The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1915. BREAD OR BEER?

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12430, 22 January 1915, Page 4

The Oamaru Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 22, 1915. BREAD OR BEER?

Six hundred recruits have been discarded in the Commonwealth on accourft of th£ir drunkenness. This is a large percentage of men to be rejected on the ground that they arc not to be trusted, even under military restrictions, to do their duty to their country. If any answer were needed to"'the thoughtless, vulgar demand for wet canteens this official fact should suffice. A man, it is now known, cannot do his best and fight under modern conditions of warfare' if he is under the influence of alcohol in any degree. That is why the Australian military authorities rejected the' six hundred —not heroes, but alcoholic offenders. ' ' That is also why military authorities of the nations have banned drink on-the training groundis, ou tlie battlefield, and in their navies, and why, at this crisis, the temperance, societies of the United Kingdom are seeking'to induce a million Londoners to sign the pledge for the period of the: war. The success of this appeal would mean a .signal victory over a common enemy, which slays its millions more insidiously, more numerously, and with more cruelty than the most deadly instruments of 'war. Russia, even with her State control, which was, somehow or other, foolishly expected to take all the sting out of alcohol, : has risen superior to a direct national monetary gain- of hundreds of millions of revenue Ito abolish a system which caused ail incalculable direct loss not only cco- ' iiornically but in national virility. Russia, under the domination of vodka, has failed to make good use of her opportunities, and has not been an exemplar amongst-the nations. We arc how told ! by a lecturer at the National Liberal Glnb that "if the prohibition of vodka, was permanent, Russia, after the war, would have j extraordinary driving power," and..would, by dint of technical education, "take her place as a: Western Power by virtue of her iudusI trialism." There is "nothing for the world' to fear from the adoption, of a virtuous, industrious life 011 the part of any nation —there will always be room for every people in the higher developments of the arts of peace and wherc'it is not sought to force a monopoly of trade and power by means of military domination. Those who are convinced that drink is the cause of untold o.isery—who view the drinking system as an economic waste and a fertile demoralising agency will be encouraged by the almost daily condemnation which the war is developing of alcoholic indulgence in any degree. The inhibition of drink by the; greatest military leaders is more valuable as 1 a guide than the absurd excuses cf the "moderate" that it is the'men who take too much who should be checked.- They ignore tho_fact that the taking of "too much" is part of the drinking system which reformers have for cen-i turics sought to eliminate, but which is' as prevalent to-day as it has ever been, thanks-to the so-called "modefate." When the love of alcohol leads to the destruction by mistreatment of hundreds.of thousands of bushels of grain which would h?.Vc provided food for famishing inrtious, then it is made, all the more obvious that those who aspire to load the people should, without any temporising, wage war against alcohol in any form and in any quantity It must have occurred to our renders that, whilst there was so much fuss over the wheat coming from Australia in the Ivaiapoi, brewers have used up infinitely more in tlie making of a thing which is a peril at- any time, which in war time' is a positive danger, and which is ia poor substitute for bread.