The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1902-05-15
THE DRINKER IN NEW LIGHT
Argument to Prove That There Is
Spiritual Anarchism in the
Drink Habit

Alcohol is the poisonprinciple in all
liquors produced by distillation or
fermentation. To say that a drink is
Intoxicating" is to say that its essen
tial note or quality is poison-"toxi-
cum''-and its consumption ultimates
in death, though use in small quanti-
ties may compOrt with apparent
health and long-continued life. This
does not initiate against the fact that
alcohol, if not lethal in immediate re-
suit, is a narcotic, affecting the organ
of mind.
The act of drinking intoxicants,
then, in its last analysis, gagged ac
cording to highest ethical standards,
involves mind-suicide, and this, though
insanity may not be Immediately pro-
duced in its darkest phases. Every
man who drinks, or gives an intoXicant
to others to drink, imperils the in
tegrity of his mental life and plays
with his mind in such a way as to re-
duce or overthrow his moral liability,
jeopardizing the normal exercise of
his will in self-control; yet thousands
v.
drink for the purpose of benumbing
the mental faculty and destroying or
impairing the moral force.
At heart, the first conscious act of
drinking an intoXicant is a deliberate
risk of the moral self, delibora
placing of the mind, with all OF its
inherent powers, beyond control. The
drinker knows that he may becor ir-
responsible, or a criminal. under the
influence of liquor, and in almost
every case he assumes this risk, ard so
throws himself in mental, moral in
capacity upon his friends, or upon the
state, Ito be taken care Of
In this act of deliberate, defiant sur
render of self-control, the abandon
ment of the soul to possible influences
tending towards the unsettlement of
reason, and the decentralization of the
will, lie all the germs of anarchism-
OF, rather, of anarchy. Just distinc-
tions may be between anarchism, as a
philosophy of society, and anarchy, as
the overthrow of all constituted au-
thority.
The drinker reduces himself, or
tends TO reduce himself, to anarchic
conditions, which, if universalized,
would destroy the state in black chaos
Of course, the drinker deceives him
self in thinking that he drinks for
pleasure, but his secret thought is a
defiance of the law which holds him
responsible for conduct In his inner
most soul, he dares withdraw himself
from normal relations to God and self
and society, throwing the moral do
main into disorder. | appeal to
every drinler if this is not the case. I
ask if it is not true that when a man
drinks at bar, or in,private, or at table,
he is not conscious of transgressing
the immutable laws of moral response
bility, defying God to prevent his act
ing as he pleases.
The drink-act is violation of rela-
tive rights, and this is known to the
drinker, who secretly hopes that, be-
cause he is drunk, his violation of law
will be condoned. And this is known
to the liquor-seller, who, viciously, for
the sake of money, gives to fellow
man that which he knows will tend to
degrade him below the level of re-
sponsibility, and to impair the latent
powers of self-control.
For this reason. it is logical in the
highest degree to oenounce the liquor
seller as an abettor of anarchy, be-
cause his TRACE develops all elements
of lawlessneNs. His patrons obtain the
poison which creates anarchic condi-
lions, dividing with him the response
bility of the crime. The United
States government, disavowing the
principle of licensure, levies tax
upon the traffic and great political or
CARNATIONS pronounce in favor of tax
or license, lest they interfere with
personal liberty" forgetting that all
conditions of personal liberty are vio-
lated when an intoxicant is introduced
into the pIysico-psyhic organism
George NJ. Hammell, in Union Signal.