Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1906-12-29
TEMPER ANCE
TOPICS.


recognizing that they must learn
over again the very thing they
thought they knew best. the art OF
killing, from Oriental Japan, let us
also learn from Oriental Arabia and
Oriental India, how to make effective
warfare against the worst foe of civ
ilization, the drink curse. says VIII
bur II. Craft in the New Voice Let
us contrast the wise adoption OF to-
tai abstinence and Prohibition long
since by these Oriental countries with
the foolish and long-continued blum
dering of England and the United
States under the mistaken policies OF
moderation and license Hundreds
of years ago, when drunkenness in
England grew TO be alarming, Chris
tians and moralists cried out for the
preaching OF moderation as "A cure.
but the sermons and exhortations on
this subject had no more effect on the
rising tide of drink than the crying
OF a child on the beach would have on
the incoming wave. Then the re-
formers organized moderation so
cieties to aid the preachers, and fined
members twenty-five cents whenever
they got drunk, except on a holiday
or at a wedding or funeral or at the
dedication of a church for the ordin-
alton of preacher, or on some such
occasion when a high degree of in
toxication was considered not only
permissible, but almost obligatory.
These fines had no more effect on the
rising tide than pebble tossed on
the beach by band of children. Then
the reformers said we must restrict
the drinking by taxing 1t. They put
on a low license, and 1t no more
checked the rising tide than mimic
fort of sand thrown up by the chill
dren on the shore. Then they adopt
ed high license, and this never de-
creased the consumption or the con-
sequence of drink, although ii some
times consolidated, after the fashion
of trusts, the smaller saloons. Such
consolidation should no more be
counted as a reduction than the con-
solidation of small shops in modern
monopolies. Instead of learning Pro
hibition from these failures, new
blunders In the permissive policy
were perpetrated. Government own
ership was tried centuries ago in
England, and In vain. Whenever |
think of Government ownership of
the, liquor traffic, recall that King
Canute, to teach a lesson to his fiat.
tering courtiers, who talked to him
as he were almost God, had his
throne placed upon the beach at low
tide, and drawing a line with his
scepter on the sand, exclaimed to the
breakers, Thus far shalt thou go
and no farther" but the waves paid
no heed to his word, and swept IN
upon his throne until his courtiers
found It necessary to lift It and run
with the king for their lives. So Gov
eminent ownership has never checked
the mighty rising tide of drink In any
country, and South Carolina, where
Ii has had a most recent trial, Is
making desperate efforts to be rid of
It as curse which is dragging the
Government into guilt without any
compromising reduction of the evil
When all these things had failed in
old England and New England, il
was suggested. centuries before
Bishop Potter's fizzledout doxology
saloon, that drunkenness of Church
members was becoming so alarming
and disgraceful that 1.-THE preachers
should take charge of the taverns,
and they did so, with the result that
the laymen got as drunk as ever and
the preachers got drunk, too. And so
for centuries we have gone on pot
tering with ineffective experiments III
moderation and license with the re-
suit that even in the United States,
where these experiments have been
most faithfully and abundantly
tried, the consumption of liquors is
now twenty gallons per capita great
err than ever before, and in England,
in many respects the foremost coun-
try of the world, the consumption
and consequence of drink are un.
equalled save by France and Ger
many.
What was the course of Arabia and
India when anciently confronted
with the same problem? the increase
OF drunkenness? The leaders of re-
ligion and the leaders of Government
said unitedly. THE way to stop It is
to stop it. In the name of religion,
in the name of Government, stop sell
ing and stop drinking" And they
stopped it, with no speak-easies or
drug-stores left In the rear. and as a
result to-day seven hundred million
adherents of the Hindoo and Bud
dist Mohammedan faiths are Pro
hibitionists and total abstainers, ex-
cept a few thousand who have been
corrupted by the white mans exam.
pie as they come In contact with him
in military and civil service, and in
institutions of education. As Japan's
unprecedented progress is due to her
Willingness to learn from other lands
and even from other continents and
races, so we may make great strides
Of social progress il we VIII learn
from India and Arabia and other
Orientals to prohibit the cursed drink
traffic.