TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21218, 27 September 1932, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

[fVbluhed by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.] In Turkey motor car drivers have to undergo an examination of their blood, and if analysis shows alcohol piosciit thev are forbidden to drive. Those of us who are motorists know how much safer roads are when they arc drv. Wo want to put it to you how much safer the roads will be when the drivers are dry. too.—Dr Somerville Hastings. THE SHAMROCK DRY. The late Sir Thomas Eipton. tiie famous yachtsman, said: “Corkscrew.have sunk more people than corn jackets ever saved.” Every member or the crew of Sir Thomas Lipton s yacht Shamrock V. which competed tor the America Cup was a total abstainer. THE DRINK PROBLEM. (From an address by the Very Rev. Father Tiavs. Nottingham, at tlie World Total Abstinence Centenary Congress, London, June, Uo_.) A few moments ago I was standing in reverence under tlie shadow ot the Cenotaph, recalling to mind the many valiant men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in the clays when the nation s life was darkened by the cloud of sorrow and suffering and death and all the horrors of-hideous warfare. I do think that as we pay honour and tribute to those who made the «reat sacrifice, so to-night we arc pajni" honour and tribute to the Seven men of Preston ” and to their successors in every vear of the century, they no less have given their lives to save their country. Those who are outside tell us that we are standing for a mere negation. Thev tell ns that the end and aim and object of our work is simply to get people to give up drink. That is not the end of our work. It is only a means to an end. The primary end to our work is the honour and glory of Almighty God. What is it that drags that glory into the gutters of the street but the curse of drink 1 We are here to promote the welfare of our tellowmen because the basis of our national life is in the homes of onr people, and no other evil has done more to break np the homes of the people than this cursed drink. We have heard of the colossal sum spent on drink. We spend millions ot pounds everv vear on drink, but wo are told that some £130.000,000 goes in taxation. Now. my experience is that some families spend about 6s or 7s a week on drink; some will spend 10s or 12s a week, and some up to 17s or 18s a week out of 4os a week. But Elis is not only an economic question; it is a moral question, and I am not concerned about the money that goes in taxation. What appears evident to me is this: If a man brings home on Friday 45s a week, and out of that sum keeps bock 10s for drink, it is no consolation to his wife to say that 4s out of the 10s goes in taxation. The money is not m the home, and that means a lower moral life. It means that the little children have less milk ; they have no adequate clothing or proper food: and then, strange to say, onr legislators vote a lot of money to undo sonic of the evil that has been caused. We arc out to prevent this waste, of money. My experience as a priest of thirtyeight years has convinced me that even to-dav in this year 1932, there is a pressing drink problem. In the light of recent scientific research ami medical experiment and experience. we must come to this conclusion that drunkenness is not the whole of the drink problem, it is very important that we, as temperance people, should emphasise that. Drunkenness is merely one phase in a series of changes which take place in the drunkard as a i-e----sult of taking alcohol. It is one symptom of a wide-spread national evil. Drunkenness is only a fraction of tho drink evil. Alcohol strikes at the judgment, the conscience, and at selfcriticism. That is why many a man who takes drink and never gets drunk is not fit to be in charge of a motor car. What I have often asked myself as a clergyman is this: If a man who takes alcohol is not fit to take charge of a motor car. is a man who is in charge of the mortal souls of men fit to do so if he takes alcohol? I am convinced that the drink evil, apart altogether from what yon see on the streets, creates a whole world, even to-day, of unseen and secret sorrow, and all kind? of immorality that no police court ever knows and no human eve can sec, I have been coming in contact with this now for thirty-eight vears. and tho mischief is still going on. 1 had to deal with three very bad cases just before 1 came away, one where a home was completely broken np. But it is the children who appeal to me, and it is chiefly because of the children I am on tho temperance platform. If you could get a sufficient number of people—il you have a sound healthv public opinion behind you, then I think there is no law that yon could not both place on the Statute Book and honestly enforce.

ALCOHOL AND THE LIVER. Alcohol being a coll injures when it does not kill outrignt. As alcohol is taken from the; stomach direct to the liver we should expect it to hurt the liver cells and unlit them for their work. It does, and the result is often disastrous to health. The two chief diseases of the liver due to alcohol arc fatty degeneration (called beer drinker’s liver, mainly caused by malt liquors, file, beer, and stout) and gin drinker’s liver, or “ hobnailed liver,caused by the strongei liquors—gin, whisky, rum. and brandy. In each the cells are unable to perform their necessary work, and death follows. Alcohol always attacks the more delicate cells first,' and those of the liver, which store food and send out bile, are among the first to suffer. Ihe effect of alcohol on these cells is the same as that of other protoplasm poisons, such as arsenic or phosphorus, though not to the same degree, except in the case of “ chronic poisoning by alcohol, a verdict that is often passed on heavy drinkers whose lives have been ruined by alcoholic liquor. Tlie protoplasm—the life of the cells —is attacked, and useless fat takes its place, bringing on fatty degeneration which renders the liver powerless to carry on its work. There are six times as many deaths among publicans and others engaged in the sale of alcoholic liquors from troubles as among men generally. “ Alcohol, even in small doses (such as is found in a glass of beer, is injurious. Diseases of the liver occur frequently as a result of the habitual use of small doses of alcohol.’’—Sir t icfor Horslc,', M.D.