Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-03-02
REV. JOSEPH COOK ON TEMPER.
ANCE.
What IL spent for Liquor In this
Country,

country
In the prelude to one of Mr.. Cooks recent
lectures he said, substantially
The law of average, as exhibited in the
experience of life assurance companies dur
ing the past forty years, has once for all
tiiumphanlly JUSTIFIED the temperance prin-
clplc OF total abstinence. When | was in
London took much pains to ascertain cx-
actly the facts as to the experience of British
me assurance societies in making dstnc-
ton between moderate drinkers and total
abstaiuers. Every one knows, or ought to
know, that for nearly half u century now
many OF the best life assurance societies of
oil England have insured moderate drinkers
ana total abstainers in separate sections, and
mat bonus has been paid to the section
fnauc up OF total abstainers of seven, thirteen.
seventeen, and, in some cases, twenty three
per cent over that paid the section of moder-
ate drinkers. Here is commercial view Of
,h9 largest phlanthropic Significance.
European and American temperance
methods and crceds differ somewhat
TO our disadvantage Undoubtedly we
have carried the legal remedies for in
temperance farther than Europe has
zone, but Mt present we are flaming
the air with the legal wing of the temperance
reform, and seem to have forgotten the
moral wing in large degree. wish to lift q
ootc OF warning against trying to fly
NE temperance cause with one wing.
Whenever VIC have used only the legal
wing or only the moral wing, the fight Of
lhe temperance cause has been sorry spiral.
III always must be such under similar circum-
Stances. There is not ica' her IN either Of
tnese temperance wings that we can dispense
WIN. One OF the most mischevous things
IN lhe temperance cause appears 20 be the
night OF the feathers with each other: not
only wing with wing, but feather with feath-
or in single wing
Lock for an instant a, the smallest lower
leather OF the moral wing business prudence.
put In ono hand all the money we spend
Tor our civil service. 1t is an enormous
amount, about four hundred millions year.
WIN That weigh down what we spend for
llquor put IN this right-hand scale the liq.
uor bill Of the United States and the left-hand
scale goes up. | add to what we pay for the
civil service all we pay for the army the left
hand goes up yeti All we pay for the navy
il goes up yet All we pay TO Congress, in.
Guiding the river and harbor appro-
prlation bills Llaughtcrl; ii goes up
yet! All we pay to State govern.
ments; it goes up yet. All we pay to
county governments and to city governments
this scale with all these weights in it goes w
yet: aid all we pay to town governments
and for common school education out of the
taxes on school districts, and yet this scale
goes up. The National census bureau in.
forms us that about 700 millions is the amount
put into the left-hand scale under the cir.
cumstances | have named but the mos,
| careful statisticians say, and the New York
IHOune brought these facts before the pub.
| lie not long ago, that at least 500 millions is
| the actual liquor bill Of the United States.
That is one feather of this mighty wing.
undertake to maintain unflinchiagly what
MIR. Gladstone has said, that the intem.
pcrance Of the Anglo Saxon races,
especially Of Englishmcn, Scsichmen, and
| Americans, has injured us more than war, pes.
thence, and famine. Wcare the most drunk
en- Nations on earth 1t is not too much to
say that if we shake of ntempercnce as
| thoroughly as the llndoos and Turks have
done, we should probably double the income
of the Uniled States and of the United King
dom. am not declaiming. insist upon it
| that these are carefully verified statistical
results of our recent investigation. Tue
Massachusetts bureau of statistics has affirm
ed soemnly in an official document. that in
temperance enters as leading cause into
| eighty-four per cent of the crimes brought to
the notice of the law in this State, and yet
his exccllcncy, the present governor of Mass
achusetts, did not do himself the honor Of
mentioning intemperancc when lately, in a
long message, he passed fne-tootA tomb
through, the hair OF this commonwealth in
search i3r abuses
The (hurch of England Temperance soci-
ETY., not a fanatical body at all, has two sec
tons one for total absaincIs, aud one for
moderate drinkers But when it organizes a
rescue section, and sends agents down into
the slums to recover dtunkalds, it insists al
ways that these men shall take a pledge Of
absolutely total abstinence. | say that not
only every preacher, but every church mem
Der, rich or poor, especially if his position us
an employer of labor makes him trcIis-
work over which many lives run, should be
a member Of the rescue section Of society.