Temperance by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1881

Temperance.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

WHAT SHALL WE DRINK?

BY DR. E. J. WAGGONER.

THE following items are of great interest, as showing the alarming increase of intemperance in our country.

The amount of beer consumed in the United States in 1880, was 414,000,000 gallons. This gives an average of more than eight and one-fourth gallons for every man, woman, and child, and is twice as much as was consumed in 1870. The increased use of beer, however, did not diminish the amount of other and stronger liquor used, as is seen by the fact that the tax on whisky was nearly $9,000,000 more in 1880 than in the preceding year.

This increase in the consumption of liquor is entirely disproportionate to the increase in population, and shows that, among individuals, the appetite for strong drink is rapidly increasing. We need not be surprised at this, for the natural result of the use of any stimulant, so called, is to create a desire for more; and the milder forms simply create a desire for the stronger. In intemperance, as in every form of sin, the less leads to the greater. Whenever there is an increase in the amount of beer and light wine consumed, there will be a corresponding increase in the amount of stronger liquor consumed.

The natural inference from these facts would be that, as intemperance is increasing, we should work more earnestly for the enlightenment of the people in regard to true temperance principles. But all do not reason in the same way. A prominent daily journal, in commenting on the above statistics, draws the conclusion that we are a thirsty people, and that, as temperance societies will never be able to make much headway against the popular demand for intoxicating beverages, the best thing we can do is to try to turn the attention of the people from strong liquors to good beer, and light, California wine. To say nothing of the expression, "good beer," which is equivalent to "harmless poison," the above reasoning is very strange. It is of a nature to increase the evil rather than to limit it. The desire to acquire property without rendering an equivalent is becoming more common, and it would be as reasonable to say that instead of vainly trying to stop the increase of crime, we should turn the attention of people to stealing small sums only.

This reasoning is an illustration of the common expression that, "of two evils, we should choose the less;" but this saying, like most others in common use, contains an error. Let us rather take this for our guide, "of two evils, shun both."