Morning journal and courier., 1880-05-11
EDITED AND PUBLISHED B.
Tuesday Merning. May II. 1880.
TEMPERATE PREFERENCE.

l TEMPERATE TEMPERANCE.
 The good people of Boston have been for
 some time and are now more stirred up than
 usual on the subject Of temperance. Joseph
 Cooks action in pitching into'' those men-
 bers of the St. Botolph club who he thought
 should set better example than to help form
 and belong to club which furnishes wines
 and other intoxicating liquors to it's members,
 has caused great deal of discussion, which | other causes have contributed to continue and
 make lively and interesting. Prominent
 among those engaged in the wordy conflict is
 Rev. Dr. Bartol, who has preached two or
 three sermons in, which he takes the ground
 that there is such thing as temperance, and
 that temperance being virtue binding on all
 persons at all times is, therefore, principle,
 while total abstinence is but step, method,
 auxiliary or expedient, tributary to tsnsFer- ancs, necessary for multitudes but not for all Dr. Bartol boldly declares that the temperance
 question is mischieyously misapprehended when the duty of self-control is limited to the article of alcohol alone, such stress IS laid
 on inebriety that other modes of excess are
 apparently condoned or overlooked. Tenn
 perance, says he is composure. Total abstI-
 hence is for tens of thousands and hundreds
 of thousands, unquestionably, in their actual
 condition, 8 needed guard. Let them be
 moved to make that their firm resolve, but
 must all the other thousands and millions of
 the human race, at whatever cost or harm to
 themselves and relations, though they die for
 it, likewise totally abstain? Shall the whole
 framework of society be fashioned or rebuilt
 Al.. sAoI fa. AIn ha cause part of the population are crazy, or in
 the form of hut because wild savages are, h their habits and architecture, ignorant of the law? It will do the degraded no good for the elevated to submit to aus such nLproportioned, fanatical plan. Paul to the CoIossians declares that the ordinances" which cited by mod ern temperance orators so much, Touch not, taste not, handle not, are to 'perish in the using" and he objects to them as having only "a show of wisdom in will-w orship and negleeting of the body; not in any manner to the satisfying of the flesh, the bold and sincere apostle claiming that right satisfaction, even of the flesh, is virtue; and no sin. | Let the body. too, have it's dues, and not be l macerated crucified to end, and the l | panion's good estate Thus and much more | to the same effect Dr. BartoI and those who | enjoy cakes and ale will say amen.
 Unlike Dr. Bartol, Colonel Y. W. Higgin- | son believes in total abstinence for al but in an
 address delivered Sunday evening he urged | temperance people to adopt wider and moro I liberal basis for the reform for which they | labor The temperance cause has depth and | vigor enough, he said but it languishes for | the want of little more width in the inter | pretation of it's platform. It must aim at ] something broader than searching for the in | constituencies of other people. The move ! ment must be so wide that men who not l yet total abstainers may come inside of it |; | and one must have faith that by ] working with them he will make them l total abstainers before he is done with them. And there is no question, said MT. Higginson, that moderation in the use of intoxicating drinks is increasing. Much is said about Harvard College, as if it were the chief of all offenders against temperance; yet said the speaker, stand here to say that, although l the proportion of total abstainers is no larger in
 Harvard College than it was forty years ago, | know that the actual proportion of drunken | ness that one sees going through the college | yard by day or night, going in or out of | Boston even, is less among the eight hundred | undergraduates to-day than it was among the | two hundred undergraduates thirty-fve years ago. Authess signs are encouraging and show, | in Mir. Hjgeinson's opinion, that advocates of | temperance rather than abstinence not to | be chased as enemies to the cause. Moderation | must be recognized as one way of dealing | with the great evil, though to the speakers l mind it was the poorest way. This he believed | for two reasons: first, it is better for the | health of nine tenths of the people never to l take drop and, secondly, anything but to- | tai abstinence sets example which invari- | ably proves disastrous to those who are inca pablo of self-control.
 There is nothing new in the remarks of Dr. Bartol and Colonel Higginson, but they ably present the temperance" side of the temper auce question. Colonel Higginson's desire to see the total abstainers working with the mod crate drinkers is not, however, likely to be | gratifed, and it is quite possible that if it | were 'sthe cause'' would not gain from the | combination.