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HIS paper has often emphasized to the lives of the pupils committed to teachers the necessity of removing from their care everything that stands in the way of the educational work. As teachers we [of this organization] abstain from alcohol because we realize that only by so doing can we impress upon the young, with all the strength of our own conviction, the warning, Beware of intoxicating drinks.

The inquiries our society has instituted, like those by school officers and teachers of many cities, have again and again brought out the fact that a greater part of the youth of our times must do homage to the use of alcohol because the present drinking customs compel compliance, because the ignorance among all classes of people in our fatherland is still so great, because, more than all else, our teaching profession is not yet sufficiently aroused to give effective warning and admonition. The feeling of responsibility in our own ranks needs to be more generally awakened.

We are yet a long way from the Child World (kinderland). In spite of all our care of the voung, in spite of the strenuous exertions of well-meaning societies and officials, we are not yet in "the country of the child", and we shall not be as long as alcoholic drinks are allowed to play the smallest part in the life of the young.

It often seems to me as if we pursued what is the generally called the ostrich policy. We close our eyes to the suffering of the children. We stop our ears against the horrible tale of the national statistics.

Every year 450,000 infants fall as dead blossoms from the German tree of life. In Bavaria, for instance, out of 450.000 infants 6.500 are born dead, and 69.000 die during the first year of life. Tens of thousands of mothers in the beer-land of Bavaria see themselves cheated of their fond hopes, thrown into the deepest sorrow. From an exact count of 20,008 children belonging to 5,845 families, the well-known investigator, Prof. Laitinen, has shown how seriously even moderate drinking on the part of parents affects their children.

If only we could get rid of alcohol in Germany, our infant mortality would strikingly decrease, as to that there can be no difference of opinion. Norway proves it to us. Before

the temperance movement gained such headway 300 out of every 1,000 children died there during the first year of life, as is the case today in Bavaria; now, infant mortality in Norway has fallen to between 80 and 90 per 1,000. That shows that a new and healthy generation is coming up.

A terrible tale of children's misery is told by the last report of the German Central Society for the Care of the Young. There are reported 1,695 cases which were sent to them by the courts, police, clergymen, physicians and societies, and the 1,695 cases represent so many child tragedies played in the midst of the great city without the public knowing anything about them.

The drunkenness of their parents was the immediate cause of the application for care in 117 cases, but in all the reports of ill-usage, prostration, immorality, crimes, etc., alcohol is always the inciting or direct cause.

Is all this child misery nothing to you, German teachers? Shall it be said of you that you have no desire to help? The trouble is, people do not understand even in our own ranks that it is still darkest night. As long as our associates are not themselves free from the prevailing views in regard to drink they will be unable to comprehend the misery of the children, or that teachers can do a great deal to alleviate it if they will.

Day after day, the newspapers tell of suffering that cries to heaven. For two years I

have collected as much as I could from the daily papers concerning the influence of alcohol upon family life. Before me now lie hundreds of clippings on the subject of "ChildSuffering and Alcohol". Between April first of last year and April first of this year there were not less than 183 reports similar to the following which are certainly only a small part of those occurring in our country, many of which never reach public knowledge.

"Schleswig-Holstein Volkszeitung, Jan. 13, 1910. Consequences of Alcoholism. A few days ago, a fight occurred in the "standing beer hall" of Keil, in which a father who had seven children to support got his leg broken." Notes

"Bavarian Courier, Munich, Jan. 21, 1910. from South Bavaria. As a result of over-indulgence in alcohol a wagon-waker of Neustift pounced upon his only child, an eight-year-old girl, pulled her from the bed and threw her out of the window." "Dusseldorf Daily, Feb. 10, 1910. The Martyrdom of Two Children. A woman living on Loretto street was sentenced by a justice to a week in prison for

inflicting dangerous bodily injury. As the woman appealed against the sentence, the matter was brought before the court where the evidence taken showed that she was given to drunkenness and was the mother of several young children. Two of these, an eight-year-old boy and a twelve-year-old girl were continually maltreated in a most brutal manner. Kicks and blows with a leather strap were an everyday occurrence. The woman struck regardless of where the blows fell, and the screams of the misused children filled the whole neighborhood. Besides, during her daily abandonment to drink the children were shamefully neglected, and when the neighbors remonstrated she replied that she did not care what became of them. The twelveyear-old daughter remained away from the house all day because she was afraid to come home, but early in the morning the beating began. Finally, the authorities interfered and the children were taken away from the unnatural mother."

How can one's heart beat quietly while such things go on? Yet thousands read of these occurrences day after day without being moved by them.

According to a careful enumeration, we have upwards of 400,000 alcohol-sick men, "drinkers" according to the usual term. 300,000 of them are married; and have, all told, about a million children.

