THE LIQUOR FIGHT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 147, 17 March 1919, Page 6

THE LIQUOR FIGHT

EFFICIENCY LEAGUE SIDE CROWDED MEETING IN TOWN HALL ATTITUDE OF EMINENT CATHOLICS (Extended report, published by arrangement.) .•I. meoting under the auspices of the Now Zealand Efficiency League, as part of its campaign for the abolition of the liquir 'traffic, was held in the Town Hall last nicht. ' Long before the time for the meeting to commence the big hall was crowded in every part, and tho overflo,? was sent to tho Cojicert Chamber. And stiil before the hour appointed for the meeting to commence, the doors had to be locked. 'Numbers of people still sought admittance. The arrangement made was that each of the speakers in turn spoko at each meeting. Mr. W. D. Hunt, who presided, introduced thj speakers of tho evening: The jßov. I'athel- Cronin' au.l Mr. Charles Todd, the one a priest and the other a prominent layman of tlie Soman CatholicChurch. A Few Authorities.

Fothsr Cronin was received with hearty applause when he stood forward to spj.ik. He raid that ho did not wish to eail under false colours. He was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, but he was 'lot a bishop—(laughter and applause)—anil he did not claim to speak for sat bishop. He claimed to speak for nobody except bis humble self. 'I hope, ladies and egntiemen," lie said, ' to show von to-night that in spite of what you may have heard to the contrary, I am in tho company of great bishopsbishops who know more about the world than any bishop in the South Island. The question, ho continued, was not a religious question. If it were, lie admitted that his proper method would first hve been to get authority from the b'isHoD of his diocese. But this was a social question, and it was as such that he proposed to speak of it. ■ The first authority ho would quote was . the "Catholic Encyclopaedia." This was •what the Encyclopaedia said on the subjeot of alcohol: "From iho sociological standpoint we are compelled by incontrovertible evidence to acknowledge that alcohol is of all causes the most frequent source of poverty, unhappinesa, . divorce, 6uicide, immorality, crime, insanity, disease, and death." (Applause.) ' Hβ would nuote no petty authorities, but he was sure he would not be misunder- ' stood if lie picked authorities of his own church. He would name as one of them Pope Leo XIII, a man who was famous ; in hie time, and who lived still in tho memories of democrats because he led the world when he rublished his Encyclicals on the Labour question. Pope Leo had epokon often on the drink question, and so did his successor Pius X. He (Father Cronin) did not claim to be nnybedy. but he nnce had the privilege of "'being presented in private audience to Pope Pius by the late BisJ;i>p of ChristtTrnroh,. Bishop Grimes. Pius X repeated what his predecessor had said on the question of Umpcrance, adding that, like bis predecessor, he considered that drunkenness was the greatest enemy of the .teachings of • Christ. He would not weary tho audience by reading quotations from the words of these two Popes on .the subject of drink and. drunkenness. They had- all heard of Cardinal Mercier. He could quote-the speech Cardinal Mercier made at Liege in 1908, at an international congress . against alcoholism. Cardinal Manning's impeachment.

