The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1908. PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2263, 7 August 1908, Page 2

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1908. PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Recent cablegrams have furnished information concerning the result of polls on tlio liquor question taken in tile United iSfates and latest exchange.; to hand give some explanation of tile oausri, uhirh hive permitted the prohibitionists to make great lulvanetw in the Southern States. Referring to the winning over of North Carol n i to prohibition a Louisiana journal dated May 29 says:

Another Southern State, North Carolina, has joined the prohibition column. At a general election held on (Tuesday the people, by a majority of over 40,000, voted in f tvor of prohibition and against the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors in North Carolina, after January 1 next.

The vote was a large one, in excess of 175,000, and the result was not unexpected. Of the ninetyeight counties of the State, all but twenty were already prohibition. The Prohibitionists took advantage of their numerical majority to swamp the wot counties. Tlio election shows but little change of sentiment. The wet counties still voted for license, but being in a minority they were overwhelmed by the Prohibitionist majority. One variation from the usual result in the matter of liquor elections was seen in tho fact that all-tlio towns except Wilmington and Durham voted for prohibition. In view of the fict that-'South Carolina is nearly prohibition, this gves an almost unbroken dry territory from Virginia to tho Louisiana line. On the edge of this territory, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas are more than nine-tenths dry. West of the 'Mississippi, Oklahoma is prohibitionist, Texas two-thirds so, Louisiana twofifibs. Taking the ■entire South, from 80 to 90 per cent of its population are now living under prohib’tion, or will be under prohibition by 1909; and the dry territory has almost doubled in tho last two rears.

In Louisiana tho prohibition movement has made less progress than elsewhere in the South; but even in this State the dry territory, lias almost doubled since 1906. Those friends of the liquor interests who are trying to persuade them that prohibition has no chance in Louisiana are, in the light of the experience of this and neighboring States, deceiving them. Gov. Sanders has issued tho timely warning that it is either control and supervision or prohibition. He knows the situation, and the saloons will do woll to hearken to hi 6 warning if they wish to protect Louisiana from tho movement, which has within the last few months swept North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma into the prohibition column.

Anyone acquainted with America will recognise the significance of this movement in the Southern States. It is here that the negroes are located, forming a very large proportion of the entire population, .and an illconducted liquor traffic must inevitably have a prejudicial effect upon the community. From all accounts the brewers and saloon keepers have brought the trade into disrepute by the unscrupulous manner in which they have forced the vilest of adulterated concoctions upon the ignorant negroes, who have been encouraged to spend every sixpence earned on highly injurious stimulants. The result has been to breed the worst kind of disorder and local authorities have no hesitation in laying a big share of the outrages and lynchings which still take an unfortunately prominent part in the social life of the Southern States directly to the charge of the liquor traffic. Under these circumstances a natural revulsion of feeling has been created against the trade which, generally speaking, seems to be in a particularly critical position. The moral deduced from this aspect of North Carolina’s poll is one that- is just as applicable in New Zealand, namely: that those interested in the liquor trade must themselves assist to ensure its decent conduct, otherwise the people will undoubtedly take away the licenses that have been granted.