The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-05-18
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
THE SOsEREST NATION.
We Are the Most Temperate People ON
Earth PropOrtionally.

We Are the Most Temperate People on
Earth Proportionaily.
In spite of the widespread impression
that the United States is a nation OF
drunkards, its people are in reality the
soberest and most temperate in the
world. Whatever drunkenness we have
to endure comes chiefly from abroad,
brought here by people who retain their
old-world habits, or transmitted by
them in the nature of appetite to their
children born here. Except for this
constant accession to the drunkard list
by importation, not one man in 10000
among US would be drunkard.
Our best and most temperate foreign
population comes from the united king
dom. But in that country the drink
bill for 1891 is placed by DR.. Dawson
Burns, of the united kingdom alliance,
at SOS, 900, 900. In the United States in
1890. according to Wilbur L. Copeland,
of the Voice, the drink bill was 81 49,
900, 900, or about sixty yer cent. larger
than in the united kingdom, though
the population is eighty per cent.
larger, the wealth a quarter larger,
and the average drink twice as high in
price. Taking into consideration all
these facts, our liquor consumption is
not more than one-half that of the next
soberest country on earth.
The accommodations for getting
drunk are also greater in the mother
country" than here. In England and
Wales, with less than half the popula-
ton of the United States, crowded into
an area about equal to New York,
Massachusetts and Connecticut, there
are 12s,0OO public houses or drinking
places, while in this entire country
there are only al, 900, or ten per cent.
more. The compact population of Eng
land and Wales has a public house for
every 2O2 persons, while the United
States has one for every $50. The aver
age English city has public house to
every 173 persons; in this country the
average proportion is considerably less.
Even in New York, an essentially for
eign city, there is only one licensed sa-
loon for every 200 inhabitants, while in
Philadelphia the proportion is about
one per thousand. In most of the cities
of the country the saloons are closed by
law on Sunday; in all of the united
kingdom the law permits them to re-
main open.
These facts should encourage the
temperance worker to greater effort.
The difference in the habits of the peo-
pie of the two nations IS due mainly to
the agitation of the question that has
been going on here for seventy years,
and the legislation which has been the
fruit thereof. In England there has
never been any such temperance agita-
ton or any restrictive act passed by
parliament The act of 1s2s placed the
licensing of public houses in the hands
of the very respectable local magis-
tracy. which has made it a uniform
rule to renew the license of every pub
lie house, however disreputa BILE. But
recently the demand for some local
regulation has grown so overwhelming
that Sir Vernon Harcourt has intro
duced bill which proposes that two
thirds majority OF the popular vote in
parish may on three years notice pro
hibit all public house or grocers' IL
censes; eating houses, however, are
left untouched. The hating. the ten
derness with which the subject is APP
preached in this measure, we'll ex-
hibits the power of the liquor traffic
an politics. Many of the most power
full statesmen and leaders are suspected
of possessing a vested interest in the
sale of grog.
Taking into account the fact that not
only the united kingdom, but all Eu-
rope is constantly unloading its drunk
arts and most vicious classes upon us,
the facts which we have cited speak
volumes for the strength and progress
of the temperance sentiment in the
United States. The liquor power may
overcome the temperance forces in leg
islaturcs and city councils, but it can
not persuade men against their convic-
tions and consciences. And it Is be-
cause of the American conscience and
sense of decency that we still remain
the soberest and most moral, as well as
the most intelligent and prosperous,
nation of the earth.-Troy Times