THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1963, 21 January 1914, Page 9

THE PROHIBITION MOVEMENT.

. . Sir, —An address I gave-on the question of Prohibition recently, n summary of which appeared in,your columns, seems to have annoyed your correspondent "Temperance," and so inspired the letter which appeared in your ..issuo of January 13. There arc many points in it that I could.answer, lrut having re-, gard to your, space 1 forbear to'do so. i'irst, as .to the "intorminabla fdrinlt question," I reply, tho.liquor traffiq ■will not lot the community alono if:tho community desired to live at peacO with it, and next a question is never settled till it is settled on a right principle. To logalise a vico is a crime, against tho people; whilo to sell a drug ' like chloroform as a beverage is an act of sheer stupidity. Alcohol, ■ chloroform, and ether are all anaesthetics,- and should bo used only on tc'doctor s prescription. "Temperance" asks why we should sacrifice £900,000 a year revenue. This query infers that he thinks more of the dollar than tho people. But it is only a baseless assumption that the revenue would be lost. Ho ignores the fact that the' people,; and only a•' small section at that, wasto between six and seven millions yearly at 'the retail prices of intoxicants; Tho people wh«consume alcoholio beverages pay the revenue, but lose tho balance of the money, for drink is neither food, raiment, nor shelter. A sober man will spend tnoro money on'other ■ dutiablo 'goods, which tho niiijority'of' drinking men cannot afford to buy. But supposo it Was otherwise, - for argument, sake. Would he'sanction the introduction of smallpox, bubonic plague, tuberculosis for a. profit"?' Medical congresses' have for many years" past affirmed that drink 'is 'tho" greatest of all scourges, and that "'its use inflicts more.damage on the public, health than all'other causes together, while it shortens the lives of those' who Use'it, which simply means, that tho shortened lives of tho people in Great Britain amounts-to 200,000 overy 'year. .The direct death-rate amounts to 120,000 yearly. Tho expenditure .on drink in that country is 161J millions, tho revenue about 40 millions. "Will he sanction the wholesale destruction of tho peoplo of the British Isles for the revenue needed there? 1 To speak of the Tsar as a father of his people in con- ' ncction with tho liquor traffic in--Russia reminds mo of another father. -It issaid tho male aligator in Queensland will devour his own offspring; Russia's fate will bo the into of any other Nation or Empire that failed to suppress the drunkenness of its peoplo. "Temperance" .seems sceptical about tho'reeults that will follow the adoption of Prohibition. Let' me supply him with the data • I baso my predictions on. Tho proportion of unencumbered homes in Prohibition Maine is <19 per cent. In the wet States of New York, New-'Jer-sey, Pennsylvania, the record is on 22 per cent. Maino' in' 1910 had 1152 paupers, Massachusetts, although a good State, being "largely under'-loCal No-License,. 5934. Maine had- 1 512 prisoners in''all, -'mostly liquor-sellers'; : Massachusetts had 5227. Kansas, another Prohibition State, lias a similar' record. In 1910, '49 counties out of 105 did'not send a prisoner to gaol. Deposits have increased in' Kansas' ' from 09,000,000..d011ars to 189,000,000. Since complete administration of tho law, May, 1909,' tho deposits have increased 11,000,000 dollars. Taxation in Wichita, Kansas, 8.21 dollars, Springfield, Lllinois, 11.88 dtillars, . in' Chicago 15.06 dollars.' ; Theso-ftfr-ures'should sot' "Tem- • peranco's" fears at rest so far as the revenue is Again, to Kansas and her undsample'fl In ten years tho taxable property of tho State has increased .120,000,00Q-dollars, yearly, or. l,2oo,ooo,ooo;.intho...abovenamed period.' Then as- to police erpenses. In "Wichita, Kansas, they. are half a dollar; Springfield and Chicago, 111., 1.66 and 2.64 dollars respectively.' Fifty-seven .of .tho 105 counties of the. State have, no ..inmates oiv.their poor farms, liko .Goro and Masterton, and have no poor relief societies now the bars have been closed.. .Kansas _has .34 counties'.without an idiot, and 87 counties out of the 105 without asylum, while 96 counties ha'vo not' a j siiijilo inebriate. It seems like carrying coals to Newcastle to add more facts, of which I liavo many others of a similar kind. In conclusion, I will just refer once more to the politicians, and. say fearlessly. that most, of them are as blameworthy as the Tsar in vetoing the. Finnish Parliament's Prohibition' Bill.. They placed, the unfair,, inequitable, and anti-democratic handicap on the people of New Zealand of a three-fifths handicap, and in this way they have given the Trade a.12-years' time notice they were in no way'justly entitled to.' The importance of the question under discusmy excuse. for encroaching fur(her on your space than I first intended, and thanking you in anticipation that you will publish this letter in your "widely-read iournal. —I nm, etc.. WILLIAM RICHARDSON. Queen Street, Auckland. •