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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1900)
llil . . * ; * Conservative j * * , 9 , - * cooholio preparations as they are iu the IUBO of the drugs mentioned. More re- ispectable women have acquired the liq uor habit from its medicinal use than have ever become drunkards through so cial temptation. The use of liquor as a medical agent , or in the moderation of respectable social intercourse may be ethical or not , according to the ability of the individual to control himself , and bo invariably able to say to himself "this far and no farther. " Unfortun ately no one can tell whether he has this ethical might until he has cast himself Into the furnace of destruction and found himself wanting. Fortunately one scorching is sufficient to strengthen the ethical might of many. No one can tell , until he tries , whether he has that accursed weakness which it is only nec essary to inflame into a fire of destruc tion by drinking one glass of liquor. Children of parents who have had that weakness should make "touch not , taste not , handle not" the ethical law of their lives. Sochil Suicide. "While on the subject of some of the causes of alcoholism it may be well to touch on one that does not receive the attention it deserves. Uufortunately it is a cause that humanity has not yet intelligence enough to overcome. While careless good-fellowship does lead thou sands to drink more or less liquor and often to dangerous over-indulgence , the number of chronic drunkards resulting therefrom is small in comparison to those made by the feverish excitement * to drown self , to go somewhere , this 'cowardice to be alone , that results from Vhe terrible struggle for existence due to innrfiRso of the misfit and less fit in our population imbecilical- ly augmented by immigration. On top of this come those who have found themselves unable to stand up in the 'struggle ' for existence. Taken as a "whole our city , town and village popu lation may be said to be mad in two di rections. They work like fiends to meet the struggle for existence , and then act like maniacs in search of excitement , or recreation in order to forget they live. Our present life may well be styled a sui cidal struggle for life , and an equally suicidal struggle to destroy it. Ethical self-control is almost an unknown art in a moral armament of the people. The American people have gone sensu ally mad in their insane endeavors to bury themselves and forget that they live. The severity of the struggle for existence has made this. It is making drunkards faster than any other influ ence. Ethically speaking we are rapid ly becoming a nation of working and sensual prostitutes. We ignore the law of self-preservation even in our labor ious endeavors to fulfill it ? Individual Liberty. The much vaunted individual liberty to drink liquor is on a level with license in general. License instead of liberty , anarchy instead of law-abiding , are be coming American characteristics. Lic ense means to do as you please in utter disregard of the law. License and an archy are identical. Freedom is not to do as you please. Civil Freedom is to comply with the law. Freedom is that walking in the law which feels it not. True Freedom is instinctive , not intel lectual. The moment one does right be cause he feels it right to do it , that mom ent there is subjection. That may be liberty , but it is not freedom. As no one can drink liquor without intrench ing on the ethical sensitiveness of the self-preserving compass , as no commun ity can license the liquor business with out menancingits ethical equilibriumit is evident that this individual liberty doctrine collapses from innate immoral ity. Alcoholism is chronic suicide. It frequently leads to acute suicide. Free dom knoweth neither desire nor self-re straint. Apply that ethical principle to the liquor question in relation to the consumer. The Consumer. As ethics invariably considers all lia bilities to weaken the self-preserving abilities , and as no one can say that he will not fall into the liquor habit , it is evident that the only ethical condition is absolute self-control , and taste not on your peril. He who indulges in the use of liquor , with self-control is the slave of his tastes. Should he lose self-con trol he becomes a martyr to his weak ness. All and any use of liquor carries with it the possibility of martyrdom. All martyrs have been , are , and ever will be victims to their weakness. Martyrdom is never ethical. It is in variably immoral. What nonsense it is to enact laws against suicide and lic ense the means to alcoholic suicide un der the banner of individual liberty 1 Why not confine the alcoholic with oth er lunatics ? It will be remembered that license has been defined as doing as you please in defiance of the laws. The public does this in defiance of the law of self-protection , It justifies the liq uor consumers ignoring that of self- preservation. Both are guilty of slow suicide. Is not the liquor dealer the only moral factor in the business , if he tastes not his own poison ? As under certain circumstances self-preservation is above all civil law , so there are condi tions when self-preservation ceases to be the law. That is anarchy. The chronic drunkard is in that condition. Public Suicide. The public which permits him to be such is equally so. It is a serious ques tion if a person ought not to commit suicide when he cannot support himself and is a burden on others who have all they can possibly do to support them selves. The drunkard often exceeds that unethical condition. The public practically commits suicide and encour ages it in others when it permits the chronic drunkard , who is peaceful with in the limits of the law , to live at the expense of the very lives of wife or t' " children. That is slow suicide and murder supported and licensed by the public. Is license anarchy or what is it ? No matter what the cause the sui cide has lost his ethical or self-preserv ing might. Has not the drunkard , has not the public which practically makes him such , lost all its self-preserving , or ethical integrity ? Truly the "rum-sell er" ( who tastes not ) should rise in esti mation. The ethical might that pre serves , is the centripetal force in the in dividual and the state. The centrifugal force is that which tends to individual and public disintegration. It is a'study in ethics to see the public supporting centrifugalism in endorsing the individ ual's right to alcoholic suicide and in licensing the liquor business. Civilization mid Culture. American civilization is often spoken of as "unprecedented in the world's his tory. " Is it ? What is civilization ? Authority tells us that "civilization con sists in what may be broadly called cul ture in a nation. " Does it ? In the whole history of Greece , never were there so many cultured people as after the cities had begun to decay and the people were fast becoming physical and moral wrecks. It was then that Greek culture was the strongest. So of Borne , so of France , so of the United States at present. Never has there been so much culture , never so much self-destroying madness. At the very acme of her cul ture , Athens never arrived at the civili- zation of Sparta. Lycurgus was greater ; han Plato. Civilization is the endeavor of man to find moans to aid his self-pre serving might through union with oth ers. Culture is by no means necessary to civilization. It is a budding out of it. It is frequently a parasitic attach ment to it. Culture is often antagonis tic to true civilization. Culture is large ly a means to hide dishonesty. Civiliza tion might come under a one time defi nition of religion "the effort of man to perfect himself. " Civilization and true ( cosmic ) socialism are identical. There is but one standard to judge the degree of civilization of different peoples. It is the ethical. That is the most civilized people ple whose institutions produce the great est number of self-maintaining individu als. It is a semi-barbaric people whose in stitutions produce and maintain a large number of criminals and unethical , non self-supporting people. Most so-called "civilized nations" are fast descending into semi-barbarism. It is a question if Lacedaemonia under Lyourgus did not arrive at a higher stage of civilization than any people have yet attained to. It is no question that a people which lic enses alcoholic suicide ; that a people