Health and Temperance

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 12.

Health and Temperance.

THE BEER AND WINE THEORY.

It is the theory of not a few opponents of the saloon that the way to diminish the evil effects of intemperance is to substitute beer and wine for alcoholic beverages. We have never had any faith in this theory. In the first place, the tendency of both wine and beer is to promote the appetite for the stronger drinks, as is clearly demonstrated by several facts. For example, to name a few, the number of saloons licensed to sell beer and wine only is very small in proportion to the number licensed to sell both distilled and fermented drinks; absinthe, a destructive alcoholic liquor, is taking the place of wine in France, the land of champagne; the alcoholic evil became so great in wine-producing Switzerland as to compel the Republic to take stringent measures for the repression of the traffic; and the greatest beer country in the world has not been able to prevent increased consumption of spirits. It was only a few weeks ago that Bismarck, in making his great speech before the Reichstag, refreshed himself at frequent intervals, not with the national drink, but with brandy.

In the second place, there is plenty of drunkenness in beer, and it is a question whether it is not quite as deadly a foe to the physical and mental man as rum. In the third place, the beer theory has been abundantly proved a delusion. The English Beer Act of 1830 was expected to do wonders in the way of driving out the stronger drinks and furnishing the people with a "wholesome beverage." The Duke of Wellington, who was a special advocate of it, declared it a greater achievement than any of his military victories. And so it was, in one sense. It destroyed more people than the duke's armies ever destroyed. Sidney Smith was also a supporter of the bill; but subsequently he lost confidence in it.

"The new beer bill," he wrote, "has begun its operations. Everybody is drunk; those who are not singing are sprawling. The sovereign people are in a beastly state."

If there are any reputable people in England to-day who have confidence in the beer theory, they do not assert their confidence. We notice, on the contrary, in the Contemporary Review, for January, in an article by Francis Peek, author of "Social Wreckage" and other studies, this incidental reference to the beer act: "The establishment of beer-shops, intended to stay the consumption of spirits and drunkenness, in the end vastly increased both." The writer of these words is not classed among the temperance fanatics in England. It is disinterested testimony.—Selected.