_The Temperance Experiment in Mohammedanism_

Has not history experimented sufficiently? Prohibitionist stump
speakers may tell us that their cause means the hitherto unheard-of
progress of civilization; the United States, after abolishing
slavery for mankind, is called on to end also the tyranny of alcohol
under which humanity has suffered for ages. But are there not two
hundred millions of Moslems who are obedient to Mohammed's law,
that wine drinking is sinful? What is the outcome? Of course, it is
not inspiring to hear the boast of the Moslems that the Christians
bring whiskey to Africa and bestialize the natives, while the
Mohammedans fight alcohol. But aside from this, their life goes on in
slavery and polygamy and semi-civilization. All the strong nations,
all those whose contributions were of lasting value to the progress
of mankind, have profited from the help of artificial stimulation and
intoxicants.

But every strong nation remained also conscious of the dangers and
evils which result from intemperance. On the whole, history shows that
intemperance and abstinence alike work against the highest interests
of civilization; temperance alone offers the most favorable
psychological conditions for the highest cultural achievement.
Intemperance mostly precedes the strongest periods in the life of a
nation and follows them again as soon as decay has set in. Temperance,
that is, sufficient use of intoxicants to secure emotional inspiration
and volitional intensity, together with sufficient training in
self-discipline to avoid their evils, always introduced the fullest
blossoming of national greatness. Instinctively the American nation as
a whole is evidently striving for such temperance, but a hysterical
minority has at present succeeded in exaggerating the movement and in
transforming it into its caricature, prohibition. The final result, of
course, will be temperance, since the American nation will not
ultimately allow itself to become an emasculated nation of dyspeptic
ice-water drinkers without inspiration and energy, or permit vulgar
amusements, reckless stock-gambling, sensationalism, adultery,
burglary, and murder to furnish the excitement which the nerves of a
healthy nation need.

_The Securing of Temperance_

How temperance can be secured, the experiences of the older nations
with a similar psychological type of national mind ought to be
decisive. First of all, the beverages of strongly alcoholic n