There was still one great question to be agreed upon. Religion and Science, working together, could, and did, cure the individual drunkard. Sometimes Science had done this without the aid of Religion, more often Religion had done it without the aid of Science—that is to say that while Science had really been at work all the time Religion had not been aware of it and had not professedly called Science in to help.
To eradicate the disease from individuals was being done every day by the allied forces.
To eradicate the disease from nations, to stamp it out as cholera, yellow fever, and the bubonic plague was being stamped out—that was the question at issue.
That was, after all, the supreme question.
Now, every one was beginning—only beginning—to understand that recent scientific discovery had made this wonderful thing possible.
Yellow fever had been destroyed upon the Isthmus of Panama. Small-pox which ravaged countries in the past, was no more than a very occasional and restricted epidemic now. Soon—in all human probability—tuberculosis and cancer would be conquered.
The remedy for the disease of Inebriety was at hand.
Sanitary Inspectors and Medical Officers had enormous power in regard to other diseases. People who disregarded their orders and so spread disease were fined and imprisoned.
It was penal to do so.
In order that this beneficent state of things should come about, the scientists had fought valiantly against many fetishes. They had fought for years, and with the spread of knowledge they had conquered.