The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-03-07

citizenship and that it is not an I'M
aginary one is proved by the experiences
of all who have much to do with
drunkards. If you doubt this, sit on
grand jury and attempt to extract the
truth from witnesses in liquor cases.
Test our proposition by similar refer
ence to every qualification for good cit
izenship, and you will find that the
drink habit antagonizes every one.
Temptations to drink, temptations
sanctioned by the laws of our State
which licenses men to spread snares in
the path of the unwary, temptations
increased by organized avarice with
out and often by inherited appetite
within, await every step in life Of
every pupil in the public schools.
These schools can not fulfill their mis-
sion of preparing for citizenship if they
send their pupils out without being
forewarned and forearmed against this
danger.
The State fails of fulfilling the sacred
obligation laid upon it, if it neglects
this duty through the public schools;
because,
1st Through them it comes into
closest communication with the chill
dren.
2. The especial work of the public
school is training for citizenship, the
very point assaulted by the drink habit.
3. Science furnishes the weapons of
defense against this danger, and to the
public schools the State has intrusted
the teaching of those principles and
facts of science necessary for the future
citizen to know.
How shall the State do this workP
BY requiring every school receiving
public money to teach the facts con-
! cerGing the effects of stimulants and.
narcotics
1t is fact, not theory, they should be
required to teach. A knowledge of
these facts, which rest upon indisputa-
bic authority, is vastly more useful in
training for citizenship than a knowl-
edge of the procession of the equinoxes
or of allegation alternate.
The authority on which rest the
teachings concerning these effects upon
the human body are DIR. Rush, who is
at once the father of medicine and
the father of this reform in Amer;
ca; Drs. Carpenter and IRE, who's
works are received as authority
in every English-speaking medical
college; DR.. Christison, of Peterborough,
the highest authority on poisons; DR.
Richardson, from whom we have
quoted; DR.. Willard Parker, whose re-
cent death has left n vacancy in the
medical profession of America no living
man can fill; Erasmus and Charles
Darwin, to whom we are indebted for
valuable facts showing the hereditary
effects of intoXicants; Prof. Youmans,
Baron Liebig, the great German chem
list, and scores of others whose authority
is acknowledged in both hemispheres.
For the effect upon the State of the
drink habit among its citizens, we refer
to Bismarck, John Bright, Gladstone,
Sir Wilfred Lawson, Sir Ashley Cooper,
Abraham Lincoln, Henry Wilson, James
A. Garfield, Lord Shaftesbury, Canon
Farrar, Judge Noah Davis, Count VOL
lowicz, Sir Henry Thompson, General
Havelock, the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Joseph Cook, Mark Hopkins and
hundreds of others who have made
life study of political economy.
Already the Legislatures of States
wherein are one-eighth of all the chill
dren in this Republic have met their
obligation to these children by enacting
laws making instruction concerning the
effects of alcoholic drinks and narcotics
obligatory in all schools receiving pub
lie money. For the sake of its children
in the public schools to-day, destined to
bear the burdens of citizenship to-mor-
row, we ask our Legislature to do like
wise