The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-17
THE MODERN TEMPERANCE LEG
TIRE

ItsE MODEhA TEMPERANCE Lee
TURE.
1t is notable circumstance that with
In the past two or three years there has
been a noticeable iessening in volume Of
the movement which had so long pre-
vailed for a lessening of the drink evil
through the agency of public meetings
and appeals. The prohibition movement,
! too, during that period has lost much
of its old-time force. Religious and emo
ttonal agencies are of course still in
/ operation, but not at all to the extent
| to which they prevailed in former years.
Notwithstanding this, it Is undeniable
that intemperance is decreasing among
the people all over this country, and that
the drunkard is infinitely less frequent
! ly met with than ever before in our his
| tory. The force Of public opinion is
| all-powerful. No mere moral or financial
! consideration of itself has been found
to be available as a deterrent against
intemperance to anything like the same
degree that prevails as the result of a
condition Of general opinion which con-
dennis the drink habit and subjects tho
drunkard to a state of social outlawry.
Poverty has ever been, especially in our
great centers of population, a terrible
incentive to drunkenness. 1t is so, we
believe, even to a greater extent in the
British islands than elsewhere. But this
may be said to be due in large measure
to the hopelessness of the lives and the
unfavorableness of the environments of
the poorer classes.
While what may be called public sen.
timent on the subject of the evil of in
temperance is working daily and hourly
toward a material lessening of the ex-
tent of the evil, there is force of even
greater power that students of the ques-
ton until very recently took but little
account of. It is the power exercised on
men by the conditions attending their
pursuit of their several vocations To-
day it is extremely difficult, and becom-
ing more difficult daily, for any man
with the reputation of a drinking man
to secure employment in any responsible
calling.
Whereas, not many years ago, a man
of accepted abilitx could secure. profitable
employment at his own particular pur-
suit Notwithstanding a recognized ten
dency on his part to indulge in drink,
today. no matter what his recognized
ability may be- he Is discarded. The
drinking lawyer, at any time up to ten
or fifteen years ago, was sure of his
clentage if his measure of ability in his
profession was regarded as higher than
those around him. Many of our ablest
lawyers in the past, and good proper
ton of Our public men Of eminence, were
noted for their convivial habits In the
medical profession, too, it was not at all
an unusual thing to encounter frequent
~ a doctor well known to be given to
drink who, because of his skill, had his
services in general demand Great al
lowance was made for exceptional abil-
ity, and not infrequently decidedly con-
vivial habits We're looked upon as an ac-
compartment of such exceptional skill
and ability. ,.r...
Today this is entirely changed. The
world is not so exacting in it's demand
for superior power on the part of the in
dividual as it is in. its insistence that
what he undertakes he shall carry out
with exactitude and absolute reliability.
The besetting sin of drink is an absolute
disqualification in all large business es-
Establishments. No corporation will,
knowingly, engage the services of any
man who is addicted to the habit. It ia
not, of course, that the employer cares
anything particularly about the moral
aspect Of the matter, so much as it is
that the great quality of reliability is alb
sent.
So it is that entire abstinence from in
toXicants is deemed a prime essential to
large proportion of the positions held
by men in modern employment. There
is a better assurance thus offered of
continued and reliable service. 1t is in
positions of trust involving the handling
of moneys that the results of the asso-
Citations springing from drink are most
seriously thought Of In the other posi-
tons in industrial life it Is the effect on
the mans capacity for the best work
that is regarded. No man can give his
best service who drinks Much or lit
tie, man for man, he who INDUCES in
intoxicants is no match in the race for
him who avoids drink wholly. His value
can never be the same.
These are the considerations which are
daily forcing themselves on the under
standing Of the present generation. They
| are becoming more important as time
advances. They do more than all the
temperance lectures and all the prohi-
bition movements of the past could ever
do to reach individual Judgment. They
are fatal to the growth of intemperance,
and they are the best allies that society
or the church has yet found in the great