The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-01-10
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF lNTEMPERANcE

the Use of Light Wines and Beer"
Has Not Solved the Problem.
During the past two years the Hun
garian Government has been actively
~propagating temperance teaching in
the public schools of that country
The work has been prosecuted under
the direction of the Department of Re-
ligion and Public Instruction. This
work took active form April "a, 1908,
when the Minister Of this department
of the Government issued a circular
addressed to the Inspectors of Second
arg Schools, the Higher Schools for
Young Girls, and the Commercial n
Industrial Schools, warning the pupils
to avoid intoxicating liquors. 1t was
somewhat of a preliminary nature, the
opening paragraph, reading:
THE ravages caused by alcoholism
become day by day more appalling in
the midst of Il people. Everywhere
we see this scourge arising, and in its
train comes misery. the deprivation of
soul and body, apathy, decreased apti-
tude for work, the loosening Of the
sacred bonds of family life, which are
the only solid foundations of the state
and Of social order, the declines of re-
ligious conviction; in fine, a general de-
cay in morals and physique"
The above official utterance, trans
lated from the Hungarian language, is
a rather fierce Indictment Of the raw
ages of drink in a country where Amer
lean ignoramuses insist that the wide
spread use Of light wines and beer"
has solved the temperance problem.
Later in the same circular, after a
reference to the schools as an import
ant centre of information and infu-
ence, the Minister continues:
"rhave judged it right to snjoin you
by this present circular to take every
possible care that in the schools under
your care the pupils Of both sexes be
sufficiently instructed as to the injuri-
, Gus, effects of alcoholism, and with this
object, the teachers are to seek the aid
of choice articles contained in manuals
showing how injurious alcoholism is on
: morals and public prosperity. Be
pleased also to exhort all the members
of the teaching corps in village schools,
and in towns, to neglect no opportunity
for forming temperance societies, and
signify to them that I will not fail to
take count of their activity in this
matter"
The French word alcoolisme, the nat
. ural equivalent Of the English word
"alcoholism," is generally accepted
throughout Europe to designate, in
general, the evil effects of the use of
alcohol. Its meaning, therefore, is not
confined to the disease designated in
English y,"alcoholism," but has been
broadened in use to include all OF the
physical evils growing out (: its use.
1t is also beginning to be used to desig-
nate the use of drink itself. DR.. Matti
Helenius, the Finnish savant who car
ries fourteen.languages under his hat,
and who is the author Of Der Alko-
'holfrage," Unpublished first in German
by Fischer, of! Jena, has invented the
word "alcoholology" to designate the
whole alcohol problem in general, in
Guiding the literature on the subject.
This word is now coming into common
use in Northern Europe.
On the following month, May 6, the
Minister sent out to the inspectors or
all elementary public schools another
circular, in which he again discussed
the rayages of alcohol. In this circu-
lar, he declared:
1T is q gulf that swallows up the
health Of the body and the soul, de-
stroys' the forces physical and moral,
leads to the overthrow Of the nervous
system, troubles the peace Of the de-
nestle hearth, and ends in the ruin of
families. The habit Of alcohol amongst
the young inevitably leads to intem-
perance; and it then asks the Genera!
;. Councils to see that children under
fifteen (the age Of compulsory school
attendance are forbidden to frequent
taTerns, or to be present at dances
given in public halls"
On the first of last September the
same Minister addressed another circu-
lar to the General Inspectors of .Prim-
ary Schools, in which they are exhorted
to see that the societies formed Of
scholars
Are habituated to politeness and So
briefly through efforts to turn them
away from %frequenting tavernsl and
places of that character; for it is in
tended that these societies should take
an active part in the fight with alco-
holism." ~
The inspectors were enjoined to
"Enlighten- the scholars first ION the
injurious effect of alcohol, prevent
them f%requenting the said establish
ments. inspire them with a salutary
fear, and in fine, give them a good ex-
ample,
In another circular of the same date,
:: addressed to the Inspectors Of the Sec
ondary Schools, the Superior Schools
for Young Girls, and the Industrial and
Commercial Schools, the Minister said:
In order that the efforts made by
the schools in the fight with alcoholism.
may be crowned with success, it is
above all necessary that the teachers
and the professors themselves Should
know all the dangers comprised n this
scourge, and all the ravages it causes,
physically and morally; it is necessary
also that they should know the great
ness of the struggle and the scientific
results which have constrained the CIV
ilized world to take part in this noble
fight, in which knowledge is essential
to conviction"
American scholars who are prone to
insist between drinks that the Hun
garians have settled the liquor temper