Rocky Ford enterprise., 1910-04-08
:! Eg|y}|E,
AGENT FOR RACE CULTURE?
Alcohol, Instead Of Eliminating In
ferior Stock, Makes More Desen-
crates Than 1t Destroys.

1t has been asserted by some that al
cohol is beneficent agent for race
culture in that it is constantly elm
mating inferior stocks. The answer
to this is that, as DR.. Sullivan says:
I'm the ultimate result alcoholism may
be counted on to make a good many
more degenerates than 1t is likely to
destroy" writes DR.. C. w. Salesby. an
eminent English authority. We must
endeavor to understand, as SO many
students of heredity-some of them by
no means undistinguished-fai to un-
derstand. what is really meant by the
doctrine of the non-transmissibility Of
acquired characters. This means. for
instance, that the chronic infiamma-
tion of the lining membranes Of the
brain produced by alcohol cannot be
transmitted to child: 1t does not
mean that the gern-plasm. the racial
elements of the body. are incapable
of suffering injury by any poison circu.
lating in the blood by which they are
nourished. Still less does it mean that
the expectant mother is not poisoning
her child when she pours alcohol into
the blood whereby she nourishes it. AS
has been already stated, alcohol Is
beyond doubt capable of causing true
racial degeneration, whether through
father or mother. and in the case of
the mother. whether by its influence
upon the germ-plasm or by its infiu.
ence on the unborn child.
1t is no longer open to question that
the amount Of drinking by the women
OF Great Britain to-day is greater than
ever heretofore: and to say by the wo-
men is. unfortunately. to say. by the
mothers, present and prospective. Ra-
cial poisoning is being practised in
Great Britain to-day to an extent
which Is certainly unprecedented in
our history. This Is really by far the
most serious aspect of the alcohol
question. It is. also. in some ways the
most capable remedy: and the busi-
ness OF the eugenist is to rouse public
opinion on this matter. Drunkenness
on the part OF the woman OF 60 may
or may not be a private vice with
which It is not the duty OF public law
to interfere: but drinking on the part
OF the factory girl who will marry ere
long and become a mother. and will al
most certainly continue the habit ac-
quired before marriage-this concerns
not herself alone.
1t may be said. and not without truth.
as we have already quoted. that in a
few generations alcohol will extermin-
ate the alcoholic stock. leaving the un-
poisoned in possession OF the field. 1t
may thus be questioned whether the
race is injured in the long run. But In
any case what moral being can con-
template with content the spectacle OF
this ruin. even n II be comparatively
confined and limited In time? And, fur
ther. to what extent Is this process to
be permitted? What II 1t extends to
one-tenth or one-fourth or one-half OF
the productive stocks of the commu-
nifty? Will It not then be thought time
to arrest It? We have to remember the
evidence furnished by native races.
which reminds us that. sufficiently
widespread. the abuse OF alcohol makes
for racial extinction: and its abuse is
daily becoming more widespread
amongst the young mothers OF what are
at present our fertile classes. Palpable
they may never exhibit:
but drunkenness might wholly cease
from henceforth In Great Britain, and
alcohol yet defeat the aims OF race-cul-
ture. A woman may well be sober
enough. and her unborn child intoxi-
Gated. I leave these questions to the
of the reader, and not the
least Of him who calls himself patriot
or an imperialist.