The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-07-31
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
THE DRINK QUESTION.
llIME

In just over hundred pages Of dis
titled wisdom, under the title THE
Drink Question, Father Heating, s. j.,
the able editor of the Month" Lion
dom, has written an admirable man.
ual, at once Informative, Illuminating
and uplifting, respecting the problem
which more perhaps than all others
calls for enlightened, unremitting and
enthusiastic Catholic effort. Probably
as much as, if not more than, any
other section of the community in this
country and elsewhere Catholics have
suffered from the social and personal
evils of intemperance, and it is GER
tainly incumbent upon all who desire
the Well-being Of Catholics individual
ly, and the progress of the Church
generally, and who are animated by
the wish to further the real advance
ment Of humanity, to do whatever may
be possible and just to remedy the
present wastage of spiritual, material
and social possessions caused by over
indulgence in alcoholic drinks.
Father Keating's manual, as BELTS
his theme, is remarkably sober, free
from over-emphasis and from the
slightest tinge of prejudice. In six
lucid, well-arranged chapters he dis
cusses the nature of the question, the
| history Of state Intervention, the vari-
Gus voluntary efforts made to deal
| with it, the ethics, the economics and
| the solution; and few readers except
those whose mental view is obscured
or distorted by slavery to habit or by
prejudice born Of financial interest in
the sale of intoXicants could find a
sentence. in the book calling for dis
sent. In the first and longest of the
chapters, that dealing with The Ma
ture of the Question: Father Heating
has crowded a great deal of valuable
matter, and it is pleasant to notice his
| insistence of the Importance of liberty.
AS he well says, Liberty, self-de-
termination, freedom of choice, is a
real good, treasure to be jealousy
guarded as the highest prerOgative of
man and necessary for the accomplish
ment of his end. Unless there is
freedom to choose, there is no merit
in choosing Alright; were there no
temptations to excess there were little
credit in being moderate; if the PEN
alties of wrong-doing were immediate
and overwhelming, then virtue would
be practically compulsory" Natural
| ly, therefore, the writer's contentious
move steadily towards a plea for in
dividual self-denial and self-control
rather than towards absolute prohibit
ton by the state.
He states the question as to alcohol
being a food or not very fairly: the
statements of the various physicians
and bodies of physicians are set down,
but the point is made with overwhelm-
ing force that alcohol is not food and
that even the moderate use of it under
ordinary conditions of health is not adj
vantageous to physical well-being.
Hence the existence of the question.
For undoubtedly many of the more
palpable evils of excessive drinking
Eare diminishing. Social habits are
changing slowly, and drunkenness is
now very differently regarded than it
was in days when it was gentleman
| ly thing to drink oneself into physical
| incapacity. But the nations drink
| bill" still shows increase rather than
otherwise, and the fact that the eX-
penditure ON alcoholic refreshment CD.
would almost pay for the expenditure
necessary for army, navy, education,
law, police and other national charges
is sufficient to answer any critic bold
enough to question the need for stu
pendous reform in the matter Such
reform should spring primarily from
personal conviction leading to habits
of abstinence and self-control and from
an enlightened public opinion leading
to due and proper restrictions on the
part of the state.
Father Heating recognizes that drink
intensifies all the other evils we de-
plore, but it is not the cause of them
all. Sweating, bad housing, INSULT
cient food, imperfect education, exces-
sive facilities for excess, adulteraIed
liquor even-all the dehumanizing ele-
ments that disgrace our Industrial sys-
tenn enter essentially into the drink
question, and the remedies for all, to
be effectual, must be sought simultan-
eously."
The chapter on the Ethics of the
| Question is absorbingly interesting.
The author ranges with ease over the
whole subject, from a consideration Of
| Manichean heresies relative to matter.
to an exposition of the obligations at
taching to the pledge" and the ethi-
cal plea for total abstinence is a little
masterpiece of adept reasoning most
lucidly and cogently expressed. A re-
view of the various methods of at,
tempting to solve the question of the
drink evil leads the author to the opin.
ion that no solution can be found in
mere legislation. Even the "Gothen-
burg system" has it's disadvantages.
The Continental cafe system does not
lead to less consumption of liquor or
less waste Of national resources,
whilst great many more people,
especially young people and women,
would, by the spread Of such a system
here, be exposed to the danger of ac-
quiring taste for alcoholic drink. No
mere System" can be successful. As
Father Heating says, Temperance re-
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