The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-10-20
THE TEMPERANCE PROPAGANDA
CONCERTED ATTACK ON DRINK
WINNING ALL ALONG LINE

"Relation of Alcohol to Child Life"
Review of present methods to i'm
prove condition of the school child
and remove causes of moral def
cheney. Present. methods prove in
adequate as curative measures, but
throw much light upon the real diff
culties.
Corporal punishment not a scien-
tifc remedy for backwardness in
study or breaches of school disci-
pline. The normal child Is neither
stupid nor vicious. The complica-
ted situation makes necessary an ex-
animation not only of the school de-
pertinent and class work but also the
home environment and heredfty of
the child.
Tracing child life to the fountain
head Of it's physical equipment and
carefully noting the various contrib
uting elements to defective work, I
find alcohol a most conspicuous fac
tor. Manifestly causes of defective
childhood may" %antedate school life
and persist after school days are past,
hence to secure a proper correlation
between effect and cause and avoid
the errors that might arise from pau
city of numbers, my report includes
a study Of 10000 children of all ages
from infancy to nineteen years Of
age. The 10000 are tabulated and
arranged in groups for scientific
study.
%Fifty-eight per cent. drink some
form Of alcoholic beverage OCCASION
ally or at regular intervals Thirty
seven per cent. drink one glass Of
beer a week to five glasses Of beer
a day. Twenty-one per cent. drink
wine or spirits. In some groups the
percentage of occasional and regular
drinkers runs Is high az seventy-nine
per cent. OF those attending school,
forty-six per cent. are backward in
their studies. .
Through ignorance many parents
give their babies beer instead of milk,
and wine or brandy instead OF nour-
ishing food. A glass Of beer and a
roll of bread, a glass Of wine and a
cucumber two or three times a day
Is the chief nourishment many chill
dren receive, and some teachers ig-
norant of the physical basis of stu
pidity and refractory conduct Of their
pupils, have insisted on corporal pun
ishment, and equally ignorant pa
rents have fiogged their offspring
With no better result than to add VIC
iousness to stupidity and increase an
aversion for government. Where pa
rents have been taught the evil of
feeding alcohol to their children and
good food has displaced the beer and
wine, the child's department and
ability to memorize have correspond
ingly improved.
OF 10000 whose physical condition
was studied, se~venty-one per cent.
have some functional or organic dis
order. 49,. ....
Among the grandchildren of beer
drinkers there Is noted an increased
tendency to tuberculosis, diabetes,
kidney and heart disorders. The
grandchildren of spirit drinkers show
an increased tendency to disorders OF
the central nervous system.
Where there are no indications of
chronic inebriety, but where there is
a confessed addition to the ~so-called
habit of moderate drinking, moral
standards are lowered. There is a
loss Of that fine sense Of perception
that clearly distinguishes right from
wrong. While acknowledging the
claims of ethics and religion. there is
less ability to apply in practice ethi-
cal and religious teaching. They mis-
take the desire to do for the doing
and fail to appreciate the possibility
that a display of stubbornness may
not be a display of will power.
Poverty and bad hyg1enic environ
ment may contribute to certain
phases of immortality, but 1 have
failed to find any clear evidence that
they are the sole causes of immor-
atty. When poverty is added to a
drink environment all shades and
depths of depravity are possible.
Where the landlord 'enforces his
claim for the maximum OF rent,
where the sweat shop pays the mini
mum of wage and the want OF good
sanitation taxes the resisting powers
of the hardest, indulgence in alco-
holic beverages makes possible the
MOSL cAlcuSlFc ucSSuSl ot1oh. 1ASoS
degenerations, when transmitted to
the offspring, produce a harvest OF
weakened and disabled citizens.
Where poverty linked with the appe-
tite for drink makes existence q
continuous battle, little wonder chill.
dren six to fourteen years OF age are
forced to heavy labor, and for the
sum of twenty cents may become vic
tins of Sodomy, pederasty and pros
titution.
The following conclusions may be
drawn from my studies of children:
First, alcohol in the form. Of beer and
spirits does not overcome the disturb
ances Of nutrition due to a bad n.y.
gienic environment. Second, alco.
hol tends to lessen all the bodily
forces, mental, moral and physical.
Third. the heaviest burden entailed
by indulgence in alcoholic beverages
is not borne by the drinker, but by
his innocent and debilitated children.
BY T. Alexander Macnicholl, M. D.