Facts for Workers.

White Ribbon, Volume 8, Issue 88, 1 September 1902, Page 9

Facts for Workers.

In her paper read before the Women’s National Council, Miss Roberts drew attention to the following facts : All the awful and evil effects which follow the use of alcoholic drinks are due solely to the physical deterioration produced on the body and brain by the poison alcohol, for alcohol is not a food ; it is a poison, and is classed in chemistry, by scientific men, as an irritant narcotic poison. Our bodies have the power to change food into flesh and blood, bone and muscle, beat and energy, but when a poison is introduced the body can in no wise change it ; the only thing it can do is to get rid of it, and when women and men imbibe alcohol, their bodies immediately set to work to eject from the system, by several organs, this enemy which it cannot in any o'her way dispose of, being utterly unable to change it. But before its eject ion, the alcohol, carried by the blood, has irritated, inflamed, and injured every organ in its passage through the body, the injury being in exact proportion to the dose taken, while its evil effects are concealed by its narcotic property, this property being its most dangerous one. If it were not for this, no man or woman would drink alcoholic beverages, the irritant properties of the poison would produce too much pain and suffering. • Drink never conduces to long life, only to pri mature death. This is proved by the fact that several life and accident insurance companies at Home offer actually lower premiums and larger bonuses to total abstainers. Alcohol is one of the products of decay and decomposition, and consequently must be harmful in its effects. * G. S. V/ocdhead, Professor of Pathology at Cambridge University, says that when we come to precise evidence—such experiments and records as are usually accepted by scientfic observers—it is all against the use of alcohol. Dr. Ridge declares that everyone has more self-control without than with it, so long as it is exerting its physiological influence, and this is one reason why civilisation —in other words, Christianity, which is the real science and art of self control or personal mastership—and alcohol are irreconcilable enemies.. • There is evidence and statistics al-

most without end showing the better health and longer life enjoyed by the total abstainer over the model ate drinker, and equally numerous statistics showing the awful mortality txperienced by those engaged in the manufacture and sale of this death dealing drug, but time does not permit of these l>eing given now. What I atn most anxious to bring Ik fore your notice in connection with alcohol drinking is its possible and awful effect on the offspring of the drinker. • In New Zealand the breweries and nralthouses give employment to only 560 people, paying in wages, while the total value of products is The New Zealand clothing and hoot and shoe factoiies, with more than £IOO,OOO less capital invested, employ 4407 hands, and pay in wages, value of products l>eing /'M0.13". • The Trade Review, Jan. 30th, 1902, states that the quantity of wine made in New Zealand during 1900 was 26,513 gallons, valued at £6288; cider, 27,537 gallons, value ; brandy, too gallons, value Fifty nine hands were employed, w ho got in wages, an average of a little over each. The value of materials used was and the total value of output was i'o.uo. • If the whole manufacture of drink was clean swept away next election it would not seriously dislocate the labour market or materially hurt the financial interests of any but the brewers themselves, and they have had a fairly good run of good times. A very rmall portion of the money sp**nt annually in Great Britain and New Zealand on drink, if diverted into the channels of legitimate trade, will give employment and letter wages to very many mote than drink does, to the great advantage of every one concerned. Sir Michael Hicks Beach, the Presidt nt of the English Board of Trade, in 1891 issued a statement on wages and production, by which he showed that 4100 <q* nt in furniture give* x2U in irngeM. £IUU ~ «, railway* „ 4,*30 , „ 2MW „ ~ clothing ~ AU2 „ *1(0 „ „ Ming *37 „ jKIUU „ ~ coalmining „ *s.'> „ „ JIOO »« hear „ 4T ~