The news-democrat. (Providence, R.I.) 1906-1909, 1906-08-09

A net increase OF 50 subordinate socle-
Washington state. were reported at the
afternoon session of the 36th annual con-
vention OF the Catholic total abstinence
union OF America in Infantry hall yester-
day.
The attendance at the session has
broken all previous records When the
committee on credentials. on which the
Boston archdiocesan union is represent
ed by it's secretary. O. T. O'Leary of
Boston. made its first report. $40 delegates
and IL national executive officers had
turned in their credentials.
At the opening OF the afternoon session
RI. Rev. ]. p. Regis Canevin. national
president OF the union delivered his ad-
dress. He said In part:
Although the Catholic total abstinence
union OF America has been a great moral
power for IS years there are many who
do not understand It's principles or appre-
ciate the greatness of its beneficent labor.
Catholic total abstinence societies are
blessed by the church as means to lessen
the ravages OF strong drink and remove
the sin and degradation OF drunkenness
as far as possible from her children I'm
this and other countries where excessive
use OF intoxicants prevails.
THE church has often to mourn the
disgrace and misery OF Catholics debased
and ruined by intemperance. IL has been
and still is a public enemy of the church
and society. Ii has carried on its devasta-
ton OF homes, lives and souls among all
classes OF men and women. destroying
them in the order OF grace as well as In
the order of nature
1T darkens the sense as we'll as the
souls and deadens the feelings as well as
the mind; II weakens, stupeies sickens
and skaters the frame OF the animal man
| as well as the frame OF the rational man;
deprives him OF God, OF heaven. OF honor.
and cuts him off from human respect:
casts him off from the friendship OF men,
destroys his fortune. ruins his family de-
prives him OF himself. kills all his good
here and all hope OF hereafter and bloats
his body with premature disease TO rat
ten the worms and enrich the rankness OF
his burial place.
THE commands OF the gospel. the pre-
ceptS OF the church, the laws OF nature,
| the ties OF humanity and the instlncts Of
self-preservation are cast to the winds
by the drunkard.
Can any one afford TO ignore the ques-
tion as one far removed from his life?
Does not love OF self and love OF ones
neighbor demand that every christian
should seriously consider the problem OF
intemperance? The evil has touched di-
rectly or indirectly nearly every family
In this country. The shadow OF its curse
has fallen across the Threshold OF many
OF our best Catholic families. TO drunk
enness we may refer. as 20 its baneful
cause. almost all the crimes by which
this country is disgraced.
Last year the cost to the consumer
for liquors i'm the United States amounted
10 $l.5oo.00o. The cost in sickness crime.
axsfI
from great outlay for liquors amounted
TO more than the original cost
"One report, recently published. show
ed that 700 persons had been sent to
,ail or to the poorhouse in. one. county
county, Pa, made this report, and what
rs true of that county Is also true of
other counties in different parts of the
Xcountry.
Every man. clergy and others. know
Ithe difference between the drunkard and
the sober man. They know that as in
Temperance blunts the intellect enfeebles
the Will. debases the aspirations and un-
Ibraids the passions and destroys the
moral sense, temperance guides him In
the path OF justice and truth and allies
Xhim with everything that tends to raise
him up intellectually and morally
our organisation, spread as II is in
nearly every state In the union. has for
25 years placed i'm the hands OF every
an instrument with which to
make men and women better Christians
and better citizens. IL has been power
n welding a healthy sentiment I'm favor
of sober men and women and has been
Xone OF the greatest instruments TO bring
about healthy public opinion against
the users OF intoxlcants.
THE formation OF the Priests league
of total abstainers was through the ef-
forts of our union, and this league has
been a power In it's work the league
has been given the support OF our entire
organization. The personal example OF
thtse priests in self-denial has done great
work. Through the zeal OF Rev. Fr Sic
benfer the league has been introduced
into seminaries, and large number of