I will not dwell upon the enormous num

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bers who are in asylums as idiots, epileptics, feeble-minded, cripples, etc. But from the mournful eyes of these children comes the constant reminder that alcohol was in a large number of cases the spoiler, alcohol which the state allows to be retailed in city and country with high official approval, and the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generation.

Truly we are yet a long way from the Children's World. If we would find the way to it we must first make an inexorable, untiring fight against intoxicating drinks.

Upon us, members of the German Society of Abstaining Teachers, lies the duty of calling into this battle others of our profession, by hundreds and thousands. We have to make good to the children of the future for the sins that have been committed upon the children of the past. Let us have tens of thousands of abstaining teachers who will be so many combatants declaring war to the knife upon the allies of child suffering.

HE attitude of the brewing industry toward the scientific study of alcoholism is well shown by a remark in a recent number of the Brewer's Journal concern ing the Exposition of Alcoholism which is to form a part of the International Congress on Hygiene in Dresden, 1911. This section is in charge of Prof. Max Gruber, President of the Royal Hygienic Institute of Munich, assisted by other scientists of high rank.

The correspondent of the Brewer's Journal says that the majority of those in charge of this section are "teetotalers and idealists," and adds:

"It will be well for the trade in all countries to send representatives to that congress to prevent it from being proclaimed as an aggregation of scientists whose judgment might be taken seriously, if proper measures be not taken to controvert it."

A glance at the list of these "scientists" whose judgment is to be "controverted" by the brewing trade, reveals such names, in addition to that of the director, Prof. Gruber, as the following: Dr. Gonser, Counsellor to His Majesty the King of Prussia; Prof. Kraepelin, Counsellor to the Royal Court of Bavaria, and Professor of Mental Diseases in the University of Munich; Prof. Moeli, M. D., Privy Councillor, Berlin; Prof. von Bunge, M. D., of the Chair of Physiological Chemistry in the University of Basle; Dr. Hercod, professor in the College of Lausanne; Prof. Laitinen of the

University of Helsingfors; Dr. von Strauss und Torney, of Berlin, Chief Counsellor of the Supreme Court of Prussia and President of the Senate of Administration; Prof. Weichselbaum, Counsellor to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, a leading anatomist and for many years professor in the University of Vienna.

It will be interesting to see how the brewers will attempt to controvert the judgment of these men. At first thought one might suppose that it would be useless for them to make the attempt, but a glance at the page advertisements of the large brewing firms in leading daily newspapers shows how such contradictions get a hearing. Money buys the space that will fall under the eyes of people who have no knowledge of the subject and no scientific training which would lead them to challenge statements unsupported by or out of harmony with existing evidence.

A striking example of this method is furnished by a page advertisement in a large Chicago daily which contains a dozen or more subtly planned statements, each intended to win favorable opinions for beer, regardless of the opposing evidence.

For the sake of those likely to be influenced by this mercenary juggling with scientific truths concerning beer, it is important that the misleading assertions be met by widely promulgated statements of the corresponding facts.

THE ALCOHOL IN BEER NOT INCONSIDERABLE NOR HARMLESS

The beer advertisement asserts, that: "Beer contains so small a percentage of alcohol as to render it absolutely harmless when taken in moderation."

Accepting the minimum percentage of alcohol so far claimed by the brewers, 31⁄2 per cent., and the minimum interpretation of moderation as not less than one glass a day, more probably from three to four glasses, which is the brewers' estimate of moderation, it is easy to compute the amount of alcohol the drinker gets in his moderate allowance of beer.

One ten-ounce glass of 31⁄2 per cent. beer would furnish 35-100, a little over 1-3 of an ounce of alcohol, or 101⁄2 grams, the measure usually employed in laboratory work. Two glasses would furnish 2-3 ounces, or 21 grams; three glasses, one ounce, or 30 grams of alcohol.

Very exact tests have been made of the effects of these quantities of that drug. The amount in one glass, ten grams, has been found to lower both muscular and mental working ability during the time of its influence (experiments of Destreé and of Kraepelin). It has also been shown to impair for half an hour or more the ability to distinguish between the loudness of sounds (Specht).

Less than the amount of alcohol in two glasses of beer. as little as 14.7 grams, measurably reduced the muscular power of Dr. L. Schnyder in a series of experiments carried out with Prof Paul Dubois at Berne, Switzerland (1903). Dr. W. E. Dixon has found by experiment that the heart is depressed when the blood contains a percentage of alcohol equal to what would be thrown into it by 221⁄2 grams, a trifle over the amount in two glasses of beer.

The amount of alcohol in three glasses of beer, 30 grams or one ounce, has been tested in various kinds of head and hand work and found to impair them all. One very exact and interesting experiment in writing reported by Dr. Mayer (Heidelberg), showed a retardation of over 7 per cent. in the time required for writing certain letters of the alphabet after taking this amount of alcohol.

