AMERICAN TEMPERANCE LESSONS IN GREAT BRITAIN.
A LETTER from A. H. Plumb, D. D., chairman of the Bureau of Scientific Temperance Investigation and Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and Colleges, writes: A gratifying tribute to America's progressiveness has lately been paid by Great Britain in the adoption, almost verbatim, of our American Course of Study in Hygiene and Temperance, by a committee representing more than 15,000 members of the British medical profession. The committee, composed of the most distinguished representatives of the profession in the United Kingdom, has recommended the course of study to every local school board in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, as a syllabus of study in this subject for all pupils in elementary schools. From a statement issued by the advisory board of the bureau of which Dr. Plumb is chairman, we take the following extract: All the nations are welcome to catch up with us in this achievement. We have blazed this educational way for freedom from slavery to alcohol at no small cost, and to no one in this interest more indebted than to Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, head of the department of scientific temperance instruction and investigation, for her thoughtful and heroic leadership. This scheme of study has grown up gradually, from protracted and exhaustive research and consultations respecting the unhygienic and other causes that lead people to drink, the scientific discoveries of hygienic truths, including those relating to the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks, and other narcotics, and those pedagogical principles which determine how and where those truths can be so taught to all the children of to-day as to shape the national life of to-morrow. This movement holds in its grasp many millions of our youth, and has such regard for detail as is calculated to reach every child, and to save every child for a future of intelligent sobriety. As Americans, we are grateful that the scholars of Great Britain have recognized the sound learning and deep insight into the educational methods essential to save a nation from alcoholic demoralization, which have marked this great movement, and have paid such a tribute to our endeavors by recommending for the public schools of the United Kingdom the scheme of study prepared for the schools of America. King Edward VII. is said to be advocating an Anglo-American alliance. Here is a step toward such a combination for warfare of an educational sort, against the greatest foe of the English-speaking race. The signs of the times point to Germany's joining us also, thus forming a "triple alliance."