The prohibition laws which have been instituted in Russia prove these statements to be correct and to show the wonderful prosperity which ensues from temperance. I give a statement from Russian Minister of Finance Bark. He says:
"On the other hand, there is nothing illusory or specious about the Russians' prosperity. It rests upon the incontrovertible fact of the Russian people's increased earnings and savings.
"When, a year ago, the savings banks showed a monthly increase of 50,000,000 rubles, it was regarded as phenomenal. But that was only the beginning. During the month of January the savings banks alone showed an increase in deposits of 120,000,000 rubles. This is accounted for principally by the growing thrift and economy of the peasants since the enforcement of prohibition, by their greater earning power and the higher wages they command. This marvellous prosperity makes Russia capable of raising large numbers of successful internal loans, and it is by this means chiefly that we hope to defray the expenses of the war, which have now reached 1,000,000,000 rubles monthly."
Blessings often come to us masquerading as evil; this terrible war has its benefits. While death must come to everyone sometime, it may be that we put too much stress on the fact that so many lives have been sent to the BETTER SHORE within such a short space of time, and it is best to believe in the axiom THAT WHAT IS—IS RIGHT.
There probably will never be another war, and perhaps, it must be that this one is the lever to throw THE "DEVIL" into OBLIVION.
The Germans have seen the revelations as well as the other belligerents. Here is what a writer in Berlin says:
"On Tuesday and Friday there is no meat to be had. On Monday and Thursday the consumption of fats is forbidden. Some alcoholic drinks are forbidden to be sold after 9 o'clock at night. They are mostly liqueurs.
"The enforced abstinence from meat on two days of the week has been accepted everywhere with personal satisfaction. You agree with the German when he tells you that he has eaten too much meat all his life, and is glad the government has made him reform. So on these days he eats fish, oysters and vegetables, and declares he feels the better for it."
This item from Augustus Baech is illuminating and instructive. Grease is not a colloid; it does not absorb the gastric juice like a better organized element, and thus the stomach is irritated. There is a law of Nature by which the molecules affect matter; crystalline substances in solution are readily drawn into colloids. A system of symbols helps understanding in the matter—let us represent an acid by a perpendicular line, an alkali by a horizontal line, a crystal by a pyramid and a colloid by a globule; flat surfaces oppose round ones and a confusion of straight forces would produce a spiral force.
There is a great law of HUMAN BROTHERHOOD, yes, more than that—a law of the brotherhood of all animal life.