The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-04-03
CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.

CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP.
Excerpts from an address delivered
before the National w. C. T. U.
convention by Mrs. Frances e. Beau
champ of Kentucky
Why do we have blind babies? We
do not have blind calves, blind colts,
blind pigs, and blind lambs. While
the problem confronts US the statis-
tician steps up behind us and tells us
that GO per cent of all the children
that are born blind come into this
world thus hampered because the
grimy hand of the liquor traffic,
through the drink habit of the parents
or grandparents lifted itself out of the
past and projected itself into the fu-
ture, and closed the eyes of the chill
dren before they were born. The SCI
entists tell us that SO far as the
blight upon future generations is con
cerned, a man would better get hilari-
ously drunk now and then and stay
sober the rest of the time, than to be
a constant. moderate drinker, contin-
ually taking into his system small
quantities of alcohol.
/ ask you to estimate how many
blind children we have in the United
States, count the cost to the state of
maintaining its institutions for the
blind, and then put it down as part
of the tribute we annually render to
King Alcohol that he may go on in
his urnrlx IF nI1ffinn aTI} tho ouaa oF
generations hat are to come.
Why should America have deaf chill
dren? AS you are bordering upon
this problem the statistician again
steps up behind you and says, as in
the case of the blind, that about SO
out of every 100 taking the average
throughout the land) of all these chill
dren who are born deaf, are the vic
Tins of this same great destroyer, the
liquor traffic. If the lower animals
were fed on alcohol, as is the higher
animal, they would have deaf colts,
and deaf calves, and deaf pigs, and
deaf lambs. Did you ever think what
this means? What it means in eco
nomic loss to the nation
From 25 to so per cent of all the
insane in this nation r victims of
alcohol used sometimes on the pre-.
scription of the physician; sometimes
constantly in patent nostrums; often
in moderate quantities, and frequent
ly to excess.
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York,
Pennsylvania and Kentucky are the
six great whisky producing states of
this nation. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, New York and Ken
lucky have the largest percentage of
insanity of any of the states of this
nation. Do you call that coincidence?
l don't. I call it cause and effect.
You can't trample Gods laws under
foot and go unwhipped of justice.
Sometimes | get a good deal mixed
up on the question of who the GRIM
inals are. Often l am quite convinced
that the poor fellow behind the bars
is not half so bad as the man who
walks down the street, prides himself
on his strength, and puts into the box
a ballot to enthrone in Office men
who he knows will not enforce the
law.
| want you to go with me to the
prison for a little while at the time
the men fall in line to march to their
cells at night. If you have such a
splendid Christian warden as we have
in our Kentucky state ~reformatory
and in our state penitentiary, you can
say to him, won't you call that line
to a halt and order every man who
came here for offenses committed
when he was under the influence of
alcoholic liquor, as shown by the evil
dence adduced in the trial, to step out
of that line over here" If you are
not up on statistics you will be
amazed at the results. If you were in
Kentucky Sc out of every 100 of these
men, according to the decisions of the
courts, would step out and form a
new line. If you were in New York,
according to the decisions of the
courts, so out of every 100 would step
forward. l ask you, which is more
of a criminal, the mar who votes to
establish an institution to make GRIM
inals, or the poor fellow, who with
muddled brain commits some offense
for which he is sentenced to the peni,
tertiary?