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Echoes From the Famous Address of Hon. Richmond Pierson Hobson Delibered at Montgomery, Alabama.
N YESTERDAY it was my privil
ege and pleasure to hear for the
first time Capt. Richmond Pierson
Hobson, of Alabama. He spoke
at the Grand theater, Montgom
ery, under the auspices of the local
Y. M. C. A. The house was pack
ed from the pit to the upper gal
lery, the composition of the audi-
O
ence being mostly men, and for two hours they
sat spellbound under the matchless oratory of
this gifted Alabamian as he spoke upon the sub
ject, “The Great Destroyer.” I have never
heard a more exact and forceful presentation of
a great subject. Mr. Hobson is a scholar, and
by nature and training has a mathematical
mind which delights in dealing with scientific
problems. He treats the question of prohibi
tion scientifically, gives the result of scientific
research as evidence on every proposition, and
when he is done has presented an argument so
logical and convincing that the opposition can
only say: “Oh, that isn’t so,” for they are with
out answer.
Mr. Hobson came all the way from Wash
ington to Montgomery to make this address,
leaving on the return trip within half an hour
after he had finished.
Here is Captain Hobson’s speech, in sub
stance, as set forth in a letter to the Montgom
ery Advertiser of the same date of his appear
ance at the Grand theater. It is “good stuff,”
and ought to be widely distributed:
For many centuries the test of daily expe
rience led mankind to believe that the earth
was flat, but science proved in time that it was
really round. Common experience has for cen
turies led to the belief that alcohol is stimulat
ing, but science has proved that it is in reality
depressive and must be classed with narcotics.
For centuries every day experience led to the
conclusion that a moderate amount of alcohol
was strengthening, but science has now estab
lished that alcohol is the toxin or liquid excre
tion of the yeast or ferment germ, and is a
poison to all living organisms. Ordinary ob
servation would lead to the conclusion that al
coholic poisoning only kills those few who die
in delirium tremens, or from “alcoholism,” but
scientific records have shown that among the
millions of drunkards’ the life of the average
confirmed drunkard is but three years, and
while there are other contributory causes, the
300.000 confirmed drunkards who die in Ameri
ca every year, without being classed as dying
from alcoholism, should be regarded as killed
by alcoholic poisoning. Ordinary observation
would not attribute to alcoholic poisoning any
of the deaths of temperate regular drinkers, or
occasional drinkers, and but few of the deaths
of those termed heavy drinkers, but records in
millions of cases have shown that the 23,000,000
of temperate regular drinkers, including mill
ions of women, lose, on the average thirteen
vears out of their lives, and the 4.000.000 of
heavy drinkers lost twenty-nine years. The
results are stated as follows:
Some of the Results.
A young man at the age of 20, who is a to
tal abstainer and remains a total abstainer, has
a “prospect of life” of forty-four years —that is.
he will live to the average age of 64; a young
man at the age of 20 who is a temperate regu
lar drinker and remains a temperate regular
drinker, has a “prospect of life” of thirty-one
years, and will live to the average age of 51 ; a
young man at the age of 20, who is a heavy
drinker, has a “prospect of life” of fifteen years,
and will die at the average age of 35.
Ordinary observation would not attribute
any immediate danger of any kind as arising
from taking a drink, but the microscope has
shown that a single drink will make the “look
ersites” or white blood corpuscles drunk, and
while drunk they can not perform their func
tion as an army of defense and fail to catch and
"TZfE GREAT DESTROYER”
The Golden Age for February 16, 1911.
Sy SOLON H. SRJAN.
destroy disease germs that are liable to enter
the system at any time. This failure enables
disease germs to get lodgment when they
would otherwise have been destroyed, makes
the person more liable to catch consumption,
pneumonia, grippe, diseases of the stomach, of
the kidneys, of the liver, of the heart and arte
ries, nervous system and the brain. In these
manifold diseases, ordinary observation would
scarcely ever attribute a fatal ending to the
presence of alcohol in the system, but science
has shown that the deaths from consumption,
for instance, in different sections of the coun
try with climatic conditions the same, aud the
deaths from consumption in different occupa
tions and walks of life, are directly proportion
al to the average amount of alcohol consumed.
Deaths in Infancy.
Ordinary observation would never attribute
death in infancy to alcoholic poisoning, but sci
entific records have shown that deaths in in
fancy among children of temperate regular
drinkers are almost double the deaths in infan
cy among children of total abstainers; for total
abstaining parents, 13 per cent, of the children
die in infancy, for temperate regular drinkers,
23 per cent., and for heavy drinkers, 32 per
cent. * * * *
Ordinary observation would never attribute
deformity, idiocy and other abnormalities in
children, and the deaths that arise therefrom,
to alcoholic poisoning, but scientific records
show that only 17 per cent of the children born
to alcoholic parents are normal, compared to
90 per cent for children of total abstaining par
ents; of children born to alcoholic parents one
in five, on the average, will become hopelessly
insane, one in three will be hysterical or epi
leptic, and over two-thirds will be degenerates
of one kind or another.
