PROHIBITION AND POLITICS.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18417, 25 June 1925, Page 11

PROHIBITION AND POLITICS.

to 7KF. or "-■■•.r. F.~.r=s." ■"-"■". Yoil h.v. o •-:rni--k a cotogeiual th'MtV in disco; eriug an ooo;;-.ii»;i for |!'.'|ijii'inig wiih disparaging and < 011tCnillUKHls, epithets those wll'J do Mot agree with you on il:o liquor question. l!oi yoiip disquisition, inspired by Mr J-avaciy's refusal to reply to the qr.esti'iniiaiie «--f the New Zealand Alliance. raiso> a larger question than anvthing cor-noeied v ith Prohibition. IT it kwron;; tor the New Zealand Alliance t-v <t>n.| a qucsV-.onnai re to mTopduig ) candidates, ir> it riflit for any organisntion 10 do ,<o* Ami if the wrongncss ol a questionnaire consists in tho fact thai the questions arc submitted in writing, and that a written reply is requested. would not the same ban bo applied t-> the pulling of' question* to a candidate "iieti lie. addresses a. public meeting? You admit that Prohibition is an important issue, although you are pleased to sav that it- is of "comparatively minor importance.'' At the last poll oOO.TM neople voted for Prohibition--by far the largest vote ever cast- for that i.sSiie. It iis well known that proposals have l>ecn made in the interests of the liquor trade to secure- legislation that would considerably curtail the rights now possessed: to vole the liquor trade out of e-\isteuro. Is. it wholly irrational that the Now Zealand Alliance, as representing Mio (100,"fl v. ho voted for Prohibition three years ago, -should seek to ascertain from intending candidates what their attitude is towards such retrograde proposals? Does anyone suppose that the liquor trade will bo indifferent to what candidates think of .such proposals? And it you reply that two 'blacks do not make one white and. rule out both liquor and anti-liquor issues as too "sectional" to be -worthy of the test of a questionnaire, what, pray, is a, Pc-form, Liberal or Labour issue but sectional? ,Th nrc were more votes east for Prohibition three "\ear.s ago tlvm there n ere for any section in the realm of polities, and vet you venture to say that it is of such 'comparatively minor importance that it- is not worth while questioning candidates concerning it. Is it not possiblo that, your ideas of proportionate- importance may lo out of focus? You can't refrain from having a dig at America-, which according to your view'in adopting Prohibition has been '•'misled." Seeing that three times since Prohibition has been the lair of the land. America, has bad the opportunity of reconsidering its position and retracing its steps, and with increasing emphasis on eacli occasion, has resolutely determined not'to do so, it must be admitted that it accepts its being "misled'" with a great ded of complacency. Tito alleged mbleading of America is on: a par with the -picture you draw of "extreme fanatics'' with an outlook so "very lop-sided, unnatural and unhealthy that they are blind, deaf and dumb to every other consideration than whether the candidate they rote for is "dry" or "wet. J hey are both figments of the imagination Yours, etc., „, iriTnf , AY. J. AMLLIAAfo. Juno 23rd.

TO THE EDITOII OF "THE PEE3S." ,Si,. —Permit mo to tender my admiring compliments on your leader of todiu- "Prohibition and Politics. ine "doming Post," leader of the tetone Ve Press, could not hare put it better. But, After struggling back into the. twentieth century-, one realises a tew little things remain to be said, witn. voiir courteous permission. " You say that to Prohibition workers "the ''great ■ complex • of national pro-: blems which Parliaments exist to deal ■with 5s of not the slightest importance" "We differ. Most of us have been trying to shake Press, Parliament and people awake to that very complex which is alarming nob only our own thinkers but the thinkers of all Britannic countries to-day. They know -that the- aggregate of problems at Home cannot 10-ng.be borne without solution or disaster, and that we, in our more favoured latitudes, are stiu reflecting the stagnation, levity and wrongheadedness which has brought civilisation to the crossroads. The world-skv is far darker than it was m. June, li>l4, and! the Britannic world is far less ready to meet a cataclysm or, better, to lie'lp enforce ai fair peace than it was then. Our ranks are thinned; our finance is shaken; our sanctions are loosened; our morale is lowered. New Zealand takes her part in this ominous decay. Miss Baughan reminds us that the gaol population (male) has been steadily rising for the Inst four years. Our Commissioners tell a terrible tale about the increase of the feeble-minded and morally degenerate among us. Our ministers and social .workers tell us that drinking among women, "nipping" among girls, orgies, at parties and in motors, and a- moral tone in keeping with all this have set in all over the country. The racing clubs are shamelessly boasting their huge increases since the extra, permits were granted. Were we not half in that state which the Stone Age describes as "stable progress," wo would see the end of all. and reach out against the greatest leading factor in national and racial decay. Wo would rush to get in a Parliament of Prohibitionists, knowing that serious constructiveness alone can repair the ravages of our wars and our "neace."

'The path into which America was misled?" fc>he was '"'misled'' with open eyes. About hs-lf her area was already "dry," some of it for fifty years. Since the remaining area went "dry,"' and despite difficulties of enforcement which could beset no other country, America's burden has lightened so greatly, that she scouts tho very idea, of reversion. Tho "wets" were unable to bring a Presidential or Vice-Presi-dential candidate into the field. President Coolidge, driest of the "dry.'' pooled tho biggest majority in the lint ion's history. Tho work of America for world peace, for domestic reform, for tho purifying of public life and politics (and the latter needed if), m a word, for national and international constructivencss, is amazing. Follow the history and achievements of a man like Elihu Tioot to see where the hope of a drink-sodden, bankrupt, doped, and war-obsessed Old World civilisation lies. Why have we been misled about America? The "Christian Science Monitor'-' let the cat out of the bag last January. Tho '"C.S.M.," be it remembered, is that huge, far-circulated American daily which stands on truth alone, r.-nd yet prospers. A. great religious organisation for betterment L>y publicity last year tackled the mass of false information about Prohibition which lias flooded the world for five years by going to'the source of it. One of the. great New York news associations supplying .Europe frankly confessed that it h.-id supplied the Press there wun .what it wanted, bad news regarding Prohibition, and little or no news of its real progress snd stability. Lately this organisation had seen reason to send over favourable and accurate news about Prohibition in about half of that supplied, but the European papers still selected about fAS per cent, of autiPi ohibition stuff to o p3r cent, in favour. Wrko up, New Zealand! garbage is not good enough for us. You use the word ' "'sectional'' often in this connexion. One does not quarrel with it. For the experience and standing of those countries already Prohibition, as America and Norway, shows that Prohibition indeed is a clear-

cut between, the politics.of■ war and peace, of health and degeneration, of stability and disintegration, of civilisation and on-rolling barbarism. The regulation of the world's "liquid diet" is the first and paramount question for us, as for other peoples, the day before the deluge, however that deluge arrives. So up with the questionnaires! —Yours, JESSIE MACK AY. Cashmere Hills, June '23 rd.