In the Old Land there was the authority of the great democrat, Cardinal Manning. This was something of what Cardinal Manning had to any: "I impeach the liquor traffic of high crimes and "m'isaemeanours against the commonwealth. It is more mockery to ask us to put down drunkenness by moral and religious means when the legislation , gives facilities and multiplies inducements to intemperance on every hand. The chief bar to the work of the' Holy Spirit of Ocod in the _ souls of "men and women is intoxicating drink. I know no antagonist of the Holy Spirit more direct, more subtle, more stealthy, more ■übiquitous than intoxioating drink. 1 know of no influence affecting men, women and ohild and home with such universality of steady power as intoxicating drink," and so on. The advice Cardinal Manning gave was to use our votes in putting an end to the liquor traffic. (Applause.) The Moderate Drinker. "And," said Father Oronin, "while we are epeaking of that great man I-think it well to see what he had to eay about the moderate drinkers. They are the fashionable people at present. This is i;what Cardinal Manning eaid about them, '"end he knew what he was talking about: • 'Who. are the drunkards of next year? ! The drunkards of next year are the modderate drinkers of last year.' (Applause) I wonder what these highly enlightened gentlemen who speak for the Moderate League have to say on that point? I Bay 'highly enlightened gentlemen' because they are that. I have hoard them speak. I give the trade great credit for its wisdom in picking men of that type, "because if they can't make a good case out of tho rotten-case' that the trade has, there is no man in the country who could do it. They eay they belong to tho Moderate League. They are perfectly entitled to give themselves' any name they like., I heard them speak, and leard them begin by saying that they were deadly opposed to the one extreme, and deadly opposed to the other extreme. They eaid that they had no time for the Prohibitionist' and no time for the trade. I listened most Jattentively to hear what they had to eay about the evils of drunkenness, but I do not remember a single sentence spoken in condemnation of the evils of jdrunkennes.or of the trade. Although I am ashamed to be considered suspicious, I must say that I suspected who theso men were speaking for. (Applause.) I admit it is omy an inference, but when you get very simple premises it ie very easy to draw plain conclusiorig." ' Father Cronin made a joke about the namo "Moderate." Sometimes the meaning was good and sometimes not so good. For instance, no one would be very anxious to have a moderate egg! (Applause and laughter.) He himself whom the Moderate League were epeaking for, or rather with whom were the Moderate League in league? He presumed that an audience in tho capital city would know the answer to that question.

The Book of Expedience, He quoted freely from the words of the great men of his Church, but the ideas he had formed about the trade .were not obtained frnm .books, but from what he had senn with his own eyes. Ho had seen the effects of the drink traffic in different countries, and especially in the shims of the bis; cities of England and Ireiand. He had spent the six years after hie ordination in Lancashire, and lie believed that if eve.ry person listening to him h»d had the experiences, he had had in connection with liquor, everyone -of them would be a downright Prohibitionist. There were many people in those towns, not merely of the "upper ten" ns they were called, who had no idea of the evils wrought by drink in their own cities. The reason was that their calling did not tako them to I ho places that his calling took him. AVe boasted of our civilisation and of the fjreat work wo doing for the heathen, but the sights in the slums of the big towns of the Old Country were more barbarous than could be seen in the heart of Africa. .He hoped that the remedy woumi . come quickly. If it did not come there would be an explosion greater than any that had happened in our lifetime, and the principal cau.se would be the liquor traffic, fiomn would say (hat the cause was poverty. Ho did not deny that poverty was one of the causes, and he did not propose to discuss whether poverty was the cause of drink or whether drink was the uiuso of poverty. Drink would be neitiier cause, nor effect if it were removed. The Only Way. Wβ ha 4 much to learn from the Old land, but there y<M one lessou which

we could not learu from her, and that was how to control the drink traffic. The Old Land had tried for centuries to concontrol the traffic by legislation, but had failed, and it had failed because it had not applied the radical remedy. We must not imitate the Old Land. The men of the Moderate League wen; fond of saying this was a beautiful country— "God's Own Country"—but it was i.ot the- liquor traffic that had made it beautiful. Ho was prepared to ndinit that comparatively speaking this country was a 6ober country, but we. must not wait till it should 'become like the Old Lund. To do that would bo to wait too long. If the bulk of the people in Britain wanted Prohibition, could they get it? They could not get it; the vested interests were too strong. AVJien Cabinet M"inisters and other people high up in Church and State were against them, what power had the people? If we are looking for example in the matter, we should look not to the Old Laud, but to countries where the conditions were more similar to conditions here—countries like tho United States and Canada- If Prohibition was a good thing for tho United States, iti was a good thing for New Zealand. (Applause.) Another Catholic Teacher.

