The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1909-11-08
THE Prevention
Of ALCOHOLISM
AMONG CHILDREN n
International Congress Dele.
gates Believe in Prevention.
Rather Than Cure
MODERATE DRINKING DANGERS
NOT YET FULLY DETERMINED

Drunkenness to be Given Suspend.
ed Sentence Provided They Sign the
Total Abstinence Pledge.
Washington, Nov. S.-Alcohol and
alcoholism are two of the real and
substantial enemies of moral, artistic
and commercial progress of the hui
man race. according to the report of
the United States delegates to the
twelfth international congress on al
coholism, made public by the state de-
partment today. The delegates were
appointed by Secretary Knox as one
OF his first official acts. The congress
was held last July in London, and
twenty-five governments were repre-
sented, the delegates of each concur
ring in the general finding that alco-
mol not only was not necessary to hui
man life and comfort but was inimical
to both.
Three departments of the United
States government were represented
by delegates. the state, navy and
treasury. Twelve representatives
went abroad, and all of them unani-
mously signed the report made pub
lie today, the finding of which is to
condemn the drinking habit as dan
Serous to public health and morals
and subversive of national, moral,
commercial and military greatness.
According to the report, the inter-
est shown in the congress was great
or than ever was known before. Be-
cause of the information evolved at
the congress, the delegates accepted
The invitation of the queen of Holland
to hold their next meeting. two years
hence. at The Hague in conjunction
with the conference of the committee
that is working for international
peace.
While the congress urged the neces-
sity of imposing the most. rigorous
restrictions on the sale and traffic in
alcoholic liquors, it, ), regarded as
equally important the need of educat-
ing the younger generation to a true
knowledge of what alcohol is and
what its effects upon the human sys-
TEN are. The delegates believe that
the numerous recent discoveries as
to the harmfulness of drunkenness
and even moderate" drinking, also,
should be set before children in order
that they may see the danger of the
practice. The American delegates
sum up this phase of their report by
saying:
Teaching the Children.
Increased teaching as to its char
acter and influence should be pro-
vided, to conserve industrial efficiency
in the commercial competition of ma
tions, as we'll as to promote two of
the chief objections of government:
the public health and morals"
The value of this method of COM
batting the growth of the liquor habit
Is emphasized in the report. While
acknowledgment is made that the
organization of associations of juven-
lie abstainers is useful, it is declared
the chief reliance should be placed on
public schools as means of .ridding
the public mind of errors about the
effects of alcohol and substituting the
facts that science is declared to have
evolved about the use of the bever-
age, even when taken in small doses.
In furtherance of this plan, Mrs.
Edith Smith Davis of Milwaukee, Wis,
superintendent of the Worlds and
National Christian Temperance Union,
and one of the American delegates.
urged the necessity of getting to the
root of the matter by compelling the
curricula of normal schools and uni
versities to include such education.
In this way. Mrs. Davis contended, the
younger generation would be assured
of proper instruction on the subject.
Miss Cora F. Stoddard of Boston,
another American delegate and secre-
tary of the Scientific Temperance fed
Grafton, also devoted to the same SUBJ
paper of the congress. In It she
dwelt upon the important relations of
such instruction in the schools to
national progress. She put forward
the benefit derived by number Of
countries through the adoption of
such a plan as proof that it should
become universal.
~. Good Exhibits.
The United States, according to the
report, made an unusually good show
ing in its exhibits. Germany also was
to the fore with particularly fine
collection of colored charts showing
the effects Of alcohol on the body, the
family and upon society. Especially
effective 1t is said, were the steropti-
can slides of the National Temperance
league Of Great Britain.
, These steroptican. pictures. the re-
port goes on to show. were largely
reproductions of municipal posters
that are being issued by the city
councils Of about 100 British bor-
roughs. The posters deal in popu-
lar way with the delerious effects
Of alcohol on the human system, and
are posted by order of the regular Of
licials Of towns in which the sale of