Ordinary observation would not disclose any
economic depression over the land on account
of reduced efficiency in theaverage producer,
due to alcoholic poisoning, but careful estimates
based on the scientifically measured reduction
of efficiency in drunkards, heavy drinkers, tem
perate regular drinkers, and occasional drink
ers show fully a 21 1-2 per cent, loss of produc
tiveness, equivalent to over $7,000,000,000,
while the economic loss in the untimely death
of 720,000 men is over $6,000,000,000, a total
permanent depression of $13,000,000,000 year
ly, the nation’s total productiveness being $30.-
600,000.000 instead of $43,000,000,000. ' Ordi
nary observation would not see an even heav
ier depreciation in the average standard of
character of the nation’s citizens.
Degeneracy of City Life.
Ordinary observation would not see in the
widespread use of alcoholic beverage in large
cities the main cause of degeneracy of city life,
and of the final downfall of the nations and civ
ilizations of history, nor would it see in the in
creasing consumption of such beverage in pro
portion to the growth of city life in America,
the greatest menace to our institutions and to
the very life of the nation.
Ordinary observation is useful, but in deal
ing with alcohol, the mocker, it must be supple
mented, and in many cases superseded, by
scientific investigation and scientific calcula
tions.
No method is more reliable than that employ
ed by the British government and the great life
insurance companies by which th-.y established
that the nation sustains 440 additional deaths
every year in every 61.215 of the population
because of the use of alcoholic beverage, giving
a total adidtional death list in America of 720,-
000 every year as compared with 700,000 men
killed in battle in all the wars of all the world
during the last 2,300 years.
Taking account of the loss in length of days,
every heavy drinker and every drunkard must
be regarded as mortally wounded, and there
are 5.000,000 of these, and every temperate reg
ular drinker must be regarded as seriousfy
wounded, and there are 23,000.000 of these,
making a total list of 28,000,000 Americans who
are wounded by alcohol today, compared to 2,-
000.000, the total list of wounded in all the wars
of history for 2,300 years.
More Destructive Than War.
Calculations based on the comparative lists
of killed and wounded make out alcoholic poi
soning in its grip on the nations of the white
race today as about 10,000 times more destruc
tive than all war combined.
1 hese figures are simply staggering but they
are scientifically correct and can not be success
fully disputed.
A Young Georgia Philosopher.
Anna Frances Griffith.
It was Fair time in Georgia, the State Fair
being in progress at Atlanta, and the trains
were crowded with a weary but merry party
of pleasure-seekers, on their way home from
“Bryan Day” at the State Fair.
Chancing to be a passenger on the evening
train from Atlanta to Macon, and having en
tered the train early, I had the pleasure of
sharing my seat with Georgia “Buds,” two
deep, with one gracefully perched on the arm
of the seat, while the matron or chaperon of
the party and her small son of perhaps five,
took the scat directly in front. The little chap
carried one of those persistently elusive toy
balloons clutched tightly in his fingers, and
when the train got fairly under speed, he held
it out the window, watching it float and jump
in its resistance of the rapid air-current. It
was a joyous occupation, the holding captive a
beautiful red balloon, and watching it dance and
flirt in the breeze, feeling the exultation of pro
prietary mastery—until the inevitable occurred.
In a moment of distraction, the firm hold slight
ly relaxed, and in an instant the balloon soared
upward and away, no longer a captive, but
free, free as the birds of the air. Surprised, the
little man made a move as if to follow and re
cover his lost treasure, but confined by the
boundaries of the car-window, he realized that
his diminutive arm, though eagerly outstretch
ed, was not equal to the emergency that had
suddenly arisen. With longing eyes, he watch
ed it float away, let us hope, to give joy to
some child who had never been to a State Fair,
nor owned a toy balloon; then he turned, and
quietly sat down in the scat. \\ e all held our
breath, awaiting the screams of disappointment
we were sure would follow, but we were agree
ably surprised; this young Georgia philosopher
was not oi the despairing sort. He sighed in
deep regret, then—
“Mamma. I think I’ll take a cake.”
Everybody laughed, and I am sure there was
one who admired.
Ihe incident has been used many times to
encourage men and women to cultivate a philo
sophical mind when the “toys of a grown-up
had eluded the possessor, or an ambitious soul
found itself in “deep water”—a project on the
very verge of failure, or a lifetime dream float
ing away into apparent nothingness -and this
young philosopher builded greater than he
knew, for his contentment with the cake when
the balloon had failed him, has given birth to
renewed courage, and a willingness to accept
the lesser when the greater was removed be
yond reach.
The loss of the identity of this brave little
man is deeply regretted; one can not help
dreaming of obstacles conquered, of apparently
insurmountable barriers to his progress laid
low by that courageous mind, and in the pic
tured past, a line of brave Confederate Gener
als loom up in generations preceding this young
Georgian, who could teach his elders a pro
fitable lesson at five.
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