Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-01-16
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF iNTEMPERANCE.
The Paramount Question fs Not One Of
Politics or of Social Classes, But Ono
Pertaining to Public Health and Morals
-Alcohol q Positive Poison

1he paramount Question is Not One OF
foiitics or of Social Classes, But Ono
Pertaining to Public H HeaIth and Morals
-Alcohol a Positive Poison.
In his address before the American Med.
lcal temperance Association, DR. N s
Davis, M. D., LID, of Chicago, Presi-
dent OF the association, said:
ihe paramount question before the in
telligent men and women of Christendom
to-day is not one Of politics or of political
parties or OF social classes, but one solely
pertaining to public health and morals.
1T is whether alcohol and other we'll
known narcotic drugs are really wholesome
use; or are they absolutely subtle, decep-
tive and dangerous poisons, stealthily de-
stroying both public health and morals,
and constantly multiplying hereditary de-
generates in all classes of human society?
IT the former, they are entitled to the
same treatment as other articles of COM
merce and general use. If the latter, then
their regulation belongs exclusively to the
ponce and sanitary authorities aided Ey
the courts. They cannot be both. That
alGohoiI. as it exists in fermented and dis
titled liquors, is a positive proto-plasmic
poison, directly impairing every natural
structure and function of the living BODY
IN proportion to the quantity used, and
the length of time its use is containucd is
proved by the results of every experiment
by eml--ent scientific men, both in this
country and Europe.
And their We dict is abundantly con-
firmed by the history and condition of the
inmates of every asylum for the poor, the
feeble minded, the epileptics, the insane
and the inebriataes; those of every refor-
matory and prison, and by the records of
every, police and criminal court, and by
the details of every well-kept registry of
vital statistics. As concerns danger to
human life, every intelligent reader OF
the public press knows that the ordinary
use of alcoholic liquors by persons claim
ing to be in health is the direct car5e of
more suicides, homicides and murderers
every month tAan is produced by all TIE
other poisons known to toXicologists in u
year. Then why not now, at the begin
ming of this twentieth century of the
Christian era, cease calling alcoholic
liquors stimulants or restoratives, and not
only speak of them as subtle and danger
GUS poisons in every household. but also
concentrate all the facts known to science,
clinical experience and of economic and
criminal records, in favor of having al
eoEol and all liquids containing two per
cent. or more OF it, placed on the statutes
of the several States along with arsenic,
strychnine, etc, to be sold and used un-
der the same regulations and penalties az
other poisons dangerous to the public
aalth and morals? II this were accom-
pEshed it would soon remove one of the
chief corrupting influences from the gem
eral field of politics, and place it under the
domain of the police and health authori-
ties, aided by the courts, where it legiti-
mately belongs. And it would do more to
prevent tuberculosis and all forms Of hu-
man degcneracy than all the other meas
ures combined"