DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1971, 16 October 1888, Page 3

DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT ?

The drlnksollera have boon telling us of late that the prohibition law In America la practically Inoperative ; m foot, that it does not prohibit. We clip the following evldenoe to the contrary from a letter by Mr Yale, which was published In the "Daily Telegraph ":-

Everybody has heard of Senator Blame. He tays, speaking of Maine; — "There Is tro State m the Union whioh has prospered so much as Maine during the last twenty years. Ido not except the great prosperous western States. A'he whole oharaoter and condition of the State have ohanged and wonderfully Improved." Tbe name of Horace Qrooly will be somewhat familiar also, and, after a tour through Maine, be wrote:— "The pretenca that as much liquor is Bold now In Maine as m former years is Impudently false. We spent three days m- travelling through the State without aeoing a glass of it or an individual who appeared 10 bo under its Itiflutnce, and we are reliably assured that at the Augnsta House, where the Governor and most of the Legislature Board, not only was no liquor to be bad, but even tbe use of tobacco had almost entirely ceased."

The father of the Maine Law, Noal Dow, sayß :— " From the poorest State In the Union, Maine has beconoo one of the moßt prosperous Our annual saving direct and Indirect, as the rosult of prohibition, oannot be leas than 24 000,000 dole, a year ; »nd it is this which has made the State prosperous, and changed oar people, their habits, aairoundfnga, and wars of life bo wonderfully for the better, that Maine oannot be recognised as the same. In old mm J;lme indications of poverty, untbrlff, dilapidation, and decay were eeeu everywhere* Now they are seen nowhere, while proofs of industry thrift and prosperity abound on every hand." V * *

lowa and Kansas are also referred to. In hla last annual address, Governor Larrabee, of lowa, Bald : — " Much progceßs hsß been made m the enforcement of the prohibitory law. Not only has public sentiment muoh Improved m relation to it, but jadloal officers are more disposed to aeoare Its enforcement. Many judgoa give strong testimony m its favor, showing that wheve It h&B been well executed there has been a marked reduotlon m crlralpal offences, and also m court expenses Daring the last year, and particularly daring its latter half, the e has been a deoided falling-off m penitentiary cinviots, and a very largo number of pounty gaola have been empty, some of thora for the first timo^fr t years, Thero has been a marked lmprovcmont (n the ooudition of oar poorer people, especially m tho families of labouring men addioted to strong drink. What was formerly eqnandorod In the saloon rmw Eocn to tho support of wife and chlldron, Hundreds of wituosseu to this can bo oltod. And It io an JibßQluto faot that m the Stalo last year thoro were fifty-throe empty gaols as the result of prohibition,

At tho last annual ulttlng of the Congregational Union of Kansan tho following resolution vtbb adopted : — " Wo, an roprosontatlves of tho Congregational oharohou arid ministers In Kunemu, hereby pat on rooord onr moat emphatic testimony that prohibition does prohibit In Kansaa, and la proving an Incalculable blessing to tho moral and manorial Interests of the State, and wo plodgo ourselvea by vote, voice, and prayer, and effort to aid. In maintaining our prohibitory law ; that wo favonr the prohibition of the liquor traffic by both State and national legislation ah tho beat legal method of Boppress-Inglntemje-anoe."— MelboarneExohange