The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-12-14
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
LAYING <AE FOUNDATION.
Scientific Temperance Instruction in the
Public Schools.

Scientific Temperance Instruction in the
Public Schools.
The following are extracts from the
report at the recent w. C. 7. U. conven-
ton in Chicago of the department OF
scientific Temperance instruction:
"Within seven years the Legislatures
of twenty-seven States and the National
Congress have made the science of Tenn
perance mandatory study in schools
under their control. Long before the
next decade closes scientific Temper
ance will be compulsory study in every
public school in this republic.
''The lack Of variety of suitable
school manuals to teach this topic
seemed an insurmountable obstacle at
first. To urge the exclusive adoption of
the first books that met the need, and,
as long as they were the only ones that
did this, to oppose unworthy books, urg-
ing their revision, was an obvious,
though not pleasant duty that is no
longer imposed; for the revision of de-
fective books and the preparation of
other good ones is the great victory for
scientific Temperance of this year. As a
result Of our unflinching refusal for
four years to indorse books on this topic
that fell below our standards, and
of the hard work of the past
year, we now report as many good, we'll
graded Temperance physiologies, bear
ing our Endorsement, because conform
ing to our standards, as there are school
textbooks on most other topics. These
are issued by different publishers, and
among their authors are names known
to National and international fame. We
have now four series we commend, each
consisting of well-graded primary, in
termediate and highschool book.
''rhe best laws and the best books are
useless without interested teachers, but
each year shows the teachers more ready
to adopt practical methods as fast as
these are developed and presented. This
year teachers are reported as doing
more and better work than ever before.
''While it is yet hardly time to look
for results from this work, reports COM
ing from all parts of the country testify
that public opinion is being influenced
by what is taught in the schools; that
classes of people inaccessible by other
instrumentalities are being reached;
that in many cases the habits Of parents
are being changed, and that gener-
alton is in training for whom the saloon
will have no attractions. These results
are most marked where these laws are
best enforced with our Endorsed text
books in the hands of the pupils. Give
us time enough and goodbye to the
hallucination abroad in the land that
there is something good in alcohol for
beverage purposes, and goodbye to the
saloon that can not exist after that
hallucination is dispelled!
'"The great events in history that we
call progress have been the slow fruit
age Of seeds of truth sown in the human
mind. A little more than five hundred
years ago Wycliffe translated the Bible
into English. Volumes were chained to
reading desks in open churches, and the
printing-press that followed gave truth
wider hearing. AS surely as Luther
and the Reformation were the sequel of
the open Bible in the language of the
people, as surely as constitutional
liberty followed the Magma Charta and
the printing press, so surely will alcohol
be abolished from the habits of the
people who have learned through the
schools of its evil nature and effects,
and so surely will the overthrow of the
saloon follow the enactment of these
scientific Temperance laws and the
study Of these Temperance textbooks,
both of which are echoes of the pri-
mordial decree, Let there be light"