The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-09-17
International
SundaySchoolLesson
By WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

For September 10 Is THE Evils of
jntempersnSe'"-Proverbs 2s;ls-Sl;
New Faces on an Old Evil.
Events move SO quickly in these
days that even Sunday School Lessons
must have an up-to-date moment ap-
plication. Lesson helps" written
more than q year ago. do not Apply
today. When the International Lesson
committee chose the present Lesson
they had in mind only the evils that
ensue to the individual in the use OF
intoxicants. They little dreamed OF
the changed conditions that would
exist when the Lesson should come to
be studied. and the new crop of larger
evils that would have to be considered.
Behold! we have a Temperance Les
son with all OF the United States legal
ly dry and large part of Canada; ana
with prohibition to the fore as a living
issue in even Great Britain and other
countries SO diSsirnilar in temperament
as the Argentine republic! When in
Europe last year. I found the prohi-
bition legislation in Canada and the
States a more general topic of CONVEX
cation than the League of Nations
i ment is to be credited to the temper
ance movement:--it has put the ques-
ton of total prohibition upon the map
OF the minds of mankind.
l. Everybody perceives, more or less
Vaguely, that the world cannot con-
tinue half wet and half dry. In these
standardized days, and in this era of
easy communication. a liquor selling
neighbor partially nullifies the prohi-
bition laws by any state, province or
nation.
An Unneighborly Snarl.
One country does not care to be the
liquor saloon of another. 1t does not
comport with the dignity of Canada
to be the source of an illegal bootleg
lying traffic with the United States.
Icanada's own dry" peovinces resent
the notification of their laws that the
wet" provinces make possible. Trou-
bles of countless kinds follow in the
trail of booze; and this irritating and
potentially dangerous form OF I'M
Ineighborliness Is one of them. Even
the honorable man who himself ap-
Iproves of the sale and use of intoxi-
cants cannot view with equanirnity
this cennivance at the violation of law.
1t is destructive of good citizenship in
general.
Since nations and people are now
| adays SO tightly bound up together in
the bundle of life. prohibition-which
is the present acute form of the tenn
perance question - has become q
nany-sided world issue Either it will
have to be discarded where 1t now
exists or else it will have to be adopted
| everywhere.
Theoretically, the advocate Of per,
sonHl liberty" has a good case-whicf
falls down before the modern socia
consciousness which prohibits tbs
white slave traffic and trade in habit
forming drugs. Whatever hurts an,
considerable portion OF the people
must be given up, in the interest Of
the general welfare. "No man iiyeti
to himself, and no man dieth to him
self"
The Big Politicians Viewpoint.
Recently I was talking in Wash
ington with a high official of this
American government. himself lead
ing candidate for the presidential
nomination, and the subject arose OF
tionai campaign. His remarks were sc
sane and Zig that I repeat them
You cannot persuade me that tbs
American people are going to decide
a national election, at the most critica
period of the worlds history, wheT
upon any such trivial point as the per
eentage of alcohol that is to be per.
mitted in beverages. The hour is toe
grave for any little thing like a man:
fondness for liquor. to be made the
issue in a presidential election"
That viewpoint is entirely sane and
reasonable; yet fear that my eminent
friend did not take sufficiently into
account the demoralizing effect OF
booze upon politics and individuals
"PracticaP politician by the hun
dreds are basing their activities upor
the wet or dry tendencies Of can
didates and parties.
1t was q sad day for democracy
when liquor entered politics. Shame
iessiy open to the gaze of the world i:
the fact that the American states thai
are ''wettest''-that is. Iaxest In Law
euforcement-are those wherein poll
ties have been most VIGOROUSLY cor
rupt. Careless citizenship, which has
tolerated vicious craftsmanship, is nov
reaping a reward of lawlessness that
is possibly worse, in the larger view
than individual drunkenness.
booze and Bolshevisnl-
Beyond question, the largest Issue
on the worlds horizon today is that OF
Bolshevism. And .BoIshevism is funda-