In his reference to the men who had done much for the cause of temperance he had fully intended to mention i'ather Matthew, and he must make apology to ins fellow-countrymen, for his omission. Mo knew of no single man who in his lifetime had done so much for the cause of temperance in any part of the world as Father Matthew;, lint Father Matthew had said after twenty years' experience, hat he had been "a partial success," and that lie believed that in Prohibition was tho only adequate remedy. Anyone who doubted could see the actual words written by him in 185-1 in Cork. Father Matthew worked all over the United Kingdom, was vice-president. of the. United Kingdom Alliance for the Abolition of Liquor. lie was sent for by the Americans when they wanted a man to assist them in their fight against the saloons. When he landed in New York he was received by the Mayor of Now York, and accorded a civil reception. Ho was received by President Taylor at the White House. He was received at the bar of the Senate'on the floor of liio House, l«ing the first foreigner to receive this honour except General Lafayette. On that occasion Henry Clay said that Father Matthew had worked a great social revolution, "perhaps the greatest revolution over achieved by any benefactor of mankind." Father Matthew was an Irishman to be proud of. (Applause.)

America's Reformation, About a hundred years ago America w.is bidding fair to become one of the most drunken countries in tho world. But there were good patriotic men in America who saw how tho country was heqding; saw that the nation was in daiw;r; and they made up their minds to save the country.' Thus the temperance movement was begun, and it had lashd for a century.. The -first phase of the movement was :\ movement for ten,];erance. It took the hi\rd-headed Yankees half a century to find out that this movement was not in tho right direction. Tho original total abstinence societies were n partial success because out of them grew five great Prohibition movement. And Prohibition was now the law of the land in the United States. (Applause.) Was New Zealand going to waste lime travelling up the same hill of difficulty as the United States? .Was it going to take a century to find out thnt moderation was no remedy for druknenness? Even if a big percentage of the people became total abstainers th it would not make a sober nation. Tlnv should learn from the example of America.

Temperance and Prohibition. In speaking of the Popes he had said tint they stood for Temperance, and probably soma people present would say that Temperance was quite a different thing from Prohibition. He contended tint it was not. The total abstainer's idttnl was just the same as the Prohibitionist's Weal, and bo.thought he could prove it Any individual in the country had this right to bind himself by a pledge or total abstinence. It would not raiiure much of a social sense to follow this reasoning: If the individual had the right to bind himself not to take intoxicating drink, so had the community the right. (Applause.) The community was a social unit and had the right to bind itself by majority. He would admit that he had excluded questions of conscience; but ho did not think that any. man had a conscience bo delicate, or so twisted, that it went, against it for him to bind himself to keep away from strong drink. If there were such consciences, legislation might as well stop—it could never satisfy the consciences of everybody. He would quote the opinion of a bishop of Montana. The bishop had said: "There are two sides to Prohibition—the theoretical and the practical. From the theoretical side Prohibition is certainly justifiable. First of all, it is not an infringement of personal liberty. It bears a relation to tho community similar to that which the pledge bears.to the individual. By taking the pledge, the individual prohibits the use of mtoxicating liquor to himself.. By passing a prohibition law, the community bars the use of intoxicating drink to itself.' lhe man who condemned him, let that man be an autocrat or anything less, for taking his present stand, was condemning scores of bishops in the United States and in Canada. He could giot read to the audience what all of those bishops had had to say, but he would give what one aTchbishop had said: "As a man and a Christian I say: Damn the saloons. If I could cause the earth to open and swallow up every saloon in this world I would feel that I wao doing humanity a blessing." (Applause.) The speaker quoted the names of about twenty bishops who -wore supporters of the. same' news as he support ed. The Hotelkceper. Father Cronin said that lie wished to explain that ho had nrtliing against hotelkeepers. They had been very good to him, and he would be sorry to be considered ungrateful. He was very keen that they should get compensation, and it was not against them or anybody else connected with the Trade that he stood. It. was against the system. People in the hotels' were,, in his opinion, just as .good as others, striking- the average, at least; and one ought to be glad of that, because if so much evil existed despite the fact what would it have been if docent people had not had charge of the 'hotels? Catholics and Protestants. Though the audience before him was aa fine one, tho speaker believed that if lie could ask everyone present what was the secret of the success of the Prohibition movement in America ho would get as ninny wise answers us there were wise heads. He would give the opinion of mi America—a citizen of New York, who i edited a paper called ."Catholics mid Prohibition": "Wherever Catholics and Protestants work together for Prohibition victory is assured." (Applause.) He was very glad to sob thnt all wore ngreml on that point. He would iwk as i\ particular favour that Methodists and Protesto.nte of every sort should rpmemlx-r. I after Prohibition "was carried on April 10. thnt the Catholics deserved their show of the credit. (Applause.) If be emild do nothing elw Hum remove the false impression that Catholics as a body were against the movement, he would tl'i'ik that he had dono some good in his life. (Applause.) From Ohristchurch to Tnvprcargill 'he hn<l met scores of Catholics who had told him how thev were 'joinij to vot". Why should it not be so? Tie felt it wa= like txplninim; the very A.B.C. of tlio mntter, and that Ilio fiii'«lio" should b". .-ultiT. why should it be otherwise? Did drink resneet liny church or race in the country? Sacramental Wine. Before he had seen Section 21, Subsection 2, of the Licensing Amendment Act, 1918, he hud had some doubts whether in conscience a Catholic could approve of tho Act, because there were fears that wine for Riiuniniental purposes might not bo available. That four ,'iad gone—had been dispelled by the section of the Act that he had named. There was a guarantee given—the best guarantee possible—that wine would bo available for the Hirpo.sc mentioned. He quoted what the Attorney-General had to say on the matter, and urged that

