The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-24
CALABASH
IS GIVEN
Research Clubs Token
to DR.. Mary Roberts
Smith.

ested audience. DR.. Smith, as in
all her other lectures given under the
auspices of the Young Mems Research
Club handled her subject in a master
full manner.
| At the close of the address, which
was on Neglected Features of Tenn
perance Agitation short business
meeting of the club was held, at which
DR.. Smith was presented with beau
tiful calabash and an ukulele as tokens
of the esteem of the Research Club.
DR.. Smiths lecture, in part, was as
follows:
Every nation carries the dead weight
of two elasses-the idle rich, and the
idle poor and both are of relatively little
Importance unless they are a very large
or very prolific class. In the United
States the great laboring class is OF
the highest Importance because it pro-
duces both the wealth and the popu-
latfon, and because it ultimately rules.
This class drinks because of tradition
and custom, because of the unstable
temperament inherited from drinking
ancestors; because of physical and
mental depression, resulting from the
sickness and exhaustion of overwork
or dissipation; and because of the
lack of normal, inexpensive recreation.
Men drink more than women because
they work harder, are more exposed,
less subject to public opinion and be-
cause of the theory of necessary self
indulgence; those exposed to constant
temptation as sa1oon-keepers, brewers
and bar-tenders have high death
rate. Races differ widely in their
ethical standards; the least civilized
set a low value on human life and
therefore think little of the effects of
drinking and sensuality. Some races
become tolerant of stimulants, while
others such as the American Indians
and the peasant Irish, are ruined by
them.
The remedies proposed must be
adapted to all these varying conditions
and can never be final or uniform even
among a homogeneous people. The
remedies heretofore tried have been of
two general classes-moral and relig-
ious, suasive and legislative Moral
suasfon is good as far as it goes but
does not reach the classes who need
help most Legislation has nowhere
generally attacked the production of
liquor. In the United States the value
of the liquor product is about $500, 000,-
600 annually, and the revenue from it
is $200,000,000. Both the manufacturer
and the seller have direct and legiti-
mate interest in the promotion of
drinking habits and therefore they take
an active interest in politics. They
naturally combine against any party
or reform which would limit the con-
sumption of liquor. The saloon as the
iworkingman's clubhouse becomes the
center of political influence
The systems of legislative control of
consumption in the United States are
license laws, taxation, prohibition. 10
cal option, State management and pri-
vate monopoly, and civil damage acts.
From careful study of these various
methods it appears that no one kind
of temperance legislation has been
more successful than another in the
promotion of real temperance. Each
has certain advantages and certain
defects and experience teaches that
that law is best which is best admin
istered and that no law can be en- |
forced without strong public sentiment
back of it. Even if individual total {
abstinence be the ideal, prohibition is
not necessarily the best remedy in all
In a democracy the
total abstainer must recognize the
right of the moderate drinker to drink
liquors when not directly
lnJur1ng others; i. e., the right of per-
sonal liberty: the moderate drinker
must recognize the right of the total
abstainer to be protected against the
injuries of unregulated sale and drink
ing | q he vic of
ton. Both classes should combine
against immoderate drinking.
The factors in temperance agitation
which have been most neglected are
prevention, substitution and diversion.
In the United States there is a scare
lty of decent cheap and attractive
places of recreation, due to the rand
growth of cities and the fact that such
places are generally not paying invest
ments- Such as there are, are I'M
attractive as compared with a good
saloon, because they ignore the desire
for club companionship, because they
are in unattractive places, because soft
drinks are not a satisfactory substitute
for beer-to the drinker-and because
the philanthropic people who start
them have too little capital and usually
rali TO cooperate. The best preventive
iISctSOISS toward temperance are de-
cent living wage, efficient subsistence
standard better housing; wholesome.
inexpensive, attractive recreations;
clubs, unions, fraternal orders settle
nents, games. dancing, athletics;
theaters, music, parks, Fairgrounds.
baths, coffee-houses, cheap restaurants;
in short, every form of amusement
available for families, and as far as
possible divorced from drinking E,v-
cry educational opportunity which can |
De offered cheaply to the young people |
ot the working classes in their leisure |
hours, such as night clubs and classes
providing literary, artistic and indus ]
rial training, libraries and reading {
ooI1s' art'galleTies and museums, helps
o divert them from drinking. i
Ten propositions serve to sum up /
briefly the line of argument: Il
ID Because of the variety of causes
II drinking and of conditions under a