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 TEMPERANCE

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TEMPERANCE

have a good deal to say in the case, but in turn will have its propriety determined by modesty. Other virtues are enumerated by St. Thomas as subordi- nated to temperance inasmuch as they imply modera- tion in the management of some passion. It ought to be noted, however, that in its primary and generally understood sense temperance is concerned with what is difficult for a man, not in so far as he is a rational being precisely, but rather in so far as he is an animal. The hardest duties for flesh and blood are self-restraint in the use of food and drink and of the venereal pleas- ures that go with the propagation of the race. That is why abstinence and chastity may be reciioned the chief and ordinary phases of this virtue. All that has been said receives additional force if we suppose that the self-control commanded by temperance is meas- ured not only by the rule of reason but by the re- vealed law of God as well. It is called a cardinal virtue because the moderation required for every right- eous habit has in the practice of temperance a specially trying arena. The satisfactions upon which it im- poses a check are at once supremely natural and nec- essary in the present order of human existence. It is, not, however, the greatest of moral virtues. That rank is held by prudence; then come justice, forti- tude, and finally temperance.

RicKABT, Ethics and Natural Law (London, 1908); d'Anot- BALE, Summula theologia moralis (Rome, 1908); RlcK.iBY, The Moral Teaching of SI. Thomas (London, 1896); St. Thomas, Sunima.

Joseph F. Delant.

Temperance Movements. — Europe. — Reasons for a temperance movement exist to a greater or less degree in all the countries of Europe, although the kind and amount of alcoholic drinks consimied vary greatly in the different lands. In former days the greatest amount of drunkenness was to be found in Russia and Sweden, while now the latter country is the most temperate of all. On the other hand, condi- tions at present are very bad in France and Belgium, largely because these are almost the only lands where absinthe is habitually drunk. Unfortunately, it is just in these countries that there are but few signs of an energetic temperance movement, for in them wine and beer are still called " hygienic drinks". A strong opposition to the use of alcoholic hquors exists in Great Britain, in the Scandinavian kingdoms, and, for the last ten years, in the Netherlands and Ger- many. It is only of late that the southern countries of Europe have begun to take part in the temper- ance movement, and of these Italy is the most active.

A. Consumption of Alcohol. — Statistics as to the consumption of intoxicating hquors should be used with great caution, especially when different coun- tries are compared. The amount of alcohol in vari- ous hcjuors, and even in the same liquor in different countries, varies greatly. The most reliable inter- national statistics concerning alcohohc beverages are probably those repeatedly issued since 1897 by the British Board of Trade. These statistics were taken by the Imperial Bureau of Statistics at Berhn in 1906 as the basis for the excellent papers on the alcohol question that appeared in the "Reichsarbeitsblatt". According to them, the average amount of alcohol in distilled hquors may be taken as 50 per cent; in wine in Germany and Switzerland, 10 per cent; in wine in Italy, France, Belgium, and Holland, 12 per cent; in Great Britain, 15 per cent; the average arnount of alcohol in beer may be taken as 4 per cent (in Great Britain, G per cent). The alcohohc beverages inost generally used are distilled spirits, beer, and wine. The drinking of alisinlhc, since its prohibition by popular vote in Switzerland in 1908, is limited to France !md Belgium, wlicrc the ))rohibition is to a large degree evaded. 1 )ist illcd sijiiils is the principal alcohohc beverage in tlic following countries: Russia, where it is 93 per cent of all the alcoholic beverages

consumed; the three Scandinavian countries, 65-69 per cent; Austria-Hungary, 59 per cent. The largest proportion of beer is drunk in Great Britain (78 per cent of all alcoholic beverages consumed) and Bel- gium (64 per cent). Wine is the alcoholic beverage most used in the following countries: Switzerland, 58 per cent of all alcohohc beverages; France, 75 per cent; Italy, 95 per cent. In Germany, besides a small consumption of wine, an almost equal amount of beer and spirits is used (beer, 49 per cent; spirits, 44 per cent). The figures are, of course, quite differ- ent if the question is as to the amount of hquor actu- ally drunk. The amount depends in the first place on whether moderate drinking is the daily habit in a country, or whether alcoholic beverages are drunk only occasionally, even though immoderately; and, secondly, whether beverages containing a large amount of alcohol are most used, or the consumption is of weaker ones, but in larger quantities. This is the reason why the beer-drinking countries rank first when the inquiry is how much alcoholic drink is con- sumed per capita of population, while, on the other hand, the lands where the largest amounts of wine and brandy are consumed take the lead if the question is as to the amount of alcohol consumed. In the former respect, Belgium stands first with a consumption of nearly 54.22 gallons per capita of population, 49.52 gallons being beer; then come Great Britain and Switzerland, each about 33.01 gallons per capita; Germany, 30.60 gallons; Italy and France, each 28.30 to 30.66 gallons; Denmark, 25.94 gallons. In the other countries the consumption is less than 25 gal- lons per capita, e. g. Norway, 4 gallons; Holland and Russia, each ataout 2.35 gallons. On the other hand, the countries where the largest quantity of alcohol is drunk are: France, 4 gallons per capita, and Italy, 3.7 gallons. The countries showing the lowest figures are: Holland, .94 gallon; Russia, .61 gallon; Norway, .51 gallon. Germany and Austria are in the middle with about 2.24 gallons. If, finally, the individual beverages are considered, the largest consumption of distilled spirits is in Denmark, 3.3 gallons per capita, and Austria-Hungary, 2.39 gallons; the largest con- sumption of beer is in Bavaria and Belgium, where it is more than 50 gallons per capita; the consumption of wine is largest in Italy, 27.59 gallons, and France, 36.55 gallons. The absolute figures are as follows: Germany, 58,962,028.3 gallons of distilled spirits, 1,757,075,471.69 gallons of beer, 87,264,150.94 gaUons of wine, for which nearly £150,000,000 ($714,500,000) is paid annually, a sum neai'ly three times as large as the cost of the German army and navy. The annual expenditure in Austria for alcohohc beverages is about £104,166,000 (S500, 000,000).

B. Development of the Temperance Movement. — Two main periods are to be distingiiished. The first, which began about 1830, was fairly general, but substantially affected only the British Lsles and the Germanic countries. The second began in 1850 in Great Britain; after a decade it extended to Scan- dinavia, and after thirty years to Germany. It was, however, only at the close of the century that it attained its great importance, by gradually obtaining a footing in all civilized countries. In both periods the immediate stimulus came from the United States of North America. The chief distinction between the earlier and later movements is generally expressed thus: that the former laid the emphasis on teni])er- ance, the latter on total abstinence. But this hardly reaches the root of the matter. Ajiart from the fact that even in the earlier period teetotal societies existed in iMiglund (from 1832), refraining from si)irituou3 beverages was at that time practically I'quivalent to total abstinence, as other intoxicating drinks were almost unknown, or at least their injurious qualities were much underrated. Beer was then strongly recommended (even in popular songs) as a "most de-