The Liquor Traffic. Two Evils Which Are Engaging the Attention of Our

(Registered at the G.P.O., Melbourne, for transmission by Post, as a Newspaper.) VOL. 21, NO 39. Warburton, Victoria, October 1, 1906 ONE PENNY little inconvenient to those under the influence of the rise. The Liquor Traffic. Whisky, on the other hand, has its effects upon the constitu- Two evils which are engaging the attention of our tion also, for it has the result of raising a man to the hills legislators at the present time are the drink traffic and the of enchantment, but it lowers him as surely to the very gambling mania. In regard to the drink traffic it is a depths of misery, despair, and death. These well-built common thing to observe in all our great cities, towns, and death traps are standing to-day in many a noble thorough- country villages the most desirable corners embellished by fare. The shelves glitter with the rows of decanters and the facade of a hotel or village inn, and under the sign of silver-topped bottles, all bearing the label of the various ;IFiVir/ever,‘" Interior of Catholic Church, Philippine Islands. the "Royal Oak," the "British Sovereign," or the "Magpie decoctions contained within. The so called "bar" is orna- and Lark," may be seen the open doorway or window, upon mented by handsome counters, brass mounted, and the which is painted in gaudy letters the significant word recesses shine with a variety of bottles, marked "Old Tom," "bar." Whether this word bar is a contraction of the word "Gin," "Scotch Whisky." These various brands are all barrel it is hard to say. Presumably there are as many of celebrated for the power their contents possess of depriving these casks stowed away in the capacious and fusty cellars a man of his senses, his pockets of their silver, and his as there were powder barrels placed under the Parliament stomach of its coating, and the impetus which they give Houses in the days of Guy Fawkes. The contents of both him towards a disreputable future, and a drunkard's grave. had and have the reputation of elevating men, only Fawkes Drink has proved itself to be the greatest power in impel- wished the elevation to be sudden, realistic, and perhaps a ling men upon the broad road to ruin, and it has many 482 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES October 1, 1906 times proved a curse to what might otherwise have remained Physical Degeneration- of Englishmen. a happy and prosperous home, had the bottle remained outside. The effects of its destructive influence upon the THE class of English who follow the plough, work the human family meet the eye everywhere; you smell it as mills, and dig the ditches and excavations of the land, the you pass the street corners; you constantly see men under class which Goldsmith called "its country's pride," is said its influence; you remark its effects upon the countenance; by the London Daily News to be decaying in physical the nose assumes an unwonted colour; you perceive it often stamina. It is from this claSs that the legions of the in the rotundity of the figure; you perceive it in the palsied empire are recruited; and the fact of this gradual dwindling and shaky hand; you recognise it in the sullen and dogged of bone and thew and sinew in the adult Englishman is look. You meet it in the "dead beats" who hang on to the indicated by the enlistment returns, which present a social edges of society, dilapidated wretches who have lost interest problem of most serious import to British statesmen. in all things under the sun, and who are only aroused to From these returns we learn, according to the journal cited, enthusiasm by the smell of a whisky bottle. "Whisky is that while thousands are willing to join the colours, not one their heaven as well as their hell." Our cities are cursed in three desiring to enlist is passed by the military doctors with too many of these dejected parasites, and the country as suitable for the service. This unfitness is due, the too, for that matter. As you pass through life you are rubbing shoulders with writer thinks, to the social conditions under which the all grades of drinkers, and the rank and file of society classes live from which British soldiers are usually drawn. presents every kind of specimen of the drink traffic, from He says :— the moderate drinker to the hardened toper. The effects of "How far this state of things is due to lack of food and drink upon the human race to-day are to be seen every- to general poverty of surroundings in childhood is a very where. Intemperance has opened an avenue for disease fair subject for inquiry. Moreover, if a third of those who to obtain a foothold upon the debilitated constitutions of would enlist into the army lack the stamina which the army the progeny of those who have loved the bottle more than standard demands, how can they be deemed efficient for their respectability, their morality, or the health and future the purpose of civil work ? We have, therefore, a picture of their own children. Health and respectability have been of 24,000 youths, whom the recruiting sergeant would bartered away at the beer-shop, and the cursed money thus gladly snap up, being thrown back in one year with the obtained has gone to inflate our public revenue. stamp of physical inefficiency. At the same time it must Our government, however, is now taking several steps be remembered that army rejection is but one means by to counteract some of the evils which its desire for revenue which we may measure the physical degeneration of our has so long licensed, and allowed to prevail. The respecta- race. Perhaps there is nothing else that places this degen- bility of the community is assailed by the tremendous eration in so startling a light. It reminds us that the one output of liquor. Drink is one of the world's greatest truly imperial question is the social question." curses, and any protection which legislation can give its people to guard their welfare against the pernicious results of the drink traffic ought to be received with pleasure by all who have any respect for the welfare of the community Expenditures for Luxuries. at large. We are glad to see that efforts are being made FROM a report of the twenty-seventh annual meeting of in the direction of limiting the sale of intoxicating drink, for the Women's Foreign Missionary Society held recently in indulgence in the various narcotic poisons has become a Washington, U. S. A., I clip the following :— national curse. Any government which has the welfare of its people at "The walls of the church were hung with charts, telling heart should legislate both for the protection of the health, in round figures how much money went for various 'luxuries' and for the sobriety of its people. Of late years the Vic- people allow themselves, the first and most startling of all torian government has failed to deal with this vital question. was the announcement that eleven million dollars goes for Laws are good, but it takes more than laws to enable men chewing-gum, and only seven million five hundred thousand to lead righteous lives. It is only Christ who can save dollars for foreign missions. One hundred and seventy-eight individuals from misery and vice. Only the reforming love million goes for candy; jewels entice to the amount of of Christ in the heart can save the drunkard, the gambler, seven hundred million, and tobacco and millinery go away the profligate, and the libertine. Christ only is mighty to up into the millions; tobacco considerably in the lead." save. The above figures furnish food for serious reflection. The rising generation has little to secure itself against The mere bagatelle given for the spread of the gospel, the overwhelming inroads of present-day evil customs. compared with the enormous extravagance manifested in Nevertheless it is well to see that there is still such a thing in the expenditures for so-called "luxuries," is a striking in existence as a public conscience, and that efforts are commentary on the moral trend of the world. Eleven being made to minimise the evils of intemperance which million dollars for chewing-gum ! Three and one-half are grappling for the mastery. We hope that success will million dollaii more for this one nuisance alone than is attend the efforts of the government to stay the flood of given for the extension of the Master's kingdom ! One intemperance which has already reached high water mark, hundred and seventy-eight million for candy! Twenty-five but the alarming prevalence of national vices shows us times more expended for this luxury than is given in all the plainly where we are in human history, and the nearness of earth to save souls from perdition ! Other sums expended the final crisis to which the world is fast approaChing—J. B. for jewellery; tobacco, millinery, etc., run up into such a fabulous sum that it is incomprehensible, so not given. But CHINA is in receipt annually, it is estimated, of some only seven and one-half million for the Lord who created 10,000,000 remitted by coolies employed in various parts the universe and owns it all. Yet with these figures staring of the world—the amount contributed by the Chinese in the them in the face, men talk about the millennium and the Transvaal being placed at about -1,000,000.

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