olism, and leave off expecting results from a social
revolution which they themselves can attain to-day. It is our bounden
duty to declare war against alcohol. War to the knife, for it is all
the more dangerous as it dwells in our midst in the guise of
friendship. When addicted to drink, the working class cannot do what
must be done. Alcohol, by its paralysing qualities, naturally leads to
fatigue, negligence, weakness, and impotence. Only those who can rule
themselves are able and worthy to rule the world."[871]

The German Socialist leaders also endeavour to elevate their followers
by fighting drunkenness. At the Congress at Essen in 1907, a
resolution was unanimously passed by the German Social-Democratic
party in which various recommendations were made to the Government
regarding the diminution of drunkenness, and which concluded with the
words: "The working-class organisations are invited to suppress in
their meeting all compulsion to consume alcoholic liquors, to put a
stop to its sale in schools, in registry offices, and in places where
collections are made for strikers, and to inform children and young
men by word of mouth and by the Press of the danger of alcohol, and to
watch over drinking habits which lead to the abuse of alcohol."[872] A
German Socialist periodical recently wrote: "Workers who drink neglect
their duties towards their family, drink away their wages, bring
disorder into their unions, lose the sympathy of the quiet and
industrious citizens, become the slaves of the public-house, and
damage Socialism. Therefore Socialists should abstain absolutely from
drinking intoxicating drinks. Ordinary capitalism exploits the
proletariat, but does not poison them too in their own persons and in
their posterity. But alcohol does both; it lames the power of a whole
nation and leads to the degeneration of the race, as does opium in
China. The drinker loses his self-respect, his higher aims as a human
being. It must be made a fundamental principle of the German
Social-Democratic party that the proletariat can vanquish capital only
after it has first vanquished drink. The sooner that victory is won,
the sooner the fate of society will be decided."[873]

Continental Socialist leaders recommend to their followers thrift,
sobriety, and co-operation. British Socialist leaders, who have taken
the whole of their doctrines from the Continent, condemn "on
scientific and moral grounds," thrift, sobriety, and co-operatio