A very practical application of the facts. obtained by these exact laboratory investigations was made by the railroad manager who said to an engineer, "If it takes ten glasses of beer to make a man drunk, when he has had one glass he is one-tenth drunk."

Instead, therefore, of being "absolutely harmless," beer used in the strictest moderation furnishes enough alcohol to injure a man at a very vital point-his money-earning power.

DRUGGING IS NOT NORMAL STIMULATION "But beer contains enough alcohol to produce that mild form of stimulation and exhil aration which the human system craves," con-. tinues the beer advertisement.

Drugging the brain with a narcotic which first excites and then depresses, is not a normal fulfillment of the natural desire for inspiration or exhilaration. The effect produced by a glass of beer is a drug effect, a dulling of the higher centres which causes relaxation of control, and a consequent brief stage of excitement, followed quickly by heaviness.

"Whenever alcohol promotes sociability and loosens the tongue" says Dr. Forel, "it is the result of brain intoxication." A more general knowledge of this fact is needed to correct the widely prevailing opinion that a man is not intoxicated as long as he can walk.

A properly conducted life finds many opportunities for receiving uplifting inspiration or normal mild stimulation without the evil consequences that follow trying to counterfeit these sensations by the use of a drug.

THE CLAIM OF ABSOLUTE PURITY "Beer is absolutely pure, being entirely free from disease-laden germs so frequently found in milk and water," boasts the advertisement. "It is one of the beverages that can not be adulterated or tampered with from the time it leaves the manufacturer until it reaches the consumer."

And yet, at a meeting of a Brewing Society in Chicago, March 17, 1910, a long paper was read about what happens to beer between the brewery and the consumer. The following are some of the happenings: (1) Faulty or dirty packages; (2) faulty "pitching" which leaves spaces for impurities that sooner or later get into the beer; (3) careless handling which may also loosen some of the "pitch"; (4) metal turbidity caused by the "cooling coils" made of tin in the retailer's place; (5) steaming or boiling out the coils is liable to "bake" on the impurities which later flake off in the beer; (6) impure air is frequently carried into the beer from the ice box or basement when the beer is pumped by air or water pressure from these storage places to the consumer's glass; (7) the water pressure pumps may leak, and air and water both be forced into the beer; (8) the rinsing of the glasses after use may not be inviting when "the glass disappears behind the bar and is rinsed in water of indescribable condition."

With bottled beer troubles also Occur. "With all due care," says this brewing instructor, "every brewer may have unpleasant experiences, due to faulty closing or capping devices, faulty glass, or handling in transportation, Metal turbidity may be produced by

the action of salts on the tin or iron either from the pipes used in the bottling department, or from particles adhering to the bottles after leaving the soaker and washer."

These impurities may not be of great consequence, but they do not warrant the dogmatic claim that beer is "absolutely pure."

It has been repeatedly shown (by the Committee of Fifty and others) that the impurities or adulterations in any alcoholic liquors are of very small importance compared with the ever present poison-alcohol. That is the ingredient which causes the slow, chronic intoxication of the body known as "alcoholism." TEA AND COFFEE DRINKING DO NOT BURDEN THE TAX PAYER

"Beer does not contain caffeine, as does coffee, nor tannic acid, which is peculiar to tea," continues the advertisement. If beer only did contain these substances instead of alcohol, the brewers would be as free from what they term "persecution" as are the tea and coffee producers. Mints of money would not be needed to buy up newspapers, press, type, and ink-pot, to defend their wares. Judges are Indigestible Nutrients

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not saying that 90 per cent. of the crimes coming before them are due to tea and coffee; the public is not taxed to build institutions for the cure of tea drunkards, or asylums for the insane, feeble-minded, epileptic, and indigent victims of coffee.

PHYSICIANS UNITE TO CONDEMN IT "Beer acts as a tonic, and for this reason has received the hearty indorsement of leading medical and scientific authorities the world over," announces the advertisement. But it can not boast of state, national and international societies of physicians banded together to promote the use of beer, as there are to combat it and all beverages containing alcohol.

THE CONSPICUOUS PRO-BEER ECCLESIASTICS

"Eminent ecclesiastical authorities have long recognized beer as an important factor in the world's campaign for temperance," is the other leg of this prop.

Ecclesiastical gentlemen who use this argument are conspicuous for their singularity as well as for their ignorance of the historical fact that where the experiment has been tried the people have found themselves saddled with a beer plague as pernicious as the whisky evil. This is the experience of Germany, Belgium and England, the leading beer-drinking countries of the world. Instead of a decrease in alcoholism, they see the marks of its ravages

increasing in the growth of organic, nervous and mental diseases, inebriety, etc. This increase of alcoholism keeps step with the increasing use of beer.

