TEMPERANCE COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 21714, 8 May 1934, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN

(Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) THE DRINK PROBLEM (From an address by Father Hayes, of Nottingham, at the World Total Abstinence Congress, Caxton Hall, London ) “ A few moments ago 1 was standing in reverence under shadow of the Cenotaph, recalling to mind the many valiant men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in the days when the nation’s life was darkened by the cloud of sorrow and suffering and death and all the horrors of hideous warfare.

“ 1 do think that as we pay honour and tribute to those who made the great sacrifice, so to-night we are paying honour and tribute to the ‘ Seven Men of Preston ’ and to their successors m every year of the century. They, no less, have given their lives to save their country. “Those who are outside tell ns that wc are standing for a mere negation. They tell us 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 welware of our fellowmen because the basis of our na tional life is in the homos of our people, and no other evil has done more to break up the homes of the people than this cursed drink.

“ We have heard of the colossal sum spent on drink. We spend millions of pounds every year on drink, but we 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 T2s a week, and some up to 17s or 18s a week, out of 45s a week. But this is not only an economic question, it is a moral question, and 1 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 sura he keeps hack 10s for drink, it is no consolation to Jus wife to say that 4s out of the 10s goes in taxation. The money is not in the home, and that means a lower moral and physical wellbeing. it means that the little children have Jess milk, that they have no adequate clothing or proper food, and then, strange to say, our legislators vote a lot ot money to undo some of the evil that has been caused. As temperance reformers we *are out to reduce and prevent this waste of money. Total abstinence is the sure remedy. “ My experience as a priest of thirtyeight years has convinced me there is a pressing drink problem. In the light of recent scientific and medical experiment and experience, we must come to the 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 a dr inkei as a result ot taking alcohol, it is one symptom of a widespread national evil. Drunkenness is only a fraction of the drink evil. Alcohol strikes at the judgment, the conscience, and at self-criticism. That is why many a man who takes drink and never gets drunk is not fit to bo in charge of a motor car. What I have often asked myselt as a clergyman is this : If a man who takes alcotiol is not lit to take charge of a motor cur, is a man who is m cJnuge of the immortal souls of men tit to do so if he takes alcohol ? I am convinced that the drink evil apart altogether Irom what you see on the streets or recorded in the Press, creates a whole world, even to-day, of unseen secret sorrow, and all kinds of immorality that no police court ever knows, and no human eye can ever see. 1 have been coming in contact with tins now for thirty-eight years, and the mischief is still going on. 1 had to deal with three very bad cases just recently—one where a homo was completely broken up. But it is the children who appeal to me, and it is chiefly because of the sufferings of the childten through drinking relatives that 1 am on the temperance platform. “ It you could secure a sufficient number of total abstinence people, thereby creating a sound, healthy opinion and example, there are no limits to the blessings that may bo achieved by the temperance movement.” ’

DRINKING DEGRADES. [By Henry Ford, U.S.A.j I think there is a considerable misunderstanding of the attitude which tlie majority of non-users of liquor take toward the man who drinks. It will probably be conceded that I have had some experience with men. I have seen them, high and low, rich and poor, lor many years now, and am no stranger to the 'effects of drink on all sorts ol careers. I have never known a drinker, even a moderate one, if there is such a thing, who has stood the test of crisis. 1 have seen great corporations in times of prosperity boast of their ‘I liberal ” attitude on the liquor question ana encourage their responsible men to liberal behaviour in that regard, and 1 have seen these same corporations, when the crisis came, compelled to dismiss those very men who lived by the so-called “liberal” logic. It simply does ■ not work. My experience with the effects of drink on the family is something that no amount of argument could possibly efface. My iceliug toward the man overtaken by this degrading and destructive habit is such that 1 would go to any lengths to save him. Because l feel that way 1 cannot as a citizen consent that my Government shall be partner in the business whose best customers are our worst citizens, nor can I consent, as a citizen.* to share the money taken as taxes from a business that makes merchandise oi the souls of men.