TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 20558, 9 August 1930, Page 4

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

'Published by arrangement with th« United Temperance Reform Council.) All alcoholic wines are from two to five times at least stronger in alcoholic content than strong beer. It (alcoholic wine drinking) is not only waste, it has a harvest. It is a great sowing broadcast; and what springs from the furrow? Deaths, mortality in every form,. disease of every’ kind, crime of every die, madness of every intensity, misery beyond the comprehension of man, sin which it_ surpasses the imagination to conceive.—Cardinal Manning. THE DESIRE FOR ALCOHOL. The desire for alcohol is common both to civilised and uncivilised man. It tends to increase rather than to decrease with the advance of civilisation, in spite of vigorous, and to some extent successful, efforts to restrain it. It has reached an unparalleled degree of intensity at the present time in prosperous communities relatively rich in comforts and luxuries. It is strong, again, in industrial and manufacturing centres among plodding and underpaid labourers. It is someAvhat stronger in northern progressive races than among the less progressive southern people. It is particularly characteristic of the adult male individual, the desire being decidedly less strong in women and children. It is not an appetite in the ordinary sense of the word, as it answers to no inner need of the body so far as is known. To these facts should be added that alcohol apparently adds nothing to either physical or mental efficiency, that it contributes nothing to health or longevity, and does not enhance social well-being.—G. T. W. Patrick, ‘ The Psychology of Relaxation.’ THE DIFFERENCE. When you spend £1 on a pair of boots you help to pay 14s Id in wages; when you spend £1 on booze you help to pay 6s lOd in wages. When you spend £1 on boots you have the boots; when you spend £1 on booze, wellj the booze has got you. THE MARCH OF THE CORN. (By Mrs J. M'Nair Wright.) Farmer Grey’s little Molly had been sent into the corn field for “ roasting ears ” for dinner. She had prudently husked the cars in the field and was now homeward bound with her apron full of corn. Molly was singing as blithely as the robin swaying on a corn stalk near her. But she was a child full of whims and fair fancies, and she stopped singing and looked over the landscape. The great “ ten-acre field ” planted with corn lay on the gentle slope of a hill arid reached even to the green and shadowy valley. Through the valley ran a deep, strong stream. “ The corn," said Molly, “ looks as if it was all marching downhill to the valley. And so it is! Some of it will march into the house; I think I see it. It will be put into fritters or succotash, and it will be boiled and canned. It, will march down there ripe and it will bo turned into mush and pudding and nico crisp corn cake, with loads of butter on it. Oh, my! And then in winter evenings all of us will have such fun popping some of it and making popcorn balls. Good corn! lam so glad you are marching down to the _iiou.se.” - ; Lower down the valley lay the mill, a great dark ~ old ■ mill, the wheel, turned by the roaring river, rising and falling with a splash. ‘‘ Corn,” cried Molly. “ You will march down to the mill. Will you be afraid of the greav. millstones? You will be ground' into meal. You wiil be put into bags and barrels. You will be sent oast, west, north, south! You will help feed the world! Will you not be glad, Corn, when you make thin people fat, weak people strong, hungry people content? You will die to do good, 0 Corn! when you have marched down to the mill. You will have done the errand God sent you to do!” But farther down the valley were tall chimneys, great brick Avails, high fences, Avith Avido gates out of Avhich rumbled vans under clouds of blacit smoke and dense steam.

“0 Corn!’ said Molly, “you will march down to the distillery. You will die to do evil and not to do good. You will bo what Gcd never meant you to be! You will drive men and women crazy with evil drink; yon will fill them with disease; you will make them poor. You will rob little children of homes, food, clothes, books, joy. You will give them fears, tears, pain. You will kill thousands, Corn, instead of feeding thousands. 0 beautiful Corn! is not not terrible that, after all these lovely suimne days, you must carry your beauty and your wealth down to the distillery to ruin the land! Yon will be ground and scalded and decayed and distilled until out of good has come evil and out of life death,, and you will have come to a very bad end, 0 my beautiful corn!” THINK THIS OUT. Speaking at a recent meeting Sir John Simon repeated the 'following incident:—“On one occasion," said Sir John, “I paid a visit to a big poor law institution. The turned on the special Christmas treats which were given to the workhouse inmates, “What do you give them?” he asked the master, “ Oh, roast beef and plum pudding and beer." “What do the teetotallers have?" inquired Sir John. “Oh,” was the reply, “ we don't have any teetotallers here!’’ HOW TO TRAIN FOR SPORTS. The above is the title of an article which appeared in ‘ Young England,’ by Mr H. M. Macintosh, the president of the Cambridge University Athletic Association. Mr Macintosh divides his hints under five headings:—(l) ‘What to Eat.’ (2) ‘How to Spend the Days.’ (3) ‘ How Practice Should be Taken.’ (4) ‘Learn the Proper Way at the Start.’ (5) ‘ Avoid All Unfair Advantage.’ Under the heading of ‘ What to Eat,’ he recommends the usual number of meals of good substantial food, and says the athlete should avoid pastry, sweets, pies; never eat after 7.30 p.m.; never eat between meals; take plenty of good fruit; and sleep well. In regard to drinking, Mr Macintosh is very emphatic. His words bn • this subject are:—“ It is advisable to drink as little as possible, for liquid only puts on .superfluous weight. Don’t, if you are thirsty, consume numerous lemon squashes and gingerbeefs, but suck a lemon. “Of course, you will not touch alcoholic drink of any description. For one thing, it is absolutely unnecessary, and for another you are jolly well throwing away any chance of winning even an infant’s sack race." DRINK AND EDUCATION. New Zealand spends every, year four million sovereigns on education, but she

squanders eight and a-half million sovereigns on strong drink, which produces only economic waste, crime, disease, and want. THE ULSTER DRINK BILL FOR 1929. According to figures given in the Imperial House of Commons, the estimated revenue from beer in Northern Ireland during the calendar year 1929 Avas £738,000; from spirits £1,081.000,. and from Avine £83,000, a total of £1,902,000 as compared with £1,967,882 for 1928 and £3,670,001 in 1923. As the revenue is approximately the half of the expenditure, it is clear that a drink bill of over sOA'en millions in 1923 has been reduced to less than four millipns in 1925. But the decrease, though persistent, is sloAving doAyn; we are approaching the irreducible minimum, though aau are far from it yet. Education is steadily progressing, but there is a class of drinker impervious to education, and only to be reached by restrictive legislation.