The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1911-02-23
ATTRIBUTE WANT TO LIQUOR
Pauperism, Crime and Insanity d.
rectly or Indirectly Traced TO
Whisky Habit.

rectly or Indirectly Traced 70
Whisky Habit.
Sir William Dawson, late princlpai
Of McGill college, Montreal, testified
before the Royal Commission Il
have had occasion to institute inquir.
les In regard to the pauperlsm of Mon
treal. | can confidently say that near.
ly all the want and destitution prevail.
ing in this city is directly or Indirect
ly attributable to the liquor traffic"
DR.. A. R. Reid, ten years superinten-
dent Of the General hospital, Halifax,
n. s., also testified The experience
OF ten years in our General hospital
shows me very clearly that though our
statistics represented a very large per-
centage Of sickness there as the re-
suit Of intemperance, really If you fig,
ure out the wide influence II has. that
the percentage would come, suppose,
up to 90"
Drink has been largely the cause,
direct and predisposing. Of the numer-
Gus Insane In our asylums. DR.. Daniel
Clark, rs years superintendent OF the
Insane asylum, Toronto, gave evidence
that of 5000 cases which he had care.
fully examined he found 9la per cent.
we're withsut any uncertainty pro.
duced directly by drink, says the Mon.
treal Star and Herald.
The Hon. George w. Ross in his
place In the House OF Commons, esti.
mated the annual loss OF life in Can.
ada through the liquor traffic at 1000
And In 1885 the Hon. George H. Fos-
ter in his place in Parliament, said
5000 deaths per year might be safely
set down as due to this cause.
We are only on the threshold OF the
exact study Of heredity I'm relation to
vice and crime, yet enough is known
TO justify General Booths strong Ian
guage: Thousands upon thousands of
these poor wretches (the homeless
and starving poor OF darkest England)
are, as Bishop South truly said, not
so much born into this world Ms
damned into H." Richard L. Dugdale
writes of the progeny of a woman
named Margaret. a descendant of Max.
a very hard drinker, who became blind
and many Of whose children inherited
his intemperance: In tracing the
gcnealogies OF $40 persons who de.
scended In seven generations from
this degraded woman. and 1G9 who
were related by marriage or cohabita.
ton, $50 We're adult paupers and l40
were criminals and offenders of the
worst sort, guilty Of seven murders,
theft, highway robbery, and nearly
every other ofense known In the cal.
cndar Of crime" He estimates that
the cost to the public OF supporting
this family of drunkards was $l,3OS..
600.
Time would fail to tell of Sir Mat
thew Hale, Chief Justice Of England.
who said that by due observation"
he had found that four out of every
five cases Of crime adjudicated by him
have been the issues and products of
excessive drinking.
OF Gladstone, who affirmed: 1T has
been said that greater calamiues-
greater because more continual-ha
been inflicted upon mankind by intem.
perance than by the three historic
scourges Of war, famine and pestilonce
combined. That is true, and It is the
measure Of our dlscrcdlt and dis
grace"
These voices were uttered in the
motherland But the spirit Of the
liquor traffic Is one, ever and every.
where the same and it's fruits abound
In our own land Sir Oliver Mowat,
for more than a quarter of a century
Premier Of ontario, and provorbial for
his extreme caution, repeated, after
lapse Of score of years, as his ma.
ture judgment, "An enormous proper
ton, probably three-fourths of the vice
that prevails at the present day, Of
the crime which they had to contend
with, Of the lunacy, the idlocy, the
poverty and the misery Of every kind.
is owing to the foul evil Of intem.
perance."