Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-09-24
PATRIOTISM AND PRESENT PROB
LENS.
The International Sunday School
Lesson for Sept. 81 is Temper
arce Lesson. Isaiah S: 1928.
BY WILLIAM 7. ELLIS.

Every civilized community ueVel-
| ops, sooner or later, it's land question
and its liquor question:" says George
Adam Smith. Developing this point,
he continues: "It is with remarkable
persistence that in every civilization
the two main passions of the human
| heart, love Of wealth and love Of pies
ure, the instinct to gather and the in
stinct to squander, have sought pre-
cisely these two forms denounced by
Isaiah in which to work their social
havoc-appropriation of the soil and
| Indulgence in strong drink"
AS if he We're writing commentary
upon the acutest present political
question of the day, instead OF a vol
ume a number of years old, this same
keen-sighted Scot says further, in
treatment of the passage which is the
weeks Sunday-school lesson: with
| fatal persistence, the luxury of every
/ civilization has taken to drink, and OF
| all the indictments brought by NOR.
alists against nations, that which
| they deserve for drunkenness is, as
here, the most heavily weighted. The
crusade against drink is not the novel
thing that many imagine who observe
only it's late arrival among our
selves. In ancient times there was
scarcely a state in which prohibitive
legislation of the most stringent kind
was not attempted, and generally car
ried out with thoroughness more
possible under despots than where, as
with us, the slow consent of public
opinion is necessary. A horror OF
strong drink has in every age posses
sed those who from their position as
magistrates or prophets have been
able to follow for any distance the
drifts of social life. Isaiah exposes as
powerfully as ever any of them did ii
what the peculiar fatality of drinking
| lies. Wine is a mocker by nothing
more than by the moral incredulity
which it produces, enabling men tC
hide from themselves the spiritua
| and material effects of over-indulgencc
in it."
What Ais Our Timer
Every reader of the days news, be
he never so slightly concerned il
moral questions is aware that the
present problems of civilization ere
fundamentally moral, and that TWEEN
tieth century patriotism is finding its
expression in consideration of is
sues which affect the character O
mankind. Whether he hears it from
the walls of the liquor dealers who
have suddenly awakened to the ma
/ terial loss in their revenues, whether
he learns it from the pulpit and the
periodicals that touch upon mora
issues, or whether he gets it as gos
sip of the street. shop, Office, or cor
ner store, the average man Of today Is
we'll aware that in the United States
and Canada the temperance question
has come to be a burning public is
sue. To those who have not seer
the constructive forces at work fol
the past generation, the sudden turn
ing of states and communities toward
a stern expulsion Of the traffic il
strong drinks is amazing and almos
incredible The IMAM of the street
is reading the magazine articles which
are appearing on all sides, to convince
himself that this great temperance
upheaval Is actually true, and not the
fanciful dream of cold-water enthus
lasts.
The person of wider outlook knows
that the allied liquor and drug ques
tons are today to an unwonted de
grees disturbing all the nations o
earth. Great Britain is in the throes
Of a temperance reform agitation as
burning as anything known on thi!
side of the water. Parliament is con
sidering reduction by one-third O
the ninety thousand licensed place.
rIn,, ie. oil IN, I1 IL, i
AS sample Of the earnestness will
which the churches have entered int
that fight may be cited the monstel
demonstration held in June in The
city of Manchester, England A pro
cession was organized for one Satur
day afternoon to march to Heater
Park where speeches were made from
twenty-five platforms. The line O
parade was three miles. So numerou.
were the marchers that although the
procession began at fifteen minutes
to three o'clock it had not ended
! when the meetings in the park broke
up at six o'clock. A conservative
I American editor reports that there
were at least fifty thousand person.
in line for this demonstration, ant
tHdI llOI lSoo IHdh a Qudl CSl VI d I'LL
lion heard the addresses from thu
i twenty-five platforms.
i A Worldwide Awakening.
4 In North America, in Great Britain
and in France, the question to thu
fore is one of spirituous liquors. Tt
degree, in these same lands tn,
agitation against drugs is an allied re
form movement In the greatest q
/ Oriental countries, China, with it
four hundred millions, the opium
question, after having been persist
emily pressed upon public attention
by few faithful missionaries VIII,
would not be daunted by the seemin,
hopelessness of their task, has sud
denly become the gravest single is
sue in the empire, and at the sam,
time a subject of international dis
cussion and concern.
1 Although Mohammedanism forbid
the drinking Of wine, intemperanc,
has been vital subject in Turkey
Egypt, and India In short, the mat
ter of restraining or abolishing tn,
sale of intoxicating liquor may fairl