Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-02-03
HE uPAs TRge OF DRINK.
Why 1t Flcurishes While Other Vices
Yield to Reform

Why 1t Flourishes While Other Vices
Yield to Reform.
How shall We explain the fact that
the power of public opinion has proved
so much more effective in the struggle
against the spread of the gambling vice
and the social evil than in the crusade
against the curse of the alcohol habit?
The explanation can certainly not be
found in the lack of persistent effort.
Without the tenth part OF the energy
and the moral enthusiasm devoted 10
the promotion OF temperance, gambling,
lotteries and the traffic IN obscene liter
ature have been reduced to practical
minimum Gaming, in It's worst forms,
enjoyed for generations the protection
of civilized governments in Europe and
America, the interests Of the gambler
we-e protected by the inyeteracy of the
vice and the lavish expenditure of money
Drihes, and yet we see that in less than
a quarter of century the public gam
bling hells of Chrisendom have been
reduced 10 a den maintaining precan-
Gus existence in small prinGpahty Of
the Italian peninsula.
The only logical explanation can be
found in the circumstance that those
vices have been generally recognized as
unqualified evils, while large proper
ton Of our fellow men still labor under
the fatal delusion of the belief that,
within certain limits, taste for intox-
icating beverages can be INDUCED
with IMMUNITY. They persist in calm
ing their own misgivings with the belief
III the harmlessness of moderate drink
Ing, and of the '-Inilder stimulants, and
confess the evils Of intemperance only
| in the sense of al admission that all ex-
| cess is injurious. The fact that stimu-
lants can be swallowed in health endan.
gering overdoses," they argue, docs
| not justify the plan to lessen that dan
ger by antiliquor laws. We might as
| well prohibit the sale OF meat and sugar,
because surfeit of meat pies and pas
try may result in dyspepsia. Be TEN
perate in all things, and defend the pal
ladium of personal liberty"
And too many of our brethren encour.
age those delnsions by still ascribing in
temperance TO the temptations of unre-
strained appetite" and the passions OF
| unregenerate nature" The dread OF
chronic alcoholism may deter many
young men from the perilous first steps
| on the road TO ruin, and the grim logic
| of experience may induce few half con
| firmed drunkards to renounce their vice
IN time, but We can never hope to get d
stroke at the root of the upa5 tree till We
can enforce the general recognition OF
the truth, that the alcohol habit in all
its forms is a wholly abnormal passion
| as distinct from a natural appetite as
poison from wholesome food; that the
indulgence of that passion, even In the
slightest degree, is resisted by the
veto of sanitary instinct which car
| never be outraged with IMMUNITY. and
that the apparent exhilaration following
the qualification of long perverted ap
petite is invariably followed by that do
pressing reaction which makes every
poison vice a losing game and inexorably
defeats the attempts to attain a surplus
of happiness by the influence of unnat
ural stimulants. In other words, we
must deprive the rumseller of facti
tious moral support by opening the eyes
of his victims TO the fact that the alcohol
vice is an unqualified evil. We must
convince the dupes of the stimulani
habit that our protest is not directed
| against an enjoyment injurious only in
| case of excess, but against an unnatural
vice, incompatible with the interests OF
health and happiness, and moreover con,
stantly tending to assume the ruinous
form of progressive and at last ire
sistible passion.
We must try TO make "moderate" tip
pling as odious as moderate" theft and
moderate" polygamy. We cannot at
ford 20 waste our time in combating the
superficial errors Of the alcohol dupes
while we ignore the radical mistake a,
the bottom of their delusion. We must
learn to direct our efforts against the
hidden germs of a poison plant which
has for ages resisted our attacks upon its
exuberant branches.-Fehx l.. Oswald
NJ. D.. in Union Signal.