Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-12-05
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANcE.

"he Blood of the Nation-HIOst Excess in
the Use of Alcohol is Not Due to
Primitive Appetite - The Power of
bad Influence.
President David Starr Jordan, of the
Leland Stanford University, has pub
lished in the Popular Science Monthly
series of articles entitled "The Blood of
the Nation: A Study of the Decay of
Races Through the Survival of the Unfit"
That class of philosophers who are en-
deavoring to establish the theory that
drunkenness and it's attending vices and
miseries are clearly part Of the progress
in Dr. Jordan's article Conceding to
those gentlemen a certain amount of truth
which it would be extremely difficult to
prove in behalf of their theories, DR.. Jor-
dan says.
progress should be considered in this con-
nection. Authorities do not agree as, to
the final result of alcohol in race selec'
ton Doubtless, in the long run, the
drunkard will be eliminated, and perhaps
certain authors are right in regarding this
there is great force in DIR. Amos G.. War
ner's remark, that of all caustics gangrene
is the most expensive. The people of
Southern Europe relatively temperate.
They have used wine for centuries, and 1T
is thought by Archdall Reid and others
be found in this long use of alcoholic bev.
erages. All those with vitiated or uncon-
trollable appetites have been destroyed in
the long experience with wine. leaving
only those with normal tastes and normal
ability of resistance. The free use of wine
is, therefore. in this view, cause Of
final temperance, while intemperance
RACES only among those races which have
not long known alcohol, and have not be-
come by selection resistant to. it. The
savage races which have never known al
cohol are even less resistant, and are soon.
er DESTROYED by it.
"In all this there must be certain ele-
ment of truth The view. however, ig.
nores the evil effect on the nervous sys.
TEN of long-continued poisoning, even II
the poison be only in moderate amounts.
The temperate Italian, with his daily semi
saturation. is no more a normal man than
the Scotch farmer with his occasional
sprees The nerve disturbance which wine
| effects is an evil, whether carried to ex-
cess in regularity or irregularlty. we
know too little of its final result on the
race to give certainty to our speculatlons.
It is moreover true that most excess in
the use of alcohol is not due to primitive
appetite. 1t is drink which causes appe-
| tite. and not appetite which seeks Tor
drink. In given number OF drunkards
! but a very few become such through IN
born appetite. 1t is influence of bad ex-
ample. lack of courage. false idea of man
illness, or some defect in character or mis-
| fortune in environment which leads to the
first steps in drunkenness. The taste
once established takes care of itself. In
earlier times, when the nature of alcohol
was unknown and total abstinence was un-
dreamed of, it was the strong, the bolster
Gus, the energetic, the apostle of The
strenuous life' who carried all things to
excess. The wassai bowl, the bumper OF
ale. the fagon of wine, all these were the
attribute of the strong. We cannot say
that those who sank in alcoholism thereby
illustrated the survival of the tttest. Who
can say that as the Latin races became
temperate they did not also become doclle
and weak? In other words considering
the influence of alcohol alone, unchecked
by an educated conscience. we must ad-
nit that it is the strong and vigocous, not
the weak and perverted, that are de-
stroyed by it. At the best, we can only
saw that alcoholic selection is a complex
| force. which makes for temperance-if at
| all at fearful cost of life which without
alcoholic temptation would be well worth
preserving -,
DR.. Jordan, it is to be presumed. would
not care to be understood as indorsing the
idea that the wine-drinkng countries OF
Europe have been made temperate by their
wine-drinlling. He is probably much too
we'll acquainted with the current history
of France and the other so-called wine
countries to be in ignorance of the trns
state of affairs there New Voice,