SLANDERING THE DEAD

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1290, 20 November 1911, Page 6

SLANDERING THE DEAD

PROHIBITION CHALLENGES ANSWERED. PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON PROHIBITION. ' President Lincoln, tho man who abolished slavery, strenuously opposed prohibition. He said: "Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itsolf, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and in making crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles on which our governments aro founded. I have always been found labouring to protect the weaker classes from the stronger, and I never can give my' consent to such a law as you propose to enact Until my tonguo shall be silenced in death I will continue to fight for the rights of men."—Vido Leavenworth (K.S.) Speech, December, 1859.

The words of President Lincoln wero prophetic. Leavenworth, in his day only a small place, has a population (1S90) of nearly 20,000 people. It is the fourth largest city .in Kansas—a Stat® that endures the "depravity and degradation" of State-wide prohibition. Mr. Joshua L. Baily, as president of the National Temperance Society of America, visited Leavenworth in 1900, and contributed a series of articles on tho operations of pro, hibition in this and othor towns in Kansas to the "American Friend," and in one of these, published-in Februarv of that year, he declares that illicit trading was so prevalent that a city officer wont round and collccted fify dollars a month fronveach of tho sly grog-sellers, and as that sum was paid they were exempt from molestation." Tho illicit "salo of liquor," ho says, "is practically unrestrained," in this prohibition (own. Then his conclusion: "The good citijons of Leavenworth—and there are many—appear to bo discouraged, disgusted, and di-= heartened; meantime the sly grog-selling m the saloons is daily bearing its prolific fruitage of depravity and degrada-

Exactly. This is what wo havo been saying, for weeks past will bo tho result if prohibition is earned in New Zealand, ihirt-y years experience proved tho truth of I resident Lincoln's words: "Prohibition is the greatest enemy of temperance ; and tho head and front of the greatest temperance society in America has to acknowledge it as tho result of his own personal observation, on tho spot let it is this destroying, degrading, and death-dealing-system of prohibition our well-intentioned friends, tho so-called ten. pcrance .people, would forco „p 0„ „."s Dominion. tis far better to continue hcense and keep tho sale of alcohol c beverages under control than abolish thai, control and institute a system thai would discourage, disgust, and dishearten" good citizens, and bear a prolific' crop of "do. pravity and degradation." To avoid tv' perpetration of this upon New Zealand-ill tho electors ought t 0 strike out tho hot torn line. It ia tho safest course.'