any section that mistrusted the whole community in the face of the community's. best giiiii'iintee put itself quite out of court.

"Ghosts." The arguments of the Moderate League wero ghostly arguments, intangible things that one could not get at. 'I heir aim was to frighten people. One of tho leading ghosts, was Ihe ghost about, the. epidemic. On a certain date (though tho date was not. mentioned) the people had to be ready for another dreadful epidemic, and when Prohibition was carried alcohol, said tho Moderates, would be swept, out of the country—would be all sent over to Australia. He might tell them it would be very welcome there. Anyhow, when the microbe camo along, unless it could be drowned in cohol, the people (according to the Moderate League) would l.c done for. What did tho audience think of that sort of sincerity? Under Hie Act, alcohol was exempted for medicinal purposes. Jt would be available for those purposes just as it was now, though it wa.s. to be hoped that the stuff vould be a great deal better than it was at the present time. (Applause.) The Scientific Standpoint, As a rule, before concluding his addresses, he had had something to say from the scientific standpoint, but as the htfur was growing late he would on that occasion bo brief. In the human body as it came from nature, not one drop of alcohol had been discovered. The conclusion to be drawn was simply that alcohoi' was not necessary to the human system. (Hear, hear.) Alcohol, not being in the natural human body, had no need of being put there, like other elements that required to be replaced, and alcohol could not therefore be a food. It was a drug. Further, if protoplasm, which was the physical basis of life, had alcohol poured upon it, it shrivelled up, withered, and died. That should give an idea of what alcohoi did to the body. Tho poison alcohol should be labelled and put where the other poisons wore. Everything the Creator had made was good, but was not so in all circumstances. They were going to see that aicohol was kept for its uses, and that its abuses were abolished.

