PUSSYFOOT IN IRELAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 May 1920, Page 4

PUSSYFOOT IN IRELAND.

PRIESTS OPPOSED. -

TEETOTAL SINN' FEIN

CORK, March 10

It is now just one year since the American Prohibitionists sot to work in the British Isles. For live months of this period Mr Pussyfoot Johnson worked away from the light of the (lay: sTnce last summer ho has been compelled to face the footlights. What effects, if any) has liis presence here had upon the liquor question? He has certainly “created an issue.” Or, rather someone else has done for him. and possibly a little ahead of schedule The redoubtable Pussyfoot is at present in‘Africa and all seems quiet, yet it is but the lull before the storm. In the next six months, in point of fact we are to be invaded ; by cohorts of American reformers. . The cranks are coining! The cranks are coming! . . . and it is not improbable that by Christmas the Pussyfoot movement will have attained its maximum development;. . Many dozen American Prohibitionists are coming over, both men and women, including nearly all the loaders and some will even be with us twice during Hie year—in April and September. SCOTLAND FIRST. Scotland is to be the scene of attack, because the Churches have promised to support the Prohibitionists—a vitally .important matters because the right of any given community to vote away all liquor from its confines to be pronounced upon by the Scottish electorate.

Wliat is the mind of the United Kingdom on the liquor question. It is apathy or interest ? Moderate or extreme ? ‘Here in. Ireland where I have gone first on a. tour of the British Isles, tliere can he no doubt about the frame of the inhabitants. Outside of the Scottish and Protestants of Ulster, where Pussyfoot is finding some support, Irish men and women consider Prohibition about ns likely an eventuality in their midst as the .spectacle of Carson and de Valera walking arm in arm down Graftonstreet.

Tlie Irish swear by two staple beverages, stout and whisky,—indulgence in the former they call “eating and drinking”—and their attitude towards life being essentially one of good c heer and gossip afid convivality—beneath a draib enough surface, the climate here beine; so often grey and cheerless—the possibility of any Prohibition, legislation bding i>resscd in Sinn Fein and Nationalist Ireland is considered finally and absolutely unthinkable. PRIESTS’ LJiiAjfjLM.' BONFIRES. Tho-cinef anti-prohibition force is the Roman Catholic Church. Whiie encouraging temperance and even abstinence—and large numbers' of Irish hatheads are to-day keeipng to the strictest teetotal pledge —the priesthood will have nothing to do vvitn Pussyfoot propaganda ( or organised and law enforced virtue. They light their fires with his leaflets and take a good drink themselves in the oboef-less surroundings. Ail priests are receiving Prohibition literature each week direct from America, principally tlie American Issue, the oiheial Pussyfoot organ printed near Coiumbus, Ohio. Many of the younger priests are im-/ monsoiy amused by all the “lioozo” and “Demon Hum” pictures and statistics. They tell me their pulpits will never under any consideration be lent to Prohibition speakers. There is enough potoeu made secretly as it is, they say, without passing a law that would virtually set up a private still in every Irish home.-, Economically Ireland could not hope to sever herself from the liquor trade even If she so desired. Stout and whisky making is one of tlie leading if not the leading industry. In Guinness’s at Dublin alone 4,000 people are employed. Most of the influential people in the country arc interested in tlie trade, and dozens of converts and hundreds of the clergy hold brewery shares. In a sentence, to instal water in Ireland in place of stout and whisky would be to play about with tlie jugular vein of the country. TEETOTAL SINN FEIN.

On the other hand, no visitor to troubled Erin will say that there is not room for improvement. There is great poverty in Ireland, and control of the liquor trade tends to eliminate much distress is the meaner sphere of life. Public-houses arc open twelve hours a day, beginning at 9.30 a.m. and that abomination, the tied house, or the house kept by a brewer or distiller and compelled to sell only one brew or brand of liquor, still abounds. The public-houses themselves are bet- 1 ter than in England, especially in the country districts, where it is customary to drink stout while “yarning” around the lire. I have not seen more than half a dozen drunken people in a week, and figures show that drunkenness has fallen right away from pre-war standards,. largely owing to the influence of the racial ecstasy of Sitin .Fein. The Irish are also favoured in this additional respect—that their liquors are uniformly extremely good in quality, far superior to much of the stuff being profiteered upon in England. On the other hand, there are far too many publichouses about—l counted seven just now in one small alley-way here —and one still sees upon occasions that debasing spectacle, the early-morning queue.

THE WOMEN’S PREFERENCE. The working and rural classes drink largely stout, and the women share the general liking for this beverage. With the men. I would say that drinking is strong here compared with elsewhei-e, hut so are constitutions. A good coun-ter-move against Pussyfoot would be. for the Irish brewing firm to put a good light lager becjr on the market. , A strong deterrent against drunkenness is the continued high price of liquor—eigliteenpence for a glass of stout against twopence five years ago. In conclusion one would say that Pussyfoot stands no real chance hero, and that Ireland is the last part of the United Kingdom likely to go dry. But shorter hours, lighter liquors, and better public houses are probable, in j novations which should do immeasurable | social good. I find the view widely held that a, great chance to bring added hap- , piness to society in general lies with j powerful and far-sighted princes of the, iquor trade such as Lord Iveagh, Lord Dewar and others.