Omaha daily bee., 1886-09-12
APPEAL FOR PROHIBITION.
The Alcohol Habit Tyrant Whose Power
Ends Only al The Grave,
SabbBiarianism Denounced Us a
Drummer for Iippling shops
The Eyil Increasing
Throughout the World.
Feiu oao7Id IN me september Forum

the yoke of dcspots had made deliver
auce more desirable than life itself,
despotism had reached the term of its
power. When the rule OF priests had
made the hatred of shams burn hotter
than the fire of he stake, no Jesuitical
intrigucs could prevent the triumph of
protestant revolt. But though the eril
of intemperance has long been reccg-
nlzed as the blighting curse of modern
civilization, the sorefelt need of relief
seems thus far to have revealed no
remedy.
After half century Of incessant labor,
the champions of reform must admit the
humiliating truth that the poison traffic
continues to increase in ratio exceed
irg that of our rapidly increasing popu-
lation. In the United States the con-
sumption of alcoholic liquors Of all kinds
, has increased As per cent in the past fif
teen yeas. The consumption of lager
beer has nearly doubled in twelve years.
Since 1866 the capital invested in the
breweries OF Great Britain and Germany
has increased at the average rate of Al
per cent year, or more than twice as
fast as the general average of the con
structive manufactures" In parts of
Europe where the ebb of all other indus.
tries has enforced degree OF trugalty
unknown to the revival periods of me.
dieval ascehcism, the liquor traffic still
swells the tide of revenue and of disease.
Remedy after remedy has been proposed,
tested, and changed for another. doomed
TO a similar failure.
And yet the general tendency OF those
changes reveals an advance in the right
direction. Philosophers have long thought
it probable that the historians of the
future will deal with the records of legis
lative reforms, rather than with the bull
letins of battles and commandments, and
the value of such records in characteriz-
ing the spirit of the age is strikingly
illustrated by the chronicle of temper
ance legislation. The necessity of con-
trolling the grosser excesses of intem-
perance was always more or less
recognized, but until lately the
efforts to that purpose were directed
to the suppression of the symptoms
rather than to the removal of the cause.
There was a time when the belief in the
necessity of alcoholic stimulation would
have proved wholly unassailable axiom,
even If legislators could have been in
as the preservation of health. 1t was the
age of anti-naturalism, when the inter
ests OF mankind were systematically sac
riticed to the interests of dogma 1t
was the millennium of madness, when the
promotion of sanitary habits was thought
OF far less Importance than the enforce
ment OF insane ceremonies when the
images of miracle-mongers lodged in
giided domes while the image of God
rotted In a hoyel, when the slaves of the
church slaughtered one another for the
golden streets of the New Jerusalem
while the streets of their own cities reeked
with filth, when men were tortured to
death for whispering a doubt against the
pretensions OF their spiritual taskmasters
but were freely permitted to poison
themselves and their neighbors with
spirituous denominations, since mot that
which goeth into the mouth defleth a
man." In that golden age of anti-physl-
cal doctrines, temperance had no chance
whatever. Cavaliers and commoners
We'd in ''wassail, " nay, the moral exemp-
lars of Christendom outguZZled the thirst
lest laymen.
The monastery of Weltenburg on the
Danube operated the largest brewery of
the German empire, and thousands of
prelates owned both brewerIes and vine
yards. Spiritual tyranny and spirituous
license went hand in hand. Yet, even
then, communities had TO legislate against
the bestial abuse of that license; and
there were voluntary friends of temper
apce, men of higher ideals, scholars
and philanthrophlsts, who abhorred
drunken riots, though they loved
mended self denial which they found
often more easy TO preach than TO prac-
tice Their motto was: Moderation.
Be temperate in all things. Keep the
safe middle course
A dangerous fallacy turks in those pre-
cepts Ii may be safe to compromise
conflicting duties, as charity and econ
omy, patriotism and domestic obligations;
but where is the golden mean OF virtue
and vicef How keepa safe middle course
on the slippery road TO ruin. After open
ting the flood gates, not one man in a
thousand can stay the progress of a be-
setting vice, and of all besetting vices
the alcohol habit is the most inevitably
progressive. An unnatural appetite has
no natural Limits. For weeks, sometimes
for months, young topers have 10 strug-
gle aga nSt the protests of a better in
stinct, but the final surrender of that
monitor marks the incipience of NOR.
bud craving, which every qualification
makes only more exoroitant. For
by ard by the jaded organism fails
TO respond TO the spur, the stimulant
pals, but the hankerlng for stimulation
continues, and the topper has to satisfy
his thirst either by increasing the guam
tum of his tipple or by resorting TO
stronger poison. After kindllng the
flames OF alcoholism IT is VAIN TO urge
the advantages of a moderate confiagra-
ton; one might as well recommend a
moderate use of the privilege to ignite a
barrel of gunpowder. We cannot toler-
ate the use OF intoxlcants and hope 10
prevent intoNlcation.
The lessons of experience, if not physi-
ology, gradually taught the friends of
temperance to relinquish that hope. A
strong party of the Reform league de-
clared in favor of total abstinence from
alcoholic beverages. and devised plans
for the effective propaganda of their
tenets. They doubted the expediency
of coercion in "a matter of private
habits, bat shrank from no sacrifice in
bravlng the odium of personal intoler-
ance, IN advocating their principles in
public lectures, IN printing and dstrb.
uting millions of eloquent pamphlets.
Then own habits were generally distin-
guished by strict conformity to their
principles. They hoped TO cure the alco-
hol habit by illustrating in theory and
practice the advantages of uncomprom