The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1911-06-29

losis, by the different States, while at
the same time they are licensing thou
sands and tens of thousands of saloons
to sell liquor, which our greatest physi-
clans say is the greatest factor in the
spread of the disease! Is it possible
that any intelligent citizen desires that
Maine shall commit so senseless, so
criminal, so inhuman an act as that? 1t
may be possible that there are such, but
it hardly seems probable. This State
never will take measures to spread dis
ease in order that it may be put at
greater expense to combat it. The peo-
pie cannot be fooled on this question,
even some of the time. / could quote
innumerable cases from the testimony of
the medical profession, all emphasizing
what has been said that alcohol is not
medicine, and that it's use is more condu-
Give to disease than any other one factor.
G. w. Webster, President of the Hi
nois State board of health says: Good
health with length of years is the great
est asset of the individual and Of the ma
ton. 1t follows that the State as well
as the individual is, or should be, vitality
concerned in all that pertains to the well
fare of the individual. There is no such
thing as public welfare without public
health. do not hesitate to say that it
is my opinion that the alcohol problem is,
from moral, ethical, sociologic, scien-
tifc, economic, medical, and public
health point of view, one of the most
vitality important, unsolved problems of
the world today; and the public health
phase of the question is not the least inn
portant. tits, today, perhaps the most
battling and serious obstacle in the way
Of mans progress toward higher evo
lution.'
Can there be mere emphatic asser-
ton than this? and it is made by one who
has the right to speak with authority.
Professor Sedgwick in the annual ad-
dress on medicine at Yale University
made this statement: "When one consid-
ers in detail the relations Of alcoholic in
diligence to disease, the numerous and
important ailments of which it is the
direct cause, to say nothing of the indi-
rect influence on human misery and de-
generacy, one can hardly avoid realizing
that it stands almost, if not altogether,
in the front rank of the enemies to be
combated in the battle for health"
Whatever may be the practices or preju-
dices of some of its individual members,
the medical profession should stand for
temperance as one great essential of
public health. That there has been too
much neglect of the matter in the past
is all the more reason why the profession
should do it's full duty now and in the fu-
ture.''
To quote from one of the best medical
authorities: ''The alcohol problem is
more important than the tuberculosis
problem, as it costs more lives and more
money. 1t costs the United States over
s2,000,000,000 annually; it probably
causes at least 10 per cent of all the
deaths in the United States; it predispo-
SEES to infection, and leads to increased
mortality in all infectious diseases and
after surgical operations; it lessons the
power of the individual to resist the in
furious influences of extreme heat and
cold; it causes deterioration of the
quality of the mental work; it is poison
and should be classified as such instead
of as food or stimulant. When the
physicians take hold of the question in
the same spirit as they have shown con-
corning yellow fever, malaria and small
pox, instead of treating it as a moral
question and leaving it to clergymen,
temperance workers, and enthusiastic
reformers, We may expect better re-
suits. We deserve condemnation as a
profession when We assume the attitude
of sneering contempt for the efforts of
clergymen, laymen and reformers in
their attempts to stamp out this evil, just
as we would deserve it if we would assume
the same attitude towards them if they
attempted to stamp out yellow fever and
malaria. Fortunately, the question is
receiving new attention by earnest men
who have the courage of their convic-
lions and who see with clear vision, and
who will not be deferred by sneers or
criticisms. Public opinion demands, and
has a right to demand, in no uncertain
terms, that the action and influence of
alcohol be determined and settled by the
medical profession, and that we then
teach the people the truth fully, consci-
entiously and fearlessly."
In the light of such unqualified state
ments, given out by men highest in the
medical profession, and endorsed by a
large majority of that profession, what
can we think of the man that would
raise his voice to overthrow the principle
of prohibition in this State? There can
be but one answer; such an one must be
ignorant of the facts, actuated by greed,
or dead to all the best interests of his
fellow man.
Thorndike. C. E. SMITH.