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1. It is what we prevent, rather than what we do that counts most in Government.
2. Just when we most need to be clearheaded, in order to face the hard facts before us, there is all too frequently a very real inclination to give way to dangerous tendencies merely as an escape from realities.
3. Fortunately, the Canadian people in all their habits, are essentially a temperate people.
4. I would not wish to imply that most industrial accidents are due to intemperance. But, certainly, temperance has never failed to reduce their number.
5. As to the advantages of temperance in the training of the armed forces and of its benefits to the members of the forces themselves, there can be no doubt in the world.
6. Nor do we begin to have a clear appreciation of what the increase in consumption of alcoholic beverages in wartime means in increased risk, and in loss of efficiency to the fighting and working forces of the country.
7. Each year, therefore, a dollar spent on alcoholic beverages has purchased a smaller quantity.
8. If the military might of Germany and Japan are ultimately to be crushed, the United Nations, one and all, must definitely and urgently strive toward a total war effort.
9. Conscription if necessary, but not necessarily conscription.
10. Once a nation parts with the control of its credit, it matters not who makes the laws.
11. Self-denial and self-discipline, however, will be recognized as the outstanding qualities of a good soldier.
12. From the outset of the war, the Canadian people have clearly shown that it is their desire to help in every way to make Canada’s war effort as effective as possible.
13. Temperance is essential, if the services of men and women are to be employed to the best and most useful effect according, to the physical capacity and ability of each. Nothing less will assure a total effort.
14. The increased consumption of alcoholic beverages in Canada since the outbreak of war is one evidence of this.
15. There can be little doubt that absence from work, and inefficient work, are frequently due to intemperance.
16. Let it be remembered, too, that at a time of war, nearly every one is under great strain.
17. The politician’s promises of yesterday are the taxes of today.
18. The greatly increased consumption of alcoholic beverages is very largely a direct result of the increased purchasing power created by wartime expenditures.
19. When gasoline and rubber are rationed, electric power and transport facilities are becoming increasingly scarce, and manpower shortages are developing, it is difficult for people to understand their increased use for other than the most vital needs of war.
20. No one will deny that the excessive use of alcohol and alcoholic beverages would do more than any other single factor to make impossible a total war effort.