TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3861, 13 March 1928, Page 15

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[Th* matter under tht» heading li published at the request of, and is supplied by, the United Temperance Reform Cqunoi! in. pursuance of the desire to inouloat* the principles of temperance ] “ Compromise with alcohol: You had better compromise with the panther in his jungle; with the cyclone in its flight; with an Egyptian plague as it blotches an empire; with apollym for whom this drug is recruiting officer, quartermaster, and com-mander-in-chief.”— T. de Witt Talmadge. THE TOTAL ABSTINENCE MOVEMENT IN FREEMASONRY. By Dudley Wright, editor of the FreeMason, London, England. In the minds of the general public, that well-known “ man in the street,” the terms Masonry and Temperance were once regarded as antithetical. The wing of time and a more detailed examination has proved that this view is absolutely opposite to fact. The original view was undoubtedly due, in no small degree,- to the widely circulated print by Hogarth, depicting the exit from a lodge of certain of its members who had dined neither wisely nor well. As Hogarth was a Grand Steward, part of whose duty it was to look after the creature comforts of the members of Grand Lodge at their occasional meetings, he was supposed to know something of ■what he portrayed, and, moreover, he has always been regarded as a faithful painter of the manners of his age. Those manners, however, have improved generally considerably since the period covered by the years 1697 and 1764, when Hogarth flourished, and it must also be remembered that from the earliest days of its organisation. Freemasonry set itself resolutely to combat errors of living of every description. In Hogarth’s time, also, total abstinence from alcoholic liquors, in England, at any rate, was almost unknown. Yet, even in those days, which Hogarth is supposed to have depicted so faithfully, the Masonic Craft had set out as a reformer. In the earliest by-laws of the oldest lodges, in nearly all of them, at any rate, will be found the most stringent rules as to penalties to be enforced against any member who should enter a lodge “ disguised in liquor ” —thus ran the quaint pharseology of the time —the penaltv being, generally, a fine for the first offence, a heavier fine for the second offence, and, generally, explusion for the third offence. It was a step toward total abstinence, which, as recently as 50 years ago, was not popular, even as a religious movement. TEMPERANCE LODGE FORMED. It is, however, nearly 70 years since a Total Abstinence Lodge was established in England. This honour has to be accorded to the Temperance Lodge, No. 739, which meets in Birmingham. It was consecrated in April, 1858, and it was for 24 years the only temperance Masonic lodge in England. To-day it is one of the largest in membership in the Province of Warwickshire. In 1882, the Wolseley Lodge, No. 1993, was founded in Manchester, on the same lines, with Field-marshal Viscount Wolseley as the first Master. So many were the applications for membership that in the first 12 months of its history it became necessary to hold 21 meetings (instead of the regular nine), in order to initiate the accepted candidates. In 1884. the Lodge of St. George, No. 2025, was founded at Plymouth, and, in the same year, Londonderry Lodge, No. 2039, was consecrated at Sunderland- noth being conducted, so far as- their dining arrangements were concerted, on total abstinence Fines. In 1912, the Campbell Lodge, No. 3643, was founded at King’s Heath, which is practically a suburb of Birmingham, but is masonically. in the province of Worvestershire. The movement had, however, grown apace, for. in 191 C, there were 37 temperance lodges in England, and in that year 19 of the masters accepted an invitation to be present at a Masonic temperance convention held at Birmingham. CO-ORDINATING EFFORTS. In the following winter suggestions wer» put forward and ventilated in the various temperance lodges for the formation of a council. whereby the various qualified lodges could be federated for the purpose of organising united gatherings and for putting forth a combined effort for the furtherance of the special objects which those lodges had in view. Such council was in due course, formed, but it was confined to lodges in London possessing a- membership limited to pledged total abstainers. MODERATES NOTE. “It is one of the commonest things in English society that people are injured by drink without being drunkards.«.Jt goes on so quietly that it is even very difficult to observe. A man’s nearest friend will frequenly not know it. ... I hardly know any more potent cause of disease than alcohol, leaving out of view the fact that it is a frequent source of crime of all descriptions. I am persuaded that lecturers should go about the country, lecturing to people of the middle .and unper classes upon the disadvantages of alcohol as it is daily used.”—The late Sir William Bull, Bart.. M.D. “ The great permanent damage running through the body caused by alcoho] may be gummed up in one word—degeneration. Degeneration of liver, kidneys and stomach, of brain and nerves, and most important of all, degeneration of blood vessels, some; times picking out one organ or one kind of tissue, sometimes another, varying with the individual idiosyncrasy.”—o.r Thomas Barlow, Bart., K.C.V.0.. M.D.