Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-06
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.
Great Britain Would Instruct It's PEG.
pie in Temperance.

pie in Temperance.
From the Birmingham Evening Post
Great interest in England is now taken in
the question Of national education. But
that interest seems to be chiefly directed to
the question as to how far the day schools
may be used to impart religious instruc-
ton according to the particular creed Of
the parents Of the children attending such
schools. However important it may be
that the principles of various creeds, with
their bearing upon future life should be
impaired to the scholars, there can be no
doubt Of the necessity for more thorough
education in matters pertaining to the life
that now Is. If our country is to hold its
own in the competition of the near future.
In this connection the example of the Unit
ed States In regard to a system of national
instruction in scientific temperance is well
worthy Of the consideration of the British
people. The effects Of intemperance upon
national deficiency have nowhere been so
closely studied out and SO thoroughly acted
upon as in the United States, and nowhere
else have the good results of abstinence
been so closely demonstrated. We have all
been made familiar with the power of
American capital the stress of American
competition and the superiority Of Ameri-
can workmen; but there has been great
luctance in this country to acknowledge
how much OF. these are due to a system of
national education in scientific temperance
in its bearing upon national efficiency.
Let us recognize that the consumption of
alcoholic liquors in the United States is
only about half the quantity per head of
what is consumed in the united kingdom,
and we may see our way to the solution of
the perplexing labor problem. Yet although
the consumption Of drink Is so comparative
ly low, so convinced are the educational
and commercial authorities of the states of
the evil effects that they recognize the need
for more extensive instruction in temper
ance matters and more stringent applica-
ton Of that knowledge in daily life. By the
laws of all the states instruction in scien-
tffic temperance is given in all the public
elementary schools. Under these laws
there are more than twenty-six millions of
children of school age in the United States
under this instruction. And all this has
taken place within the last twenty years.
The result Is that the properly instructed
entering into their inheritance Of COM
mercial supremacy In the world The i'm
portance Of temperance instruction so rec
ognized has lifted the question out Of the
category of "fads," to which so many bad
ly instructed people in this country consign
1t, and there the subject is one Of the inds-
pensable elements of knowledge In some
of the states penaltys1s attached to the
neglect of it; in some the topic must oc-
cupy from one-fourth to one-fifth space in
the books on physiology, and In others no
teacher who has not passed satisfactory
examination in the subject Is allowed to
teach.
What is the bearing Of this teaching on
the commercial world? One result is that
fully one million railway men and two mil
lion more in other employments are re-
quired to be total abstainers. The prohibit
ton Of the army canteen and the groggery
in the navy keeps the services free from
the drink evil. What the United States
has still to fight is the influx of immigrants
from the old world with their traditional
regard for liquor and their ignorance of it's
effects upon them. To counteract this the,
system Of national education in scientific
temperance is continued and enforced. with
lasting good to the country and to the COM
mercial spirit, which threatens to swamp
all Councillors.