The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-08-10
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
DRINK DESTROYS NATIVE RACES.


The first National Temperance Con-
vention" held in South Africa took
place recently within the City Hall
buildings in Capetown, and was at
tended by numerous delegates, includ-
ing members of Parliament, among
whom was a former Prime Minister
and also the President Of the Senate.
Distinguished men of various profess
sions took part in it's deliberations,
and an eminent physician, DR.. Jasper
Anderson, read a. thoughtful and ex-
cellent paper on Temperance and
Medical Science" 1t may be stated
that one of the principal objects of the
convention was to emphasize the alb
solute necessity for the prohibition of
the sale of intoxicants to natives.
Use and abuse of alcohol are not
synonymous in the case of white men,
but they are SO when aboriginals are
concerned. This was SO clearly seen
in Canada towards the end of the
eighteenth century by a sainted Bishop
of Quebec that he made it excommuni-
cation ipso facto for anyone in his
Diocese to supply intoxicants to alb
originals, and appeals to Europe were
in vain. The Hottentots have been
cleared off the face of the earth by
Cape brandy, and the distillers, and
others "in the trade" are now en-
deavoring, for the sake of gain, to de-
stroy the Bantu races. We went to
these distant shores to civilize the
Africans with the Bible in one hand
and the brandy bottle in the other
and so it has been, and so it is, in
other parts of the world. The writer
of this article was for twenty-one
years President of the South African
Temperance Alliance, and ought there
fore to know something on this SUBJ
ject. So far as Portuguese East Africa
ment in Lisbon, together with their
deputies, are fast spreading destruc-
ton and decentralization by the I'M
checked import and sale of poisonous
intOxicants, and it would be a benefit
to humanity if the British Government
SOuAO CohO LAC p1ON4AOC I'll N1OLdlu~
bique out of their incompetent and I'M
scrupulous hands.
DR.. Anderson, in his paper read be-
fore the South African Temperance
Convention, is very careful to argue
on a purely scientific and correctly
statistical basis His object is to show
that alcohol is no longer considered so
necessary to man as it was formerly,
that even moderate drinking is harm
full to most, and that all would be bet
ter without it. DR.. Anderson was sue
cessful in scientifically demonstrating
the fact that alcohol exercises so
pernicious an effect upon the corpus
cles of the blood as to reduce vitality,
shorten life, and render the human
system ready prey to disease.
It is interesting to note that DR..
Beaumont on his remarkable patient,
through a window what happened in
the stomach when food or drink was
taken. He found that even moderate
doses of alcohol inflamed the mucous
membrane of the stomach and made
the gastric juice turbid. When we re-
member the action of even minute
quantities of diluted alcohol on cells,
and when we realize that the lining of
the stomach consists of myriads OF
little cells upon whose integrity and
vitality our very lives depend, it is
surely very evident that digestion must
suffer if alcohol be regularly taken
into the system. We know that drink
causes more destruction than war,
famine, and pestilence combined; that
at least rs per cent of the pauperism
and Is per cent of the crime in Eng
countries is caused by it,
and we are well aware that under such
circumstances st. Paul, if he lived,
would be in the foremost rank of
total abstainers because of his
love for his neighbor. Great support
and encouragement should be given to
such men as Father Murnane Of Ber-
mondsey, who carries on noble fight
in the East End of London-and to
every Bishop and every priest who
tries to save the people from the drink
curse. To our mind one of the best
Catholic temperance societies is that
specially encouraged by the Society OF
Jesus, in which the members take the
pledge for life in honor of the Sacred
Thirst of Our Divine Redeemer.