TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14909, 11 August 1910, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

MODERATE DRINKING CON' DEMNED.

By ex-Provost Eadie, J.P.* Paisley.

Who is keeping: temperance reform back? Not the total'abstainers. No! Nor the victims of drink. I know them welt. Most of them would sign for prohibition. Then, who blocks the way? As Robert Burns says in another connection With reverence be it spoke," it's the moderate drinkers. I -don't want to sit in judgment on fellow-men, but I have often sat in judgment on myself,'and said: "Your position is neither honest nor honourable. You see, the evil which drink is doing, and yet you patronise it, and your example may be leading many astray. Besides, you are giving an air of respectability to a deadly evil which has none—a curse that has blighted humanity since the Flood." I have been challenged by university men that temperance'was a far higher platform than total abstinence. I never denied that. 1 Indeed, that is one of tho reasons why I left it; it' was too high for me. Some ot my dearest friends got giddy up there, and lost their balance, and some of them'lost a great .dea) more than their balance; they ftll 'and liuii themselves.' Blpjndin was a great success on. a ..high .platform, arid danced across Niagara on a fi'ght rope. How many, in this audience could follow him with impunity? My dear old friend. DjrHutton iistd to say : "Temperance in all good things, and total abstinence • fiW'that which 1 -is evil." ALCOHOL ■ FROM SEWAGE. The Paris correspondent of the Daily Mirror says; " Some■ remarkable statements are" made about the way certain kinds of vwy cheap brandy, gin, rum, and other spirits are made. According to these statements a large quantity of alcohol is now very cheaply distilled from the sewage matter of great cities, and it appears that the entire sewage from South-eastern Paris is submitted to a perfected distillation process. The alcohol so obtained is -macerated by . a special secret cold process, and, so treated, is sold as cheap brandy, and for mixing with various kinds of fancy alcoholic liqueurs." A SIGN OF THE TIMES. It is an interesting fact, as indicating the spread of temperance sentiment, that of the seven men who form the Ministry of the Federal Parliament of Australia, eix (including the Prime Minister, Mr Fisher) are total abstainers. A MANIFESTO BY C. BOURETH TO THE WOMEN OF FRANCE. When the husband beoomes slave of his oups; when he comes home late at night back from the drink shop, where he has left his wages, -so that there is nothing over for bread and shoes —who suffers? —Thei wife. When the children grow up scrofulous, stupid, with weak health; wnen they tarn out abnormal, criminal, :vicious — who suffers? — The mother. When a youing. fellow forgets in tht| drinkshop the promises made his sweetheart; when alcohol excites him to 'uncleanliness, and leads him to nameless places —who suffers?— Always the woman. She is the eternal sacrifice'on the altar of alcohol. ' Women! Don't resign yourselves to this fate! Rebel against it! DOCTORS AND'ALCOHOL. The iollowing manifesto wa6 signed by 101 medical practitioners in North Wales, o! whom 34 art' medical officers of health and 11 tot: the diploma of public health Recognising the very serious injury to the national health caused by the presentday extensive over-indulgence in tho various forms of alcoholic drinks; recognising also that the habit o.f over-in-dulgence is seldom, if ever, suddenly acquired, but grows gradually out of what is considered to be a moderate use, and generally in the belief that such moderate use promotes health, increases the power of work, and prolongs life; convinced, moreover, that this .belief is a dangerous delusion, and • one which the prolonged observation and exact experiments of scientific men have conclusively proved to be g 0 j—we, the undersigned, appeal to all our medical brethren in North Wales to join with us in an endeavour to diecountenance the various' popular errors that still largely prevail upon this subject. We appeal to them specially not to give, or even sctm to give, the sanction of their professional authority to any general employment of alcoholic drinks in cases of disease. We believe' that these drinks are not necessary for the promotion of health; that they do not increase, but oil the contrary impair, physical and mental efficiency; that they do not prolong life.