=Efficiency.=--The study of physiology and hygiene affords a wide field
for the contemplation and practice of patriotic endeavor. The care of
the body is a patriotic exercise in that it promotes health and vigor,
and these underlie efficiency. Anything short of efficiency is
unpatriotic because it amounts to a subtraction from the possible best
that may be done to advance the interests of society. The shiftless man
is not a patriot, nor yet the man who enervates his body by practices
that render him less than efficient. The intemperate man may shout
lustily at sight of the flag, but his noise only proclaims his lack of
real patriotism. An honest day's work would redound far more to the
glory of his country than his noisy protestations. Seeing that behind
every deliberate action there lies a motive, the higher the motive the
more noble will be the action. If, then, we can achieve temperance
through the motive of patriotism, society will be the beneficiary, not
only of temperance itself, but also of many concomitant benefits.
=Temperance.=--Temperance may be induced, of course, through the motives
of economy, good health, and the like, but the motive of patriotism
includes all these and, therefore, stands at the summit. Waste, in
whatever form, is evermore unpatriotic. Conservation is patriotism,
whether of natural resources, human life, human energy, or time. The
intemperate man wastes his substance, his energies, his opportunities,
his self-respect, and his moral fiber.
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