The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-01-07

Recently a writer in the London
Times made an elaborate defense of the
use Of alcoholic drinks, trying to prove
that they are not only harmless but
necessary TO the highest physical state,
and that only in excess aud to the Gin
capable and feeblc-minded' do they
become injurious. Contrasting the
number and character Of those who use
intoxicating liquors moderately" with
the half million or so of (mainly) dis
reputable people who use them immoder-
ately, he contended that the great major
ty could not Justly be expected to give
up an agreeable and wholesome beverage
for the possible reformation of the small
minority. The EUeninq Post, of this
city says the moral question ~hich is
involved in the problem whether "Those
who can drink in moderation are bound
to give up drinking, for the sake of
those who cannot drink in moderation"
is one of which sit is not possible to
throw much light by experiment"
This Is very queer doctrine. Expert
ment does show the force of example
in drinking. The Post, having conceded |
that the "one thing about alcohol which |
seems to be settled is that it is the most
potent, direct cause" of 'poTerty, crime |
and disease" it must logically maintain |
that the good of society requires that |
this cause be removed, and the moral /
question has great deal to do with it. |
1t may be true that mo man can make |
sure that, by excluding wine from the |
table, he will save his sons from becom
ing drunkards;' but he can make sure |
that his example Is against and not for |
drunkenness. He knows that the |
tendency of drinking is toward drunk
enness. If he Uses wine, and his sons |
become drunkards, can he be sure that |
it was not his example that made them |
so? And if he cannot be sure that the |
force of his example will not help to make |
drunkards of his sons, is he not very sell
sci fish father to insist gratifying his own
wishes at such a cost to his sons? The
general good requires this sacrifice from
The strong for the benefit of the weak.
The force of d good example in Tenn
perance seems to the Post to be largely |
wasted, because there are so few oppor
tunities for exercising 1T. This is a
very singular statement. Most of the
drinking in America" are its words,
is done in bars, in which nobody can
set a good example at all, and very
little of it in places in which total
abstainers can exhibit their abstinence"
If drinkers lived entirely in saloons,
completely shut out of the world, they
might lpossibly be inaccessible to the
influence of example; but there is not
drinker alive that does not see and con-
trast the effects of sober and drunken
life No abstemious man can hide his
example. The most that can be said is
that influences do not always save, nor
do they have the same force on all men
but they do work vast amount OF
The Post doubts the
efficiency of prohibitiye legislation, and
says that drinking in Maine appears to
have been very great despite the law"
and that there seems to be no fixed and
certain connection between prohibition
and consumption; but its closing
sentences imply a strong reliance on
law in opposing the rawlings of intemper
ance. Speaking of the great increase in
the use of ardent spirits in France and
Switzerland, it says: "The reports on
this subject are alarming and indicate
the need of very decided restraint of
some kind, if on no other ground, out of
regard for the public health, " !.
Ildepeudent.