TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21054, 17 June 1930, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Published by arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council. HOSPITALS AND ALCOHOL. • In four general hospitals in Liverpool, with 8439 patients, only £297 12s was spent on alcoholic drink* in 1928; whereas on the average per patient in the year 1900 the use and consumption of alcohol would have cost £2677, in these four hospitals, A reduction in the medicinal use of alcohol, of over_ 88 per cent! This change o£ medical science towards alcohol is not yet fully appreciated by the public generally. THE MENACE OF ALCOHOL. By W. R. TUCK, LL.M. The widespread use of alcohol as a beverage constitutes one of, the greatest menaces to which civilisation has ever been subjected. This is not rhetorical declamation, but a plain statement of insistent fact. In some minds the gravity of the menace is obscured by the knowledge that in 60 many cases the use ot the beverage is a real pleasure, andprovey relatively harmless. Multitudes of men and women enjoy it without suffering an> appreciable injury. But their freedom does not lessen the reality of the injury suffered by others. No fell disease that spreads through a community attacks all its inhabitants, and no practice, however dire its consequencea, destroys all its devotees. Though intoxicating "beverages give pleasure without appreciable injury to many, that pleasure is offset by injury to the victims of alcohol and to those whose happiness and whose very characters depend upon these victims. That injury is inevitable, and springs from the nature of the beverage.. For alcohol is a drug, with power to intoxicate and to develop a depraved appetite for itself. ' POWER FOR EVIL. The best in human life is menaced by this pfactice. Every development of it is a development of far-reaching tragedy in- the experience of men and women. Its immediate effect is upon the physical and mental health of its victims. It is an individual and racial poison. It is the friend of dieease, and annually robs multitudes of thejr chances of recovery. It contributes its quota ■ every year to the population of our mental hospitals, and continuously enfeebles the intelligence of many who never enter these institutions. Its most disastrous effects are w/rought in the characters of men and women. The police courtß and higher courts repeat with tragic monotony the story of its doings. Social workers and officers of rescue homes daily witness degradation in which it has been tire most potent factor. Its economic eons2quenceß spread throughout the whole range of productive activity, and react injuriously upon the higher developments of human life. We -speak of economic consequences as though they could be measured and 6ummed up in the terms of the market plaea. But the real economic significance of this, as of every other practice, is also a moral significance. It is found in the effect upon the standard of living, upon the nature and regularity of employment, upon the degree of hopefulness and purpose prevailing in the souls of men, and, ultimately, upon the expansion of the powers of mind and heart. And in all the evil that is wrought, the purity and happiness of home life, the freedom and gladness of the child and the adolescent, the contentment end satisfaction of elder men and women, are involved. The evil that attends the practice is continuous. It is sometimes charged against the temperance reformer that there is a certain monotony about the story he unfolds. It is the came to-day as yesterday, and a thousand yesterdays. That very monotony is the most striking proof of the certainty and persistence of the evil. It ie a condemnation of the practice, eince it springs from the constant repetition of the tragedy that is ■wrought. For the story that ie told is not the same story as told yesterday. It is only a tragically similar story. It is a fresh crime that is committed; a new home that is desolated; another character that is degraded. It is further waste that is committed; further resistance that is offered to the upward movement in the standard of living:; a further meaoure oi restraint that is imposed upon the freedom of human life. Many lands' and successive generations of men add to the growing experience of this land and of the men who live around ua. An evergrowing body of facts attests the power of the evil and proves the menace of alcohol to be the menace of a continuous succession of the tragedies with which itß use has darkened the experience of mankind. The menace is more threatening to-day than it has been heretofore. The striking power of the evil is increasing. Thankfulness is frequently expressed for the fact that in New Zealand the number of premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquor has decreased during the last 30 years, and has so. decreased despite the Ereat proportionate increase in the population. But rejoicing on this account is tempered by realisation of the significant effect of the increased speed of travel-and improvement in methods of I distribution. Motor cars, speedy trams and buses have greatly reduced the time distance between /tiven points. The grosser evils connected with, the practice have been diminished. Marked ■ improvement has been achieved in the conditions under which the trade in intoxicants is carried on, and there is a welcome reduction in the Bcandals associated with the sale of liquor. But even this improvement is qualified by the increased power for mischief that now belongs to small quantities of alcohol. A moderate influence on hand or eye or brain might, have been of slight importance in the days of horse-drawn vehicles and of Blow-moving machinery. It is of vital moment in these days of rapid transit and of highly organised methods of manufacture and of transport. And there is another and still more deadly direction of development. Remote parts are accessible, degrading associations are readily created, and joy rides 'in city and in country towns have gained a deadly notoriety. The interests by which the beverage use of alcohol is fostered are many and powerful. Vested interests have grown confident, and have taken advantage of the success that they have won to strengthen their organisation. In many directions we discover evidence of the realisation of the menace and of a determination to» grapple with the evil forces. The League of Nations has recognised the need to guard the undisciplined from the destructive influence, and in mandates for the government of backward peoples has made special provision concerning it. This recognition inspires hope o£ effective and growing resistance. ! But there are other and less encouraging developments. A determined attempt is being made by some sections of the Lcagueof Nations to prevent the ravages of noxious druge, such as cocaine, morphine, and heroin, and to dry up the supplies at their source. These drugs are more rapid in their destructive working in the individual than is alcohol. Few ; who practise their use escape, while i many who use alcohol" never suffer appre- ! ciable ill. Yet, in Anglo-Saxon countries, at least, the influence of alcohol is more widespread than iB the influence of any of these other 'drugs, and its total ravages are incomparably greater than is theirs. The connection of the use of drugs with the dread white slave traffic accounts for something of the horror with which that use is regarded. In our lands intoxicating liquor is the ally, and the most potent ally, of social immorality, and the chief instrument in the downfall of young men find young women. Yet, despite the«e facts, while urgent action may be taken by the League against other drugs, any attempt to face the problem created by the use of alcohol is at once discouraged. This exception attests the power of the evil and intensifies the gravity of the menace. From Freedom Journal, y;m.a.a.