THE CASE FOR ALCOHOL.

Evening Star, Issue 14633, 1 August 1911, Page 8

THE CASE FOR ALCOHOL.

10 TftE EDITOH. i Sir.- •“ Progress,” in hir. latest lulminalion what, lie is pleased io style -a high-faintin' " passage. places _ a .strained construction on its meaning, .whirii, aI. tin. risk of some repetition. I i take to he this : The Jew, with bis mar- . vellous religious genius. brought. as Ins oontfibm.ioi; to the growing civilisation of ■ ttm nation;; of West I'm buvope. monoi theism: the (iree.k, literatim* ant! art ; i the lioninn. the science of law; the Ton ton. !mi ardent love of liberty. Nov, all ; these nations “drank’ - —that is. wine or : alcoholic liquor in some form was a pari ;of tb.eiv d’etsry. The writer then called : upon the other .side to show wiist the tee- , t -t.nl nations—naming the Mohammedans and Hindu:;- -had done for mankind >n ■ comparison with their drinking rivals. Tb::. challenge “ Progress” carefully evades, j and falls back upon the usual Prohibitinn- : ist. quibble that the four nation? cnumeii ated were distinguished in fpite of. aw! j not bsmu.se of. their partaking of alcoholic stimulants. As to total abstainers living longer than moderate drinkers, even were it so, '*longevity is not the only or the best test of the value, of the things on which we live,” to quote Sir James Paget i again. Matthew Arnold, the (Jevntan poet i (doetbe. and many other eminent men have held that tiro moderate nee of alcohol does add to the enjoyment, of life. One of ih ■ grandest poems in all literature, tho civ. Psalm, which was certainly not the production of a. “wine-snaked brain,” nevertheless speaks of wine “ that rnuketh glad tko heart of man.” Dominion Prohibition would indeed be an advertisement for New Zealand. I tit ! whether in a good or bad sense ,s a ce’ratj able question. To tell the -iverajr; 1■) itisli emigrant or tourist that in all New’ Zealand lie would bs unable to o a tain a glass of wholesome beer, however much ha might feel the need of it, would be quite sufficient to divert bis steps elsewhere. All moderate rb inkers at the present day note with approval the progress of true” temperance. Where they differ from such as your correspondent “ I'rcgress,” the Women’s Christain I’ember- !: ance Union, and other extremists is in j this: they hold that the word temperance does not- mean or imply total abstinence. — 1 am, etc., - : i " , - , <w , AaifriSo'Masm*. | July 31* ** y