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ELLIOTT ELLIOTT
OPTICIANS • T1'R`iII EB 0
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John CR1OF M Ex-IllaAlzs Bros' Sh deal Tel.
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B7908
PERTH,WEDNESDAY ,JANUARY 9, 1916,
ELLIOTT'. ELLIOTTI x
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,Are Cathn(ies rootolerant about the brink 'Pil? Doubts W* hether Abuse of Alcohol Can be Checked Under Present System.Intoxication as a Cause of Crime Harmful Effects on Home Life
is directly responsible for probabb , more than half the cases that come before the courts. A former magis trate recently stated that in his long experience drink was to blame for 75 per cent. of the cases brought before him. Frequently defendants have the impertinence to plead drunkenness as an excuse for their offences! In one of our largest hospitals casualties from drunken brawls are so numerous that a special book is provided All the to keep a recor d of them. poppycock that is talked about the impracticability of prohibition will not make lily-white the drink traffic as it now exists in Australia. One of the, most puzzling features of this question is the remarkable tolerance shown by Catholics to intoxicating liquor. The attitude of the average Catholic is, I think, an extraordinary one.
But can the abuses be checked? There is sufficient evidence, I beieve, to show that they cannot. We I have had enough experience to see • that for a man to enjoy his "demo, %Icohol is not an evil in itself; it is cratic privilege" of drinking in modonly the abuse that is ova ," eration, we must apparently also endure those who are not willing to exIf ever the liquor trade owed a debt ercise moderation. to a man for furthering its interests i t It is up to the drinkers and the puris to the person who coined that veyors to render themselves less obMany Catholic women have seen the phrase. ruinous effect liquor has had upon jectionable to others. If they can imAlmost invariably, when the trade is prove matters, they are to be censured their husbands and sons, and perhaps discussed, this choice specimen of free for not doing so; if they cannot, then in these "modern' times upon their propaganda is brought out to act as a it follows that moderate drinking candaughters, but for some inexplicable stopper to further cri ticism. A man' s not be separate from immoderate reason they will do nothing to supright to indulge in moderate use of alpress or even control it. Possibly they drinking,and it is wrong to say that cohol is his democratic privilege, to only the abuse is wrong. If the bad are influenced by the intolerance be enjoyed as long as he does not part cannot be removed from the shown in other directions by some of abuse it. To contradict this is to the reformers ; but is this a rational whole, then the whole is bad. brand oneself undemocratic and an inOften, after listening to fellows comline to follow? If we were threaten• tolerant meddler with another man's plaining of the scarcity of beer. I ed by a dreadful plague they would freedom. have seen as many as a dozen drunks not hesitate to join the most.intolerGulled by this argument,critics reon Flinders Street Railway Station. Of main silent. course, it is against railways by-laws But is this reasoning logical? Does for a drunk to travel on attain, but it it justify the present set-up? Apolowould be interesting to know just how gists for the trade imply that there is drunk a man has to be before action very little wrong with things as they is taken. are at present . Someimes they gryw Have any of you defenders of " demagnanimous and concede that there mocratic rights" ever sat opposite a is a little room for improvement, but gluttonous sot in a crowded railway this generosity only serves.to point carriage? to their "fairmindedness' and " tolerIf a man were to put his feet on the ance" and leaves the trade none the seat and lightly brush his shoes again. worse for the admission. st another passenger's clothes, it would "Abuse—tbe only evil" is one of the meet with a very strong protest: but slickest confidence tricks ever used to if he has gorged himself with alcohol pull the wool over the eyes of the pubso much that he cannot hold it, and lic. nauseatingly regurgitates with comI bring this subject to public plete indifference to the feelings or notice because a writer in a recent clothes of his fellow travellers, it is acperiodical claimed that alcohol was cepted with good-natured " tolerance." not bad in itself, that it should be tolIt is astonishing what men will some. erated for its good uses which we were times tolerate in order to obtain a told were health and to " rejoice the drink. A party of young men asked a heart of man." It .would have been publican for bottled beer, and he told interesting to have heard the views them he had none. They had a meal of some of the wives of the men whose at the hotesl and later on, after closing hearts needed rejoicing! time, he let them have a dnv n hot That there is some truth in the astles—at a grossly inflaters , ,.hnurs sertion that alcohol is not bad in itprice. They submitted to the extorself I am quite prepared to agree; but tion and were grateful to the profiteer. it is not the whole truth. Like so Ask any man whose duty takes him many other samples of propaganda, it into police courts what is the greatest does not go far enough. cause of crime? Whether he is a Ph. Ch., J.P. If the abuses could be checked and "wowser" or not, his answer, If he is alcohol used moderately by all drinkhonest, will be the same: that alcohol ers, there would be few critics.
iiy P. INIcKENNA, in " The Holy Name Monthly."
I
Dan White
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ant in any remedial action they might suggest. Were Catholic authorities intolerant when they induced school boys to take the pledge to abstain from liquor until they were 25? Should not they have asked the boys. to pledge themselves* to refrain from immoderate drinking? I believe Archbishop Mannix was responsible for the boys taking this pledge, and if this is so, he is, in my opinion, deserving of our greatest gratitude . It is unfortunate that there are Catholics who are not so ready to follow his lead. In this regard, the stand of our local pastor is highly commendable. Fplly conscious of his responsibilities towards the young people in his care, he has threatened to close the church dance if he should detect any sign of liquor at the hall or in the vicinty. Should the question arise, the guidance and_ welfare of his flock is more important to him than the material needs of his church. I do not suggest that Catholics should become as narrowminded as I am, but I would like to see them less ready to adopt the role of apologists for strong drink and those who exploit it. Anyway ,it would rejoice the heart of at least one man if they were. to refrain from fooling the gullible with this hoary half-truth that it is only the abuse that is evil.
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