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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 164, 5 April 1919, Page 6

PUBLIC NOTICES. THE "TRADE'S" LATEST EFFORT. QUESTION: Since the exposure of the faked Valintine "Proclamation" on the Epidemic, what is the Liquor Trade's next effort? Answer: A soldier's letter circulated in the Liquor Interest, but signed by Forbes Eadie. QUESTION: What does it suggest? Answer: That the "Patriotic (?) Trade" is deeply interested in the Repatriation of the Soldier, and that it would rather have the" £4,500,000 Compensation spent on his behalf to help Repatriation! QUESTION: Does anybody believe that the Liquor Trade is interested'in the Suldier except for what it can cet out of him? Answer: Not even the "Trade" itself. QUESTION: Why does the "Trade" suggest that it should not get Compensation? Answer: To try to fool Electors into voting against Prohibition on April 10. QUESTION: But w;hy should the "Trade" risk Prohibition without Compensation at tho General Election? Answer: Because.the "Trade" kuows that it has three chances to one against Prohibition, and that if State Purchase is carried it will claim J.'6,000,000 for Goodwill and .£9,000,000 for Properties; while, if Continuauco is carried, its takings will amount to £0,00f1,000 a year for at least three years. QUESTION: What will help Repatriation more than anything else? Answer: To vote the "Trade" out on April 10, save the country directly and indirectly .£10,000,0(10 a year, and use tho money thus 6aved in finding employment for the returned men. ' THEREFORE, STRIKE OUT THE TOP LINE ON THURSDAY, APRIL 10, Further Facts will appear in this apace To-morrow. NOTE.—If you require any information regarding Prohibition, or if there is any question you would like answered, write or wire "Abolition,"-. Box 95, G.P.0., Wellington. 19 . \ - .. [Leading Article which appeared in the "Ma'oriland Worker" of Wednesday, March 26, 1919.]

VOTE OUT THE — — LIQUOR TRAFFIC. It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor do anything whereby thy- brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.—Apostle Paul. The people of the Dominion'are'faced with a question which is to be decided by a leferendum. This is whether the liquor trade as it now exists shall continue or shall be voted out and compensation, not exceeding £1,500.000, paid to license-holders. ■ This is a question which vitally affects tho people, and, above all, .the working people, whoso interests are the peculiar concern of this journal. For reasons which need not be gone into here, Labour will not .- be given an opportunity at the forthcoming poll of voting for State control of the traffic—the solution of the problem which Labour generally supports. . The "Maoriland 'Worker," therefore, lias no official policy oa this subject. In the-e circumstances, this journal could take up a, neutral attitude. But such an attitude is a'weak one. On all vital ' social questions, the "Maoriland Worker" will take up a positive attitude and never seek refuge in neutrality. The workers have a direct concern and interest iu this question, and are entitled to vote as their consciences direct. This journal also is entitled to the expression of an opinion, which, in this case, is the opinion of the editor, given for what it is worth, but given also as an honest expression of a, ■ thoughtful Labour man seeking to do' what is right for the Cause of Labour.The liquor trade is a social evil; it is private enterprise in oue of its worst forms. We aro not fanatical on this question; we approach it with an open, unbiassed mind, having tho welfare of tho peoplo in view: Even were prohibition a proved evil, we would regard it as the lesser of two evils, if the open bar were the other. Hence our voice ■ and our vote go against the Trade. AVo make no apology for declaring against a trade which stands in the way of social reform. We do not regard Drink as the one social evil, or even as the worst; we take the average Socialist view that drinking habits and drunkenness' are caused very largely by poverty and a bad environment. But the Trade does not help to banish poverty or improve the environment. Hence id stands in the way of social reform, and we toncedo to the prohibitionist honestly seeking to promote his cause the' right, to be regarded as a social reformer . ■ It is needless to expatiate on the ovils of drink. These are known to all thinking men and women. Drink is an enemy of tho workerone of tho nngencies which rob him >of his hard-earned wages and deprive him of ability to think and to realise his true place in the' social scheme of things. A sober people is better than a peoplo given to tho drink habit. The drinker is not a good citizen; he becomes selfish and self-centred, and not fit to exercise his social duties. He may talk of his' right to drink, but he'has no right to get drunk. At'the present time he has freedom to get drunk—subject, of course, to certain penalties. That kind of individual freedom is totally opposed to the social freedom that Labour stands for. Prohibition can be secured only by a majority vote. If a major- ' ity vote for it and drink is banished from these islands, all the true friends of-labour will rejoice. Doubtless the drink- evil is fostered by vile social and economic conditions, but it helps iu no way to improve these conditions. Un tho contrary, it renders (hem worse. Alcohol taken, in excess is an insidious poison. It has Us uses, im doubt, medicinally, and even in moderation as a social beverage, but the stem fact remains (hat numberless human beings aro slaves to .it; The workers are'slaves to capitalism and landlordism—but liquor is a taskmaster worse in many respects to the poor victim who falls under its sway. The question cannot be regarded purely from an individual standpoint; man is his brother's keeper, and the man who . can drink and refrain from drink cannot shirk his social responsibility. Ho must take a stand for or against the traffic which piles up fortunes for a few on the degradation of the many. The liberty of the subject must bo limited by the social wellbeing of tho community. In the natural order of social progress, Labour may have looked to Slate Control as a remedy which would have eliminated the worst evils of the drink habit and provided a half-way house to prohibition by weaning the people of Hie habit gradually. Owing, howover, to the zeal of our prohibition friends, the question has reached a stage of development when ono answer nlono can bo given by tho friends of Labour—and that is a straight-out vote against the Trade. The open bar is an open menace to soeioty. It ruins thousands. It deprives many promising young men of their self-control; it paves the way to immorality, a careless way of living, and ultimate ruin, It is a deadly foe of home life; it nils tho hospitals and tho lunatic asylums. Drink is bad for health of mind and body; constantly in- . dulged.in it makes a man a weak, irational creature, lacking judgment, a clear brain, a strong will, and moral fibre. These nro facts so well authenticated that they are vndeniablo. It is not a private habit that prohibition seeks to abolish; but'a social habit having wido and far-reaching effects, not merely on llioso who are the direct victims of the open bar, but on tho whole of society. Man cannot live ualo himself nlono; he is a social being, with rights and duties and responsibilities, Tho liquor traffic makes fur poverty, for disease, for insanity, for premature death. All these aro r.nti-social evils, and as such Labour must fight against (hem.., The liquor (radio is. the bulwark of property and privileges, hence is no friend of Labour. Against the publican we have nothing to say; he himself is a victim of circumstances and would benefit by being deprived of a trade which cannot but mako for social misery and suffering. To vote out tho traffic is the clear duty of all who havo tho best interests of Labour at heart, anil we. call upon Labour men and women to do their duly on April 10 by slrikiug out tho top lino and giving a death-blow to one of die worst forms of production for profit,