, as "in ' the palmy days of Old England, the spacious times of Queen Efizabeth," we have only to be as drunken as they were, and ' once more make beer an almost universal I beverage? The men named were what they ' were in spite of and not because of their drinking habits and the quantity of beer they contrived to swallow. But " Moderate" must not suppose that I the ranks of total abstainers are without [ their heroes, who have in varied walks of [ life left their marks on the world, and, de- ' parting, have and will leave behind them footprints on the sands of time, I will not occupy your space with the mention of their ' names. "Moderate" will find many of * them enumerated in such books as 'lllustrious Abstainers,' 'Heroes in the Strife,' 1 ' Early Heroes of the Temperance Reforma- ' tion,' and others, all making good reading. ' It must be remembered at the same time that it is just twenty years since Joseph Livesey, the founder of the abstinence move--1 ment in England, went to his rest at tie age , of ninety-one years. There has not been very much time for teetotallers to make ' heroes.—l am, etc., r Abstainer and Prohibitionist. I October 26.