The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-09-05
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
IN FRATERNAL
ORGANIZATIONS.

Mexico, printed recently the follow
ing editorial:
"Out of the mass of suggestions
for checking the evil of alcoholism,
legislation force, arbitrary limiting
of personal liberty, and all the rest
of it, comes now and then practical
suggestion which is refreshing. One
of these is the suggestion made by
Francis E. Wood of Albuquerque to
the Knights of Columbus in a meet
ing of that order at Las Vegas re-
Gently. Mr.. Wood suggested that
the order as an organization place
the ban of disapproval upon the
great American institution of treat
ing; that it take stand against the
custom handed down from our fore
fathers to have one on me-"
Mr.. Wood suggests that if the
custom of treating in saloons and
other public places where liquor is
sold is done away with, the consump-
ton of alcoholic liquors in this
country, instead of the regular
annual increase, promptly would be
decreased about one-half. He thinks
the annual crop of habitual drunkards
would be reduced by at least one
half. The chances are that Mr..
Wood is just about right. Think over
the list of your friends and acquaint-
ances and count from among them
the number of men who drink alone
in public places. The smallness of
the number will astonish you. And
from those who do drink alone,
the confirmed consumers of Excess
sive quantities of alcohol, count those
who have reached the stage where
liquor has become a necessity, who
reached that stage through the So
liability route. It's probable you will
find ninety, per cent, arrived that
way.
mo man deliberately becomes a
drunkard. The habit is a creeping
habit. 1t does not grasp and throttle
it's victim all at once, like opium or
cocaine The treating custom is the
national greaser of the skids.
ct is mighty easy to take another
mighty hard to keep away from the
have little one with me- when the
other fellows are buying. One hates
a 'piker and hates to be one. Our
national institution of treating is so
well established and so widely re-
spected that the man who doesn't
conform just about has to climb on
the water wagon and be a clam To
stretch one drink into ten is the
easiest thing under the shining sun;
and with ten under the belt, there is
no limit to liberality, even with the
rent money.
"Mr. Wood doesn't propose to stop
treating by law. He doesn't even
propose to place any check on
hospitality with liquor in the home;
at least we assume he does not, since
his suggestion is sensible in every
other way. He doesn't even propose
to make 'anti-treating' a rule of the
order he was addressing. He mere
ly proposes that individual members
of that order stop treating 1t is
big enough, he thinks, so if every
member would step out of the have
one on me- brigade, there would be
enough of a hole in the ranks to
have a national influence. 1t would
be voluntary movement in behalf
of the weak brother-and the brother
who takes chances on becoming weak
as long as he trains with the have
another on me crowd.
Suppose the membership Of half a
dozen of the great fraternal societies
of this nation should take up this
proposal, make it an individual
principle and abide by the rule.
Wouldn't it make a hole in the drink
evil? 1t would.
There are common sense, practical
way of checking the drink evil, and
this limiting of the institution of
treating; limiting it by personal,
voluntary sanction and consent among
large bodies of organized men, is one
of these ways"
So well did Colorado Knight think
of this editorial that he had it re-
printed in the Denver Catholic
Register, with the query, "Why can't
the Colorado and Wyoming knights
of Columbus undertake a similar
movement" We are willing to
give the suggestion the benefit of
our circulation. No Catholic paper
in the country has a deeper regard
for the Knights of Columbus than we
have, and none is less disposed to
intimate that the members of the
order as a whole are in need of an
anti-treating regime; but there are
many places where an anti-treating
movement would, il successful, bene-
fit materially more than a few
Knights of Columbus. And the same
is true of all other Catholic fraternal
organizations. A tendency to con-
VITALITY is one of the weak spots of
our fraternals. We want to be
good fellows" a good many of us,