PROHIBITION COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 19800, 25 February 1928, Page 16

PROHIBITION COLUMN

[Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council] This year is poll year; win a vote for Prohibition. IGNORANCE. “ The greatest obstacle to the coining of National Prohibition is ignorance. Ignorance that alcohol is -actually a poison, that tlie highest medical authorities and scientists agree that alcohol beverages are never necessary and nearly always injurious to healthy life; ignorance of the economic waste, the actual destruction of already created wealth, due to tho liquor traffic; ignorance of the far-reaching influence of decreased efficiency, poverty, disease, and crime, due to the drinking habit. The liquor traffic does its best to keep the voter in ignorance, blindfolded by ancient illusions about alcohol. PREJUDICE. Prejudice is founded on ignorance. The prejudice in favor of alcoholic beverages cannot survive if the light of knowledge is turned upon it. The prejudice against the principle of Prohibition disappears it men and women can be brought to reflect dispassionately on the principles that arc the framework of civilised society. The prejudice against Prohibitionists as “wowsers” and “ kill-joys ” cannot survive the ordeal of personal contact that dcnicnstrates to an opponent that t[ie Prohibitionist is really an individual full of tho joy of life, backed by a col-mon-sense desire to sec the standard of life for all raised. EDUCATION. Education is not a thing of the schools only. Every contact we make with our feliors is teaching us something; every. contact we make affords an opportunity of winning new converts to our groat ideal. Facts there are in plenty; the New Zealand Alliance exists to help all who wish to sew' the facts widespread. This is a poll year. The call goes out for all to concentrate on education that shall banish ignorance and prejudice and bring us the victory. BREWERS OPPOSE SLUM REMOVAL. Under date, December 12, a newspaper despatch reports that “forty objectors,” including C. H. Carfin, chairman of directors of United Breweries, Limited, appeared at a Court of Inquiry to oppose tho Edinburgh Corporation’s slum demolition scheme. Mr Carlin, as principal objector, said that United Breweries, Limited, last year bought a public bouse with six tenements above it within the proposed demolition area, and opposed the improvement on the ground that tho brewery could not afford to lose profits, and that it was not a slum removal project, but a road-widening scheme. Scottish breweries in the past two or three years, bo said, had suffered a 25 to 30 per cent, diminution in trade. Anybody at all familiar with conditions in tlie Old Country knows full well that public houses flourish in the slum districts. The unfortunate inhabitants seek, possibly, a measure of forgetfulness in the public house, their expenditure there keeps them in poverty, and so the vicious circle is completed. We are of the opinion that the callous and cynical regard for profits will not bo allowed to stand in the way of necessary improvements, SEES RROHIBUTON BENEFITS. Sam S. 'Williams, president of the Sam S. Williams Voucher Club, an organisation of friendly interests towards men leaving prison, writes to J. H. Larimore, director of publicity of the World League Against Alcohol, as follows “Since the saloon lias gone out of business there has been no more need for the mission. The mission of to-day is a mere downtown church. I remember of going to M'Call’s Mission, in New York City, and seeing drunkards standing up along . tlie sides of the walls. The first time 1 visited the place after Prohibition there were only twenty-two, including the workers, present. The last time I went there were only eighteen, including the workers and myself. “ I used to conduct six or seven funerals a month for poor, drunken men who had left no 'money for burial expenses. It’s been a long time since I’ve bad a funeral since the new liquor laws were passed.” THE “TRADE” OUTBURST. The National Council of the Licensed Trade enriched the coffers of the principal newspapers by paying for a lengthy wail from Mr Alfred S. Bankart, president of the council, in which, through two columns of matter, an effort was made to hold up the New Zealand Alliance as a most unreasonable and blameworthy organisation. Tho koy to the matter is that, according to Mr Bankart, “ xhe New Zealand Alliance is prepared to subordinate all political questions affecting the welfare and progress of the dominion to the one question of Prohibition.” Our reply is that tlie liquor traffic is not only prepared to, but actually docs, subordinate all political questions, all matters of personal honor—in short, everything—to the interests of tho liquor trade. The traffic is prepared to bribe and debauch anybody,. from the highest to the lowest, in units, in battalions, in order to secure itself and its profits. This beautiful and touching regard for tho welfare of the dominion, coming from such a source, makes us laugh.—Tho ' Vanguard,’ February. A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE. A Wellington business man recently told us the following:—“The other night 1 was going home, and at the corner of Dixon street came upon a small crowd looking down that street. 1 asked what was on, and a young fellow said: ‘Two policemen are alter a drunken woman; she’s drunk, but can run like a hare.’ Then lie added: ‘ It’s a novel experience for me; .1. have never seen a drunken woman before.’ ” Our friend was so astonished that ho looked the young man up and down, noted he was about twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, and said humorously: “And what star have y r ou fallen from that you have never seen drunken man. “No star,” replied the young fellow; “I come from Invercargill.” That authentic incident proclaims a truth about the No-license districts in New Zealand. There are thousands of .young people there who have never seen a drunken woman, and many who have never, or very rarely, seen a drunfcn man. Whilst it is happily true that, except in certain low quarters, drunken women are rarely seen in New Zealand, it is regrettably true that tlie convictions of women for drunkenness have shown a steady growth in recent years. INCREASED REVENUE. It is interesting to note chat for the fiscal year ended June, 1927, the amount or revenue collected by the U.S. Government was £5,936,640 in excess of the revenue collected for tho year 1926. The total collected was £573,136,625. The income tax collection showed an increase of 12.5 per cent., involving a sum of £49,169,680. Those stupendous figures. again conclusively prove that Prohibition does not injure the finances of a community. The. great increase in income tax collection reflects remarkable prosperity of the people, and economic and commercial experts agree that Prohibition has been an important factor in developing prosperity in the U.S.A.