AS CHAMPIONS OF PERSONAL LIBERTY

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1303, 5 December 1911, Page 9

AS CHAMPIONS OF PERSONAL LIBERTY

the Liquor- New Zealand would like to pose before the ■ electors at the present imo. Tho Liquor Trade has masqueraded as tlio champion of liberty j n every Prohibition campaign which has been fought in this or any other country A more ridiculous masquerado it wotiid lie- difficult to imagine. The arguments they trot out to-day havo been answered long ago. They were answered in convincing manner by a clear-headed American relormer, who died twenty-four vears liead intelligently the following extracts from his speeches:— "What is their cry? They sar TBI! SOXAL LIBERTY.' In other words, thev JKUtV SE - NbLi - AL or KATUBAL Llli"Unrcstrainedl NATURAL LIBERTY is the enemy oi CIVIL LIBERTY. It is personal liberty that would let ine meet you on the .street nnd knock your brains out with a club; it is civil liberty that would mulish me for the crime ' "CIVIL LIBERTY is developed by the restrictions of natural liberty. I h.ive a legal right to nil my mouth 'with lobacco ond chew and chow and spit. I ],avc a right to chew and spit this way, and chew and spit the other way-it is none of your business. You will not deny that I have thai, right, if I am alone on the prairie. I go into a crowd of men and exercise the right. I would be knocked down in a minute. As a man hils me on the ear, T exclaim: 'Is not this a free country?' 'Ye?.' 'Havo I not a right to spit?'_ You would teach mo that my right to spit ceased when your right not to be spit upon bogan. "Liquor men say: 'Government has no right to say what I shall eat. drink, or wear. Got up and forget to dress yourself some morning. How far would von get in this city before the Government would tell you to put on your clothes? It is the duty of Government to restrain animal passions, and the cry of liquor men for personal liberty is simply a. cry of barbarism. The doctrine of personal sensual liberty means the reinstatement' ot Inst, passion, nnd brute force as the governing force of the world." The same arguments hold good in 1911. .During tho present campaign it has been abundantly proved that tho personal liberty to indulge in intoxicating drink is opposed to civil liberty and the welfare of the community. Ilence tho abolition of that low form of personal liberty is not. only a justifiable but a necessary step to take in the advance towards the higher intellectual liberty which all intelligent men and women desire. TO THE WORKERS, years ago, Carlvle said: _ "No man oppresses thee. 0 free and independent franchiser! But does not this stunid pewter-pot oppress thee? "No son of Adam can bid thee come or go, but this absurd pot of heavy wet can. and does.