The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1903-01-17
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND.
Great Britain Would Instruct Its Peo-
pie In Temperance.


Great interest in England is now talk
en- in the question of national educa-
ton. But that interest seems to ue
chiefly directed to the ques ton us to
how far the day schools may be used
to impart religious instruction" ac-
Cording 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 a future life,
should be impaired to the scholars,
there can be no doubt of the necessity
for a more thorough education in mat
ters 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 United
States in regard to a system of ma
tiOnal instruction in scientific temper
anCe is well worthy of the COnsideId-
ton of the British people The effects
of intemperance upon national dehCl-
ency have nowhere been SO closely
studied out and so thoroughly acted
upon as in the United States, and no
where else have the good results of alb
stinence 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 American workmen; but
there has been great reluctance in this
country to acknowledge how much Of
these are due to a system of national
education in scientific temperance in
it's bearing upon national efficiency.
Let us recognize that the consump-
ton OF alcoholic liquors in the United
States is only about half the quantity
per head of what is consumed in the
Iii nd
way to the solution of the perpleXing
labor problem. Yet although the con-
sumption of drink is so comparatively
low, so convinced are the educational
and commercial authorities of the
states of the evil effects that they rec
ognize the need for a more extensive
instruction in temperance matters ana
a more stringent application OF that
knowledge in daily life. By the laws
of all the states instruction in scien-
tific temperance is given in all the pub
lie elementary schools. Under these
laws there are more than twenty-siX
millions of children of school age in
the United States under this instruc-
ton. And in all this has taken place
within the last twenty years The re-
suit is that the properly instructed are
entering into their inheritance of COM
mercial supremacy in the world. The
Importance of temperance instruction
so recognized has lifted the question
out of the category of "fads," to which
so many badly instructed people in this
country consign it, and there the sub
ject is one of the Indispensable ele-
ments of knowledge. In some of the
states a penalty is attached to the
neglect of it; in some the topic must
occupy from one-fourth to one-tifth
space in the books on physiology, and
in others no teacher who has not pass
ed a 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 million more in other employ
ments are required to be total abstain
ers. The prohibition of the army can
teen 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 tradi-
tional regard for liquor and their ig-
norance 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 competitors.-Bi