The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-06-13
The Fight Goes On.

Some Of the enthusiastic fighters for .zuse
believe in the flush of victory or in the gloom
Of defeat that the battle Just enshed eris the
controversy for all time. Now AMI then history
is turned by the outcome of great battle but
moral reform can never he secures and made
permanent by one supreme effort nor loss by
bad fortune IN a single battle The rae- adj
vances IN a long succession Of skirmishes. The
end of one fight is time not for rest but mere
~ fer recuperation for the next contest.
Civilization is graphing with alcohol asit has
never grapp!ed before with an overpowering
evil. The real danger and damage has come TO
be understood before IN worlds his
tory,t Jack London. In his epoch making book
John Barleycorn." shows that drinking has
been cultivated by the social impulses and en-
coufaeed by the saloon. and docs not come from
"a natural craving for alcohol by the human
race, AT the conclusion of his experience. ex-
planning that he voted for suffrage because
women, the real conservators of the race, vail
help check the waste Of alcohol he says:
And like such survivor Of old red
who cries out. Let there he war
cry out Let there be no more pnison-aght
ing by youthsi' The way to step war IS to
stop 1.-THE way to stop drinking It to stop IT.
The way China stopped the general of
opsun by stopping the cultivation and
i'm portation of opium. The philosophers, priests
and doctors Of China could have preached them
selves breathess against opium for thousand
years and, the use Of opium, so long as opium
was ever accessible and obtainanle. would have
continued unahated, We 50 made-tha. Is
an.
We have with great success made practice
OF not leaving arsenic and strychnine, and ty-
phoid and tuberculosis germs, lying round to
destroy children. Treat John Barleycorn
the way. Stop him. Don't LET him lie
round licensed and legal to pounec upon
youth. Not Of alcoholic or for alcoholics do
write but for youths, for those who pos
sess more than the adventure stings and the
genial predispositions the social man impulses
which twisted all away BY barbarian
civilization that feeds them poison on all The
corners. II IS tho healthy normal boys now
horn heing born for whom | write. =
The women know. They have paid in
calculable price Of sweat and tears for man 6
use Of alcohol Ever jealous for the race, they
VIII legislate for rhe babes of boys yet to be
born: and for the hahes OF girls too--for they
must he the mothers, wives and sisters Of these
boys
And it will be easy The only ones that will
he hurt will be the topers and seasoned drink
ers of single generation ! Of these
and | make solemn assurance, based upon long
traffic with John Bareycorn, that 1t won't hurt
me very much to stop drinking when one
else drinks and when drink Is obtainabie
ON the other hand tho overwhelming proper
ton Of young are so normally nonaIcohoNc
that. never having had access TO alcohol, they
Will never miss it. They win know of the sa-
Icon only in the pages Of history, and they will
think OF the saloon quaint old custom sim
liar To bull batting and the burning Of witches
Notwithstanding the liquor and railroad in
terests are expressing great qualification ever
the results of the recent primaries IN this State
the people are none the less alive, TO the fact
as Mr.. Henderson. the nominee OF the party for
governor has said, that .'whiskey is the bane
Of civilization; and they are more than ever
convinced that the saloon must go, and that
the breweries and the railroads must be driven
out of politics, The end OF the local battle is
only an incident in the great fight tina. must
be pushed forward now until the power of the
liquor and railroad interests are definitely and
f. rever broken in Alahama.--Montgomery tAla.)
ournal