PROHIBITION IN U.S.A.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 May 1922, Page 3

PROHIBITION IN U.S.A.

A NEW ZEALANDER’S OBSERVATIONS. LONDON, Feh. 17. A subject in which Mr A. Hall Skelton took particular interest during his journey through the United States was the administration of the liquor laws, and he feels that his reputation in the Dominion for temperate views should give him the right to place his opinions before the public. This matter, and the liquor question in France and in England, lie will speak upon when he returns to the Dominion. In the meantime, he has given me some of his impressions of the administration of the law in America, making a comparison of the state of affairs in that country with the way in which the question is dealt with in Franco.

“It is quite obvious,” said .Mr Skelton, “that in the United States there is no such tiling as prohibition; it is a great legislative farce. Tho night before I left New York (New Year’s Eve) 103 well-known citizens died of wood-alcoholic poisoning. I saw there more drunkenness among men and women than 1 ever saw in any New Zealand town. You can get drink, particularly at most of the cafes, but of a spurious kind. One of the leading Prohibitionists in New York stated in the papers that he gave up all hope of Prohibition’s being put into effect in New York after the exhibition of New Year’s Eve. The head man connected with the putting into force, of the Prohibition Law was arrested on the serious charge of receiving large sums of money derived from operations in defiance of the law. I was informed that prior to his appointment, lie had been a great Prohibition advocate. Many men throughout the States, who were penniless two years ago, are now millionaires. One mail, in particular, now a multi-millionaire, was arrested, and his wife put up a bond on his behalf of 250,000 dollars. Eighteen months ago ho had not a penny to his credit. OBNOXIOUS SPIRITS. “Boot-legging,” Mr Skelton explained, was the bringing of liquor for salo into the States, and this was carried out on an enormous scale. Strange to say, many of the boot-leggers were advocating Prohibition .for their own purposes. The country was Hooded with imitation spirits, most of which had dangerous results when they were consumed. The Japanese, for instance, j were piercing the bottojns of bottles with an electric medic, withdrawing the contents, and filling the bottle up again with most obnoxious spirits. Home-brewed liquors of all kinds were being made which had very deleterious effects. All that could he said in favour of Prohibition was that whisky lad become dearer, and therefore was to some extent beyond the reach ol the poorer section of the people. Spurious liquors of every imaginable kind had come into general use. Deaths irom wood-alcoholic poisoning were quite frequent, - and the moral fibre of the most educated section of the American people was being degraded because they could get as much spirits as they required, as they had the ready money, whereas their less well-off brethren had either to have less or none owing to their lessor capacity to find the cash. Thieving and robbery in private houses throughout tho States were rampant, and the fact that every person could brew so much beer and wine showed U'at Prohibition did not exist n America.

THE CONTINENTAL SYSTEM. “France,” said Mr Skelton, “lias solved the problem of drunkenness. During the whole three weeks I spent there I never saw one man or woman showing the slightest sign of liquor, and yet every few yards there is the open i.ile. with light brer, wines, and spirits on sale. It is true that wine is tlie main drink of men. women and children, hut liquors and spirits also are generally consumed. In my experience, it is not true that the wine is as light as we in the colonies are led to believe —it hail just as potent an effect upon me as. tlie ordinary beer sold in New Zealand. It is strange to see, as one sits in the French cafes, whole families going in and using the cafe as if it were their own home sitting-room, listening to the music of the orchestras, and sipping their wine. To me it appeared so simple and sociable, i lie Flench maintain that if English people went in for drinking good wines during childhood and upwards, drunkenness would he eliminated. One could not

kelp thinking that if one-half of the monev spent iu the Prohibition campaign' were spent in inaugurating a system such as France possesses the whole question of intemperance would lie at once eliminated from our modern society, and the evils of excess teadrinking would give place to the advantages of light wines and mild beer.

“1 am satisfied that the system in practice in England of keeping the hotels open in the evening is preferable to our New Zealand method of closing at (i p.m. Here most of the people have their evening ineal before drinking at nil. and consequently there arc not the ill-effects that are common in New /calami, where men rush from thcii work and drink heavily on an empty sbomach for three-quarters of an hour.”