The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1897-07-22
For the Reporter.
Temperance Education.

New York has taken II forward step 10
the education Of the people ~ to the
evils of stimulants and narcotics. After
d fair discussion in both branches Of the
Legislature, they passed the Ainsworlh
law recently signed by the governor.
which requires he evils Of intemperance
to be taught Ia all public schools, any
instructor failing to comply forfeits his
pay. This law the saloon interests
fought TO the bitter end for they saw
that education would raise the next gen
GRAFTON to a stronger antagouism to their
present political corruption. 1t would
warn the boys in school Of the danger
OF indulgence in liquor of any kind. and
W hen they grew to manhood they would
not be the patrons of the saloons. The
demonstration could not be clearer; the
liquor-men fear and hate this law. If
education is not the final remedy why
should they oppose the law requiring
that education. There are many friends
of temperance who sheer at educational
methods because they require so much
time.
All natural processes require time; it
takes centuries to grow the giant oak
out of the acorn; it has taken thousands
of years to bring man to the present
state of civilization, and majority of
the human race are now barbarians.
Man cannot be made over by enacting a
law; they must be educated out of evil
into good. Education is the only civil.
ling process; it is by education that we
shall finally overcome evil. When Queen
Victoria was crowned, ignorance was
general forty per cent of the men and
sixty per cent of the women of Great
Britain could not write their names. and
infidelity was the order of the day.
Sixty years ago five out of every ten
working-men were professed infidels ::
those who could read at all read the
works of Thomas Paine and Robert Tay-
lor, men whose writings were filled with
disbelief; not one nottingham in a
hundred ever opened Bible. but from
its study they have advanced from semi
harbarism to the present state of civilian
ton. Had it not been for this education
and teaching there would not have been
any factories and mills grinding spruce
aud poplar into pulp, and the kennebec
would still be running through the pri-
meVal forest inhabited only by the
savage.
New York city spends for alcoholic
stimulants S90,000,000 annually, and
thereby supports $500 places where in
toXicatants are sold. Examining the
figures we see that each inhabitant ex-
ponds sixty-six and two-thirds dollars
each year for drinks, or about eighteen
cents per day. Now in the whole coun-
try in which there are 332. 295 drinking
places, there is spent each year for wine.
spirits and beer, S962 1872 s54, or about
$1,000 per saloon, $l3.74 per capita. DR..
'ralmage gives the above amount at
/ $1,000, 100000. When we add $500. 0OO.-
900 spent for tobacco it makes deplora-
BILE showing. There are 100000 arrests
each year for intoxication and disorderlv
conduct in New York city. and when we
add the poverty, crime degradation and
sin, the loss is much more. If the waste
could be used in clothing the naked,
/ feeding the hungry, and educating the
/ ignorant, what riches, glory and honor
and power for good would fall on this
country. All these things must be
/ piouSil dbOub ny thuNdl lDH lIlp Tell
i perate and prudent put their savings
into the banks, the Incorporate and i'm
/ prudent leave theirs at the grog-shops.
Man is made of the dust of the ground
aud inherits in his organism foundation
on which to build his knowledge of the
variety of nature and natures laws As
/ he chooses to make application SO the
i result must be. or he is like garden
i planted with the seeds of beautiful flow
ers and noxious weeds, rs he cultivates
j himself so the result must be; or he is
j like lump of potter's clay, which the
potter has the power to make, one yes
sci to honor and one to dshouor. 1t
does not make any difference whether
you take the whole world, or one man,
/ 1t is the clay of the same lump, and
when he exercises his benevolence,
charity and kindness, the enoblng prin-
j ciples of his nature he is a vessel of
honor, but when he calls Oh the baser,
selfish and rebelious principles. he is Il
vessel of dishonor. You may take man
in all his various ways, and we seem to
/ get the same result, the difference is in
] the habits we form, the company we
keep, the varied lessons we learn from
the schools we attend.
We have entertained the notion
That well rest the assertion
To take man as we find him,
And in the battle of life grind him
Man has implanted in his nature a
taste for saVory dishes and cordial drinks.
: If he become gluttonous, wine bibber,
and fills drunkard's grave. " no is to
blame? surely not God. He has made
an Incorporate use of the blessings, and
must suffer the pains and penalties of a
broken law of bis physical organization.
There is nothing in man to part with but
at loss. Every principle in mans NJ
;ure is beDovolently and charitably
given for the mans happiness; the sin
is in the excess the misuse. the abuse.
We must educate ourselves to walk by
the Golden Rule not by the slide rule. as
many of us are wont to do. The Great
Father has given us the facilities and
the square rule by which we can educate
ourselves up or down. He that lives in
harmony with the laws of nature and
grace is the more happy man, for the
same God which made the laws of ma
ture, made the laws of grace, and they
are inflexible, always the same, yester-
day, to-day and forever. Whoever uu-
dertakes to bend them to accommodate
the simple notions of man, kicks against