TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21362, 16 June 1931, Page 3

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

(Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.) “ The greatest hindrance to the work of the Holy Spirit of God is drink.” —Bishop of London. CHURCH IN ACTION. Miss Etna M’Cuig, of Glasgow, has been appointed by the Church of Scotland Women’s Association for Temperance ns a special deputy to give assistance in the development of temperance work, especially on educational lines among the women and girls of the church. Miss M'Cuig’s services will also be at the disposal of Women’s Guild Councils in the furtherance of their temperance activities. UNFIT BRITISH YOUTH. The Outline of March 10 says: “What is happening to the youth of Britain? In 1927 there were 63,915 candidates for the Navy and Royal Marines. Of these 47,866 were' rejected. Of the 8356 who tried to get into the Royal Air Force, 5903 were rejected.” On the assumption that all those offering would have been accepted if fit. the rejections assume an alarming character. It may be, of course, that there were more recruits offering than were needed, and so the authorities picked-only the cream for acceptance, but this is not usual,, and one feels justified in believing that very many more would have been accepted if they had been physically up to requirements. MAIMED CHILDREN. Sir George Newman, member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the Central Control Board (liquor traffic), Great Britain, as quoted in the evidence of Dr Courtenay C. Weeks before the Royal Commission on Licensing, is responsible for some telling utterances on heredity and health conditions in England. In “An Outline of the Practice of Preventive Medicine ” which he prepared at the request of the Government, he stated: “A moderate computation yields no fewer than 1,000,000 children of school age as being so physically and mentally defective or diseased as to be unable to derive any reasonable benefit from the ordinary form of education which the State provides,’^ Dealing with the national health, he stated: “Last year we lost through sickness and disability in this country the equivalent of _ 26,750,000 weeks’ work, which is a period equal to 514,000 years. That is the amount of time lost through sickness and disability among one-third of the population insured under the National Health Insurance Scheme.” Sir George then goes on to discuss the damaged manhood, youth and children, particularly with reference to tuberculosis, syphilis, and cancer, and passes to what he calls the broad lines of reform and some elements of a national policy. He places alcoholism as the first thing to be dealt with in a remedial policy seeking to affect heredity and the health of the race. Sir George cites in this connection three outstanding evils alcoholism, venereal disease, and mental deficiency. Dr Weeks adds: “ I would submit that in those things we have a closely interlocked trinity of causation. Alcohol is the ally and handmaid of venereal disease. The two things run hand in hand over and over again in national life; and when alcohol is wedded to venereal disease, the' offspring is fceble-mindedness.” IT’S THE BRAIN THAT COUNTS. Dr Charles Mayo, the famous surgeon and physician of Rochester, says: “ You can get along with a wooden leg, but you can t get along with a wooden head. The physical value of a man is not so much. Man, as analysed in our laboratories, is worth about 98 cents. Seven bars of soap, lime enough to whitewash a chicken coop, phosphorus enough to cover the heads of a thousand matches, is not so much, you see. It is the brain that counts; but in order that your brain may be kept clear you must keep your body fit and well. That cannot be done if one drinks liquor. A man who has to drag around a habit that is a danger and a menace to society ought to go off to the woods and live alone. We do not tolerate the obvious use of morphine or cocaine or opium, and we should not tolerate intoxicating liquor, because, I tell you, these things are what break down the command of the individual over his own life and his own destiny. Through alcoholic stimulation a man loses his co ordination. - That is why liquor is no advantage to' the brain. You hear people tell how ! had their wits quickened for the first half-hour by liquor, but they don’t tell you how, later, their body could not act in co-ordinatioff with their brain. You will hear on every side men bewail the loss of their drink, of their personal rights, but the rights of the few who cannot see ahead or nave the futun of their nation at heart must be regulated to safeguard that great body of future citizens who are now ready to step into the ranks.” Temperance Advocate, Canada.

ABSTINENCE CLUBS IN POLAND,

Hostels, clubs, and common rooms where no alcoholic liquor is served and where entertainments, handicrafts, and reading lessons are given, are being organised in many parts of Poland by the Polish Working Women's Club and similar societies.

The purpose,of the organisations is to foster new forms of social life and new cultural, pleasures which shall be free from the stimulus of alcoholic drink. The nonalcoholic common rooms for soldiers and the common rooms established by the Society of Peoples’ Houses are already filling a great need. Another society in industrial provides dinners for working men. at -which no alcohol is served, and during dinner time radio concerts are given. In Prusrkow. -where the citizens have voted for abolition of open liquor selling, a hostel and common room has been established and it has become a meeting place for the whole district. Entertainments for adults, lessons in needlework, children’s entertainments, meetings, lectures, and readings are arranged, A young people’s circle has been opened to propagate abstinence. —Christian Science Monitor. MOSCOW’S EXPERIMENT.

A curious experiment in temperance agitation is being made in the wine and liquor departments of some of the Moscow grocery stores. Side by side with the row’s of bottles one sees such signs as: “Down with alcoholism.” “Vodka is your enemy, the savings bank is your friend.” “ With drunken legs you won’t reach Socialism.” Tolstoy once wrote of the absurdity of preaching temperance in a drinking establishment; ahd certainly no private liquor store would be likely to disparage its wares by displaying temperance slogans along with them.- Rut almost all large stores in Russia are owned by the State or by co-operative organisations; and the simultaneous sale of liquor and exhibition of anti-alcoholic posters may be considered symbolic of the rather wavering and irresolute policy which the Soviet Government has hitherto pursued in handling the liquor problem.