DRINK AND THE SLUM.

White Ribbon, Volume 32, Issue 369, 18 March 1926, Page 4

DRINK AND THE SLUM.

Tin* following extract* are from "Stand rp, Ye Dead,’’ a book written by Nornwn Maclean, and published in 1917: — Wo drove people into the conge*ted and foul tenements of narrow streets. Let the well-to-do classes try to realise the conditions of life to which men such a* this have been doomed. Let them picture to themselves what life can be like in a one roomed or tworoomed house in a crowded barracks. Imagine a man and wife, with an infant «»nd two or more children, nnd often a ledger, living In such a house. Kor th*™ there Is no change of air either day or night; their bodies cannot iw cleaned, nor their clothes washed; they are denied cleanliness in their whole environment; tt is impossible to cook appetising fowl or to serve it in a pleas mg manner; there is no escape for them t* »m noise and squalor; they have no privacy either living or dying; and th« ,e is always *ho spectre of want hovering near. What recompense has the mate provided for them In their misery? What provision has been made that men and women may escape for a little to breathe a purer air and feel that they have part in a life richer than this? The Htate has not been wholly unmindful of them. It has provided for them the public-house, and. with paternal care, has multiplied these places of recreation and happiness, where the mass of human misery is greatest. The State has been lavish in its proviaion. In the Uow'gate of Edinburgh it has provided one nubile-house for every 200 of the population. hi *he leisured and rich districts there is only one license for every 1300 of the population; in the Uowcaddens of Glasgow \t has provided at the rate of thirty public.houses to the half mile. It surrounds ihe poor and the miserable with an atmosphere reeking with alcohol. The track* in al eohol enfeebles the will, saps the resisting power, and then trades upon that enfeebled will. This is the door of escape from misery which the State pro vides. Who can blarre the people for tvAiling themselves of this national re medy for their woe pressed upon them by the Btate ai every corner? If the drunkenness of masses of the population lie a national weakness and s crying scandal, it is not their fault. It is the State that Is responsible, and as citizens of the JHate we have each to bear our

share of the responsibility and ol the shame. It is no use decrying publi can* and brewers, for these are only whi t we ourselves made them. Let us take ourselves to task and condemn our owi folly and our own sin.” "When we consider the results of tin trade in alcohol, the wonder grows liov it is that this St at**-regulated monopoly for the manufacture of (Muipers, lutin ties and criminals has been suffered L* continue so long. To it most of th * evils which afflict the body-politic can be traced. It nullifies till efforts at soi’la I improvement. Philanthropic movements have poured out money like water to improve the condition of the lH'ople. hut faster than slums enn 1 cleared aw ny or emptied, new slums an created and filled by Ihe victims of al eohol. The funds of Guardians and of F*arish CYmnclls are mainly used to srpport those whom alcohol has impoverished. There is the authority of Mr John Burns, the late President of the Government Board, for the statement that out of 100.000 applicants for poor relief at Wandsworth during •» period of twenty years, only twelve were abstainers. . . . Tt not only fl'ls our workhouses, it also crowds our gaols. According to the late I^ord Alverstone, nine-tenths of the crime of this country' was due to drink. . . - Insanity finds in it a fruitful source. Twenty per cent, of all the men and ten per cent, of all the women in a London Oounty Oouncil asylum— the llaybury Asylum—have l>ecome insane through alcohol. . . . The social evil is mainly due to alcohol. Under its influence women descend to vice. Half the infections of the social disease are traceable to the weakening of the will power ip drink. . . . Evil though It he in itself, its evil goes far beyond itself, for it is the short cut to all other vices. ... It

is one of the great causes of the decline of the race In thus polluting the springs of life, poisoning and sterilising them; but, far more, it is responsible for on enormous share of the appalling infant mortality which destroys in many districts a flfth of the child life in the first year. . . . Tt lowers the vitality and makes the tissues more susceptible to attacks bv the germs of disease, and thus greatly increases the dentil rale. . . . Tt multiplies coffins and empties cradles. . . . Were this one monopoly- abolished and the people delivered from the State-licensed tempt. l tions which are for ever inviting *h< m

to their ruin, almost all workhouses and gaols would lie closed and the na tion delivered from the burden of pauperism and crime, which weighs so heavily ujhui it. Yet the* nation In tin time of its greatest peril spends £lXo,Min.ooo a y«ar upon the drink traffic. Tills is the price which it pays for Ihe lowering of Ms own vitality and for tb< weakening of Its striking power. A Government which connives at that can not Ik* a Government that is waging war refilly in earnest. Shipping, food, coals, the railways, roads, and a host of men are in a great measure sacrificed to a trade which weakens the nation in the fore of the enemy.