The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-08-16
ROBSON IS GIVEN
 GREAT OVATION
Treats Alcohol From It's
 Scientific Aspect
CITES HIS FIGURES
Scoffs at Birmingham's Proclaiming to the World That Its Off, ficials Cannot Enforce
 the Law

"I would rather see America, honest unregenerate dafenseless, face the com bined armies of the greatest nations or the world than to see this cause against which we are fighting prevail cried Richmond Pearson Hobson last night and the crowd of men, women and chll- dren that filled the Bijou theatre from the rear seats of the balcony to the front tier in the orchestra went wild.
 Wave after wave of applause swept over the speakers head. The cheer ing men leaped to their feet and waved hats, handk erchiefs, yelled at the top of their voices. It was an ovation ac- corded to few men.
 Captain Hobson spoke for two hours on the prohibition question. He argued only prohibition or no prohibition. He referred to the opposition but once and then in the mildest terms. His speech was free from bitterness and personal villification. He appealed to the crowd to come down to bed rock. Get the facts,' he entreated over and over again He cited figures compiled | by the American government, scientific bodies, the English government. and private individuals. You cannot get around scientific facts" he said in his opening remarks.
 It was announced by Secretary Rice that Captain Hobson would speak at Woodlawn tonight, but after reach ing his hotel Captain Hobson was called out of the state by telegraph. He will return, however, and speak in Jeffer- son county next Tuesday and Wednes- day.
 The speech of Congressman Hobson was as follows in part:
 T come to you," he said. without anta gonism to anyone. 1 wish merely to present facts. Let us get down to bed rock. Wipe out the petty person. alities and consider the problem In all its immensity. It is not question of Jefferson county, of the state of Ala bama, of the American nation. but of the survival of the race.
 Ut Is with a peculiar pleasure that I come to Birmingham. l expect this city to become the center of the south, and through the south to effect the na- tion, and through the nation the world. The future of Birmingham depends on this issue The youth of the city must be placed in an environment that will foster their growth This question will have a vital bearing on the future of Birmingham. The question of what pol icy to adopt is great question.
 Fundamental Facts
 "I wish to congratulate the people on the high plane upon which the cam i paign has been carried on. Let us get down to fundamental principles and when the truth Is arrived at we will not differ" xF
 Here Congressman Hobson asked the Ind diilxy nf fhA a5ld a a ,Q his coat. His action was greeted with cheers. As he resumed his speech he cited figures.
 q have. searched the earth to get the facts and once arrived at, l have dis carded mems opinion and based my views on facts that cannot be In er- TOT. E1s
 Alcohol is not a hydro-carbon as was at first supposed You cannot make 1t in the laboratory without introducing a living substance Science has finally dis covered what alcohol is. It is a toxin, the loathsome excresence of germs. Toxin is deadly poison to all higher orders of life. This has been fully shown by experi- ments with animal and plant life.
 Alcohol has no food value. When mixed with other substances food value is in the mixture, as in beer, but-it takes 104 gallons of beer to contain the food value of one loaf of bread A mans eff ciency is decreased per cent for 24 holrs by one small glass of beer. Three glasses of beer contain more toxin than the elifn- native organs can throw off in A hours. Three glasses of beer decrease a man, efficiency from 25 to 40 per cent for 24 hours.
 ''The function of the white blood cor puscles of the body Is to destroy germs. One glass of beer will not make a man drunk, but it will make the corpuscles drunk and they cannot perform their functions. Therefore men contract dis ease more readily when they drink even moderately.
 "A few figures gathered by the Eng fish government: Forty-four per cent of all deaths in England are due to alcoholic effects; count the graves in the ceme- teries, one-half of them were caused by alcohol; A per cent of the funerals are due to that. Sir Victor Horsford gathered he figures that in the city of London of 1.2-5 drinkers there are 1000 deaths per year and from an equal number of total abstainers only 560 Alcohol kills 100000 Americans every year. This is at the rate of 20O0 every day Since the begin ming of the world but 2.s000oO have been killed in war. These figures cannot be questioned.
 "A young man 20 years old and total
 
 longer, a temperate drinker s1 years, and "a heavy drinker but three years. There have been 100000 men wounded in war since 800 B. c. Alcohol is wounding 2S, ,000- 600 every year in America alone.
 War and Alcohol
 Compare the destroying agencies of war and alcohol If a foreign power should devestate one county of the state as al- oohol is devastating the whole nation, your duty and mine would be perfectly plain. Why not in this instance?
 The scientific definition of alcohol Is that it is a dehydrating protoplasmic poison. It's use is degenerating. The toxins fercest attack is on the tenderest cells of the body, the gray matter of the brain. Alcohol stops evolution. In few years the evolution of a thousand years can be wiped out by the use of alcohol Put alcohol on plant and it stops developing. It goes back to the wild stage Give alcohol to dog habitu- ally and 1t will destroy the evolution of 6000 years.
 From 90 to 95 per cent of the crime of violence are due to alcohol. habitual user of alcohol finally comes to have no moral sense.
 Nature is pitiless She does not toll crate degeneracy. Nature does not at tempt to work with degenrate species you think she will tolerate this defiance of all her laws? Never.
 ''The total abstainer need have no ,lx<