The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-01-25
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT I'M
GERMANY.


tactics in this respect are helping the
cause of temperance, says A. J. Loep-
pert, D. D., in the Christian Advocate.
Schnapps, a form of brandy, is
charged with an excise duty, part of
which known as the love gift,' is re-
turned to the country distillers of
brandy. In 1909 the Socialists issued
manifesto from Leipzig urging their
followers to abstain from schnapps,
and thus to cheat their enemies of
part of their gain This "love gift
is now greatly reduced, in order to
give the German government $780,
600 year to spend on the building of
new battleships. In this the Social
lists see all the more reason for not
drinking, and hence their renewed
appeal. OF course, the Glove gift" has
really been a concession to the mighty
men in German politics. The Social
lists, although against every form of
organized Christianity as it finds it's
expression in the different churches,
are aiding the friends of total abstfn-
ence and temperance in their mighty
warfare against this common foe.
UNIFORMED Americans and others are
still cling1ng to the antfquated idea
that the Fatherland has not yet
awakened to it's tremendous respon-
slbilities toward this great curse of
any country, while the facts show that
Germany is today in the very front in
the fight against King Alcohol.
The change in the attitude of Ger
many is most remarkable. Last No
vember the twenty-fifth anniversary
of the publication of Professor Won
Bunge's "The Alcohol Question" was
celebrated by anti-alcoholists of the
Continent. The eminent author of
this influential and epoch-making
pamphlet says that, up to the date
of its first publication twenty-five
years ago, he was the only physician
or university teacher on the European
continent who had publicly spoken
for total abstinence as the normal
hygienic rule of life Recently on
May q to 81 of last year the tenn
perance party of Germany held it's
annual congress at Freiburg, in Breis-
gau, Baden. Among many notable
men from all provinces and all walks
of life of the great German Empire,
we find as one of the most notable
speakers, the venerable and gray pio-
neer of the movement, Professor Won
Bunge himself.
And what a change has been
wrought in just ten or twelve years Of
patient and effective work! In the
year 1900 there were but few hand
fuls of abstainers in the Prussian
province of Schleswig-H olstein; they
represented the overflow of the Scan
dinavian movement southwark. Now
there are nearly 100000 organized
German abstafners. Germany is a mil
itary nation; she not only passes res
olutiOns, which in many instances are
rarely kept in some other enthusiastic
countries, but she has her reform or
CARNATIONS well organized for effec-
tive work, of which the brewery inter-
ests are nightly afraid in many quar-
tiers of the Fatherland. ct is not for
nothing" says the great leader of the
we are a military nation" So we find
in the study of the temperance move
ment in Germany how they are or
ganized. In it's press, it's literature,
it's leadership, the German temper
ance movement is certainly without
peer in any land. From it's birth it
has sprung into the field full-armed
fn hA 10
Kaiser is well aware of the great
Importance of this work He said in
his speech at Murwik Naval College,
England, some time ago, that drinking
is an old and evil inheritance of the
Germans; he pointed out that modern
warfare demands firm nerves and
cool head At that time he commend
ed the example of the British navy,
in which 10000 officers and men have
joined temperance societies. This
speech was later circulated in Ger
many.
Probably the most gratifying thing
about the movement is it's spirit of
cooperation 1t is not simply the
work Of any separate Woman's Chris
tian Temperance Union, Anti-Saloon
League, or Church Temperance So
ciety, which are not always harmon
ious with one another. The various
organization act according to the
great general of 1901 fame, Won
Moltke, whose dictum it was, when he
said: March separately; strike unit
eddy" All temperance organizations
in Germany most conscientiously obey
this command. On the program Of
the Freiburg Abstinence Congress all
organizations had a place. There
were meetings of the German Rail-
waymen's Anti-Alcohol League, and
of the League of the Abstinent Uni
versity Students. There could be
found the scientific sessions of the
| German Abstinent Physicians, and
likewise the meetings of the German
White Ribboners. While some of the
organizations had been antagonistic
to each other in some other lines of
thinking and work, here they were
most unanimous. The neutral Good
Templars, who are largely freethink-
ers, have had their meetings along
side the other Templars. Even some
great UNCONVENTIONAL lines were oblit-
Grated, as the Catholic Holy Cross
Union came up to the Congress as
well as the Evangelical Blue Cross