A Warning. The Moderate League told the pcopie that the best thing to <lo was to wait, that there was plenty of time; but as a matter of fact if they waited till the next general election before they voted for Prohibition they would find before them three issues—Prohibition without Compensation, State Control, and Continuance. 11 thoy waited till general election time five per cent, of the people could carry Continuance. If five per cent, voted for Continuance, forty-live for State Control, and the other fifty for Prohibition, Prohibition would not obe carried, and State Control would not be carried, but continuance woiud be. State control of the liquor traffic was not to be taken seriously. If the State eve.attempted to control the liquor traffic it could say good-bye to controlling everything else. , In conclusion, Father Cronin said that he believed not only that Prohibition would be ciu-ried, but that it would be carried by an overwhelming majority. Ho was sure that every voter who hud the welfare of the community at heart would not fail to "strike out the top line" on April 10. About Father Cronin, Mr. Charles Todd said that be was" glad to be present to assist Father Cronin in work. Father Cronin belonged to tne diocese of Manchester, and ho was in .New Zealand lor tho good of his health as well sis to assist in tho cause. He was a fine man, a good man to come out here as he had done for the good of humanity. (Applause.) He happened to belong to the same faith as lather Cronin, but he did not want to "blow" about the fact, because personally he fclicved that-if a man stuck to his religion one man was as good as another. When Father Crouin came to ihinedin he intended to offer to leather Cronin the hospitality of his homo, and he rang up the Administrator of the diocese, I'ather Coffey, as to whether this would bo a proper thing to do. The reply was that "There is nothing against Father Cronin and you are doing the right thing." He did not wish to infer that Father Cronin was a Prohibitionist, whether he was on one side or the other. But although some cf the heads of the Church did not approve of Father Cronin's action, there were a lot of his brother priests who did approve of it. Hβ could say this from first-hand information, because he wus travelling about on this work, and a lot of Catholics came to him'knowing that he was ono and told him they were going to vote for Prohibition. He knew hundreds and hundreds who were going to vote prohibition who had never voted for it before. Most of the people in the hall would know Bishop ■ Cleary by name, one of the ablest and strongest men.in the Catholic Church. In one of the articles he had written in a periodical ho wrote, to young and old "Mount the water wagon aiid stay there." He had also written in the same publication that tho subject was one on which "very Catholic was free to vote. They must not suppost that in voting for Prohibition they were doing anything that would injure their Church, or that they were voting against any Catholic principle. Some of the great heads of the Church, as well as many of to laity, -were in favour of it. How could it otherwise have been carried in Quebec, where 87 per cent, of His people were Catholic? The great majority of the bishops in Quebec wpre in favour of prohibition. The man who said that the Catholic Church was against prohibition was not trying to lead them right.

Every Man's Fisht. Personally he had worked for the temperance cause since ho had been sixteen : years of age, and he had voted for it i since he had a vote. Ho had travelled j all over Australia, in the United States and Canada, find in Britain, and ho had taken notice of the working of the liquor trade because lie had always been keenly interested in the subject. He spoke of what ho had seen in the lower quarters of the bis cities of Britain. In view of the evil<s of drink the moderate drinker | hod no case for his demand that lie should be allowed to have his glaes. He was not out speaking in this campaign for fun, but because ho believed in his soul that tho cause was a right one. Business men'knew that there was no greater enemy of efficiency and progress than liquor. To the Labour men he would say that there was no greater agency in the world for keeping the Labour man down than drink. On the football field one of the orders was, "Mark a man." Every man in (he building must know a man on the other side. Ciiyo that man the. arguments for Prohibition and win him over. Lot the business men come out on the platform and show tho truth lo the people. Figures, Tho Trade said: "Where would the revenue come from?" His answer would be, "Who produces the revenue? Did the trade produce revenue:' . The trade was merely a commission ngent keeping for itself four times as much as it handed to the Government in revenue. The publican produced nothing but death to a lot of people, miserable homes, degradation, starvation to many children. It took from the people five million pounds and gave a million to the Government. Surely they could find a more economical way of collecting rates than that. He was sure that instead of a loss of revenue there would be a gain of at least a million. He gavo a few figures, showing the amount of money that a man could save by cutting out his daily glass. If at the ago of 20 a mini began to put away sixpence- a day and keep this up until he was 40 he would at that time have saved, allowing for compound interest, .£I4OO. He discussed the compensation question also, saying that ho considered the exchange of the period of grace of four years and a half for tho payment of four millions and n half would be a good bargain for the country. It would represent £i 10s. per head of the population. If tliey all put into (hi- Post Office Savings Hank 'lid. per week for five years thvv would nil 'have tho XI 10s. He oxpre<sed that there would be a glorious ' victory for Prohibition on April 10. On the motion of Mr. .1. llutchoson a vole of thanks was accorded to the speakers.