WHAT BECOMES OF NUTRITIVE MATERIALS

"Beer is made from selected materials high in their percentage of nutritious elements," asserts the beer advertisement; but it says nothing about the destruction of those nutritious elements during the processes of brewing which converts the former food substances into the poison, alcohol.

THE "LIQUID-BREAD" DECEPTION

"Beer has been very appropriately called 'Liquid-bread' " says the brewer's page. "One quart contains one-tenth to one-fifth pound of dry substances, consisting of albumen, nutritious salts, especially the all-important phosphates and extract of malt."

The propriety of calling beer "liquidbread" may be judged by the following comparison of the constituents of bread and beer, ascertained by exact analysis and published by the Committee of Fifty ("Physiological Aspects of Liquor Problem," Vol. II, p. 342.)

This analysis shows no warrant for crediting a quart of beer with "1-5 pound of dry substance consisting of albumen, nutritious salts, etc." All that can be credited with nutritive value is the 6 per cent. of extractive matter, largely dextrine, and in a quart of beer, weighing about 2.12 pounds, this extractive would amount to only .127 of a pound or 2 ounces. The "all important phosphates" are present in the remarkable proportion of 32 per cent. of the ash, which in turn constitutes 3-10 per cent of the beer. A glass of beer. therefore, would furnish 32-100 of 3-1000 of 10 ounces, or a little less than 1-100 of an ounce of phosphoric acid.

The nutriment in the beer moreover, would cost from 12 to 15 times as much as the same amount in the form of bread. That is, 1 fivecent loaf of bread weighing from 12 to 15 ounces furnishes 7.32 to 9.15 ounces of nutriment; 1 five-cent glass of beer, 10 ounces, furnishes 6-10 of an ounce of nutriment. The same money spent for bread, therefore, buys from 12 to 15 times as much nutriment as it does when spent for beer.

But even if beer contained more nutriment than the brewers claim so long as it also contains a poison which the history of the world has shown to be an enemy to mankind, so long it must be denounced and measures taken to protect society from its evil effects.

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Responsible Majorities.

GOOD deal of fervid oratory is expended in pre-election period on the subject of the majorities as the controlling element in popular government. As a matter of fact the power of majorities in government lies not merely in a numerical but still more in a responsible strength. Mere numbers do not necessarily represent the conviction founded on well understood principles that is needed to ensure the continuance and progress of public welfare. Some of the worst scenes of the French Revoution were expressions of the will of majorities. Intelligence as to the issues involved in any question, acceptance of responsibilities involved in making a decision upon it-these are the characteristics of the majority, decision that signifies real progress.

Whirlwind campaign for legislation often leaves emptiness and disappointment in results unless it has been preceded by the slower, less spectacular but fundamental work of education in the particular principles involved. There is no royal short-cut in social reform.

It is true that legislation whether on the alcohol question or any other social problem is often educational in its results. Bits of advantage are gleaned and added to the store of experience and observation. It tests the majority responsible for it as to whether moved by firmly grounded principles or by the passing excitement of a stirring campaign. It is apt to reveal the weak spots in previous educational work.

In the main however, the secret of progress by the will of the majority lies in thorough, systematic unceasing education of all the people in those facts and principles from which the social fabric must be woven.

The True Function of The School

IN one of the large cities there is a school located in a district which is the seat of the brewing industry, where many parents use drink, and where representatives of philanthropic organizations find there is a serious increase of the drinking habit among women. The school occupies a vantage point of opportunity for teaching the children the dangers of the habit which permeates the home and social life but has adopted the policy of "glossing over" the temperance teaching because "so many of the parents drink the child should not be taught that it is a crime for his father to drink."

It would seem as if the fallacy of this reasoning would be evident to anyone who has ever given the subject one moment's serious consideration. It rests upon an erroneous conception of the viewpoint for this teaching. It is never necessary or desirable to teach the child that it is a "a crime" for the man to drink, although in the strict sense of the word in the light of modern knowledge the term is not far from correct. But the function of the school is to teach the child the facts—what drink may do to man and his usefulness in the world-not to criticize the man who has formed the habit.

This is precisely the point at which the physiological fact has the advantage in training the child to sobriety. It is the point of view held in teaching all other aspects of hygiene. The same parents who violate hygienic law in the use of alcoholic beverages, undoubtedly violate a dozen other hygienic laws daily, yet the school finds no difficulty or shows no hesitation in teaching the children better. Make the instruction impersonal; teach the truth fearlessly; appeal to child's ambitions and pride and as he grows older, to his social responsibility. If the question of parental use of alcohol is raised by the child himself, it can always be met kindly and frankly with the statement that when our fathers and mothers were children, many of the facts about drink which we know today had not been found out, or the parents had not had opportunity to learn them. If the child persists that the habit does his parent no harm, tell him of the delicacy used in making the experiments which have found out the real effects of drink and make it clear that we, un