TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20256, 15 November 1927, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[The matter under this heading It published at the request 01, and is supplied by, the United Temperance Reform Council in pursuance ol the desire to inculcate the principles of temperance.] A church silent on the question of temperance discredits itself as much as a church silent on the question of poverty. There is a great desire on the part of men to be fit. A young man cannot be fit if he takes alcohol. By no possibility can ho want it. No one who is young can want alcohol any more than he can want strychnine.—Sir Frederick Treves. OFF-SHOOTS OF TEETOTALISM. No one doubts the benefits gained through the life and work of total abstainers. One finds these off-shoots in every vyalk of life. Teetotallers have been the originators of numerous schemes and projects which have meant a great deal to the betterment of our social and moral life. When one enters a free public library, who thinks of Joseph Livesey father of modern teetotalism founder of the first Mechanics Institution'at Preston, which was the forerunner of an agitation begun by Joseph Brotherton, the teetotal M.P. (Salford) f Joseph Brotherton’s great work for the establishment of free public libraries re suited in the passing of the Public Library Act of 1850. When one enters a public park, who thinks of James Silk Buckingham, the teetotal M.P. (Sheffield)? Yet it was he who fought so successfully, both in and out ol Parliament, for the right of municipal and other authorities to secure and own open spaces for public health, recreation, and enjoyment. . When parents send their children to council schools, how many of them remember W. E. Forster, the teetotal M.P (Bradford)? Yet it was he, as Minister of Education, who secured the passing of the Elementary Education Act of TB7O, by which the free system of public edu cation has been won for the people. When on excursions and reduced fare travel, how many people dream that it was a teetotal gardener, Thomas Cook, who first ran a railway excursion-and that of a temperance demonstration ana became the Roval Excursionist-general fqr the 1851 .Tivde Park International Exhibition after which he introduced and developed the tourist excursion system, _ since grown to such extraordinary dimensions. When the millions of members of cooperative societies are purchasing goods at their several stores, how many of them over think that this great, world-wide movement owes its inception and success to -a band of teetotal working men who started the first co-operative shop at Rochdale anti wisely determined that no alcoholic liquors should be sold at their store. Long before the general mass of the people had a vote, numbers of total stainers were able to buy a “Fortyshdlincr Freehold ” and thus secure en franchisemcnt for themselves. The forma tion of building societies was largely due to the discovery of those who, saying their money instead of spending it m drink, could afford to purchase their own houses and lands, thus enabling them to live m happier and healthier surroundings. A great many other instances might be named of total abstainers who ihave left their mark on history in a similar way, thus showing the benefits of teetotalism A THOROUGHLY BAD HABIT. In “Talks on Health” in the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, a family doctor states: “It is well known that a taste tor alcohol is rapidly acquired, especially by overworked and underfed aneemic girls and young women. The longing for alcohol is engendered by taking these so-called remedies. The practice cannot be too strongly condemned. The cases 1 have met with are very distressing. Wheu you find your daughter having a number ol bottles of drug remedies for nervousness or depression, inquire carefully from some one who knows whether there is any alcohol in the stuff. If there is, you must not allow her to rely on it for strength. Alcoholic stimulants must not be relied on by young peoplG for health and vigour. It is a thoroughly bad habit.” COLONEL LINDBERGH AND OLD SCHOOL MATES. According Friends’ Intelligence (U.S.A.), when the father of Colonel Charles Lindbergh was a member of the House of Representatives at Washington, the son was a student at the Friends school there. A group of 30 Friends of Philadelphia addressed to Lindbergh a letter of congratulation, acknowledging particularly his modesty and self-contro amid all the wild welcome he had received at home and abroad. They added: “Not the least of your victories was your refusal—without offence to your hosts, trained in other customs and practices — the firmness of your refusal to poison with nicotine or alcohol your body selected by destiny to transmit the spirit of St. Louis, the Crusader.” ALCOHOL AND INFLUENZA. The British press has been admitting a number of anonymous advertisements as to the value of whisky in influenza, etc. The Berlin correspondent of the Journal o the American Medical Association writes: "In advertisements of firms interested in the sale of alcoholic beveiages, the statement was often seen during the recent epidemic of influenza that alcohol has a prophylactic and therapeutic value in the disease. As a consequence, on the initiative of the president, the Berliner Medizinische Gescllschaft decided to publish the declaration that it disapproved of advertisements recommending alcohol as a prophylactic and therapeutic remedy in influenza.” HABITUATION TO ALCOHOL. This subject is treated in a lengthy article in the current Review Against Alcoholism, by Dr Klaus Hansen, of Oslo, who gives a survey of the problem and a description of some experi. ents contributing to its solution. The article is in English, and should be read in its entirety to be appreciated. Two conclusions may bo quoted: “The habituated organism has not in an essentially high or degree acquired the faculty o using alcohol as a foodstuff, and the quantity it can utilise without any harm is very limited,” and “If the poison once reaches the protoplasm it always simultaneously produces degenerative changes. Alcohol is consequently a poison also for the drunkard and a poison nearly as strong for him as for the non-habituated person.” THE GREAT IMPOSTOR. Alcohol is, in truth, the great impostor. Misnamed a stimulant, it is a narcotic. It offers cheer and deepens sorrow. It whispers confidence and leads to confusion. It speaks of health and sows disease. It calls to fellowship and creates discord. It gives the illusion of excellence in conditions which are execrable. It does not, and cannot, better evil circumstances, for it is a drug which deters the drinker from manful effort to remove the causes of social wrong. The change it works is always downward. It leads from good to bad, from bad to worse. Alcohol demeans, depresses, deters, deprives, despoils, defrauds, de t teriorates, depreciates, decontrols, dethrones, destroys. This manifold downward impulse is nowhere marked more surely than in the two words, “ delusion ” and “ degradation.” . Alcohol deludes. Ludere is the Latin verb “to play.” The idea is expressed in our work " ludicrous,” pertaining to play, laughable. To delude is to play down, to cheat. This is precisely what alcohol does; it offers shadow for substance. semblance lor reality. Alcohol degrades. Gradua is the Latin noun “ step.” “To graduate ’ is to step upward in the world of learning. t But be who companies with alcohol is degraded. He steps down—from manhood and its right to achieve. —Rev. Henry Carter.