St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1882-09-15
Temperance.
The SchOOI-HOuse TO Decide
the Temperance Question.

In the temperance movement now
agitating our country, threatening TO
disrupt if not destroy old landmarks in
party politics, sweeping great states
like Maine. Kansas and Iowa with ma
iorities of tens of thousands of popular
votes in its favor, the whole question
rests upon the character of a certain
chemical substance called alcohol. If
moderately used it is a good creature,
a safe luxury; then all this agitation Is
fanatical. this prohibitory Legislation
partisan. But if in truth il is poison,
and the evils resulting from intemper-
ancc are only natural sequence from
the nature of alcohol when used as a
beverage. then as such it is bad, bad
per Se,-and it is wrong to so use 1t,
wrong to sell it, and suicidal for the
state To lcgalize its traffic and the ia
natics are the people who cling to 1t,
who drink IT, OF vote for 1t. Is alec
hol, in any quantity as IA human bever-
age, good or bad is the pivotal ques-
ton on which the entire argument in
this whole matter rests. Given that,
and the logic for OF against If as irwin
chile as IA MIME ball. The hallucina-
ton about this substance, assembling to
it properties il never possessed, Is dis
PEELED bv the nineteenth century touch
of science.
The American medical association,
our national society of allOpathists, the
oldest and most conservative body of
physicians in this country, at their an
nual meeting in st. Paul, Mimi, III
June last, rcstatcd in series of resO-
buttons their conviction, that "AlcohOl
should be classed with other powerful
drugs that when prescribed medical
", it should he done with cOnscien-
tious caution and sense of great re-
sponsiblity. That used as IA beverage
it is productive of "A large amount OF
physical and mental disease that II
entails diseased and enfeebled cOnsti-
tutionS upon offspring, and Is the cause
of a large percentage of the crime and
paupcrism of our large cities and cOun-
try" This testimony of eminent men
in the healing art in our land is more
than corroborated 10y that of equally
profound scientists on the other side OF
the Atlantic.
These convictions. comparatively
new, have fought their way step by
step against the combined forces al
long habits, appetites, and
prciudiccs, and to day are being for
INFLATED into prohibitory legislation
The success of such legislation depends
upon the knowledge or Ignorance 81
the MASSES of the real truth about then
favOrite beverage. In no reform can
we go far in advance of the people
We must convince them before we can
depend on their aid. The false idea
now so prevalent that 1.-THE abuse and
not the use of alcohol is the cause OF
the trouble must be dispelled by d
universal knowledge of the truth about
this thing. DIR. Willard Parker, ot
New York, the NestoI of American
physicians, in Il recent letter says
1--WE shall never control alcohol unit
we have taught the people, |. What
alcohol is ,. What it will do to us j
we drink it: 3. What it will make us
do. can see no way that this can be
done but through the schools" A
textbook teaching these elementary
facts in the hands of every child in the
land rs soon as it is old enough t.
read, is what we want. A law requir
ing such teaching in all our public
schools would be the wisest kind o
temperance legislation. 1t is a ques
ton of intelligence in the beginning
easily controlled if we then let on tin
light, but no easy task if we wait unit
it becomes one of imperious appetite.
All history proves that it is safe t.
trust great questions to the verdict o
the people, if they understand and he
lieve the truths in the case. If we ca
imbcd in the intelligence of the chill
dIen of this generation, before the,
are contaminated 10y it, the scientiti
facts about alcohol. they will Danish
and its vendors from the pale of hu
man society when they come To be va
tiers in our places. The Star of Beth
lehem of the temperance reform stand
over the hool-house. NJ. Ii. Hun
in \. f.. Journal of Education.