Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of EthicsDrake, Durant
Philosophy
Problems of Conduct: An Introductory Survey of Ethics
Drake, Durant
Ethics
against it. Grape-juice has been substituted for wine in the White
House; Kaiser Wilhelm has become an abstainer, with a declaration that
in the present era of fierce competition the nations that triumph will
be those that have least to do with liquor. So conservative and
cautious a thinker as ex-President Eliot of Harvard has recently become
an abstainer, saying, "The recent progress of science has satisfied
me that the moderate use of alcohol is objectionable." The yearly per
capita consumption of alcoholic liquors, which rose from 8.79 gallons
in 1880 to 17.76 in 1900 and 22.79 in 1911, fell in 1912 to 21.98.
It is to be devoutly hoped that the tide will ebb as rapidly as it
rose. What should be our attitude toward the use of alcoholic liquors
by others? The consideration of this question falls properly under
the head of "Public Morality." But it will be more convenient to treat
it here, following the presentation of the facts concerning alcohol.
The right of the community to interfere with the conduct of its members
will be discussed in chapter xxviii, and we must assume here the result
therein reached, that whatever is deemed necessary for the greatest
welfare of the community as a whole may legitimately be required of
its individual members, however it may cross their desires or however
they may consider the matter their private concern. The argument against
prohibition on the ground that it interferes with individual rights
would apply also to child-labor legislation, to legislation against
street soliciting by prostitutes or the sale of indecent pictures,
and, more obviously still, against anti-opium and anti-cocaine
legislation. As a matter of fact, the older individualistic point of
view has been generally abandoned now, and we are free to discuss what
is desirable for the general welfare. We may at once say that whatever
method will most quickly and thoroughly root out the evil should be
adopted. Different methods may be more or less efficacious in different
places; it is a matter for legitimate opportunism. But the goal to
be kept in sight can only be absolute prohibition of the manufacture,
sale, and importation of all alcoholic liquors for beverages. Education
on the matter, and exhortation to personal abstinence, must be continued.
But education and exhortation are not alone sufficient; self-restraint
cannot be counted on, constraint must be employed.
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