FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE

Hokitika Guardian, 2 October 1925, Page 4

FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE

THE TRUTH AND NOTHING ELSE. By WALTER .1. A DAMS. (Of the Ilonululu Advertiser; Aei-ivdil-ed Correspondent with the United States Fleet on its recent visit to New Zealand.)

New Zealanders cannot conceive the appallin'! situation that now exists in America where the public is paying huge sums to enforce a prohibition that the same public is flouting on the sly.

The dry element will .-.ay—“When another generation comes tip. when the youths of to-day are matured, then there will lie no demand for liquor."

The dry element will not mention, however, the fact that more young people in U.S.A. are drinking to-day than ever before; that there is more drinking among women than ever bolero; t hat wines and heel's are being set aside in favour of whisky of doul.tlul origin and all the vile concoctions of a thousand illicit .stills.

There is not a city in America where a man cannot get. liquor-—even il he has never been there helore- in whatever quantity he wishes. It’s not gout! liquor, and he pays through the nose for it, hub it is liquor- all the more harmful because nl Rrohibition. Rooze. as Americans call it i> ensile obtainable. It is by the milkman the clothes cleaner or some other agent. If one lives on a "route” a bootlegging agent will call to take one's order and will show samples ol lus newest stocks. Th o hot)llogger is bold about bis work, and justjy so. His patrons ate l ln* •'best- people." the folk who can afford to pay high prices. In the meantime tin* working man. the clerk or shop employee, drinks what he tan get--or make at home. No more heel's, no more wines for him; but in their place “hell-brows distilled by foreigners, and peddled on tin- streets or in odd inters oi the city.

iligh si bool boys carry lla-k.- to school dances- they're not considered gay unless they do—and shocking disclosures ha ve liven made ill I lie (H ess concerning such all'airs and their natural aftermath of siand.nl. snrrie.v, and deceit. I’rohibition is responsible for all i bis evil. Tlie-e tilings are unbelievable in New Zealand, hut only too true m America. In America they are accepted as every-day taels, the fruit of d-|,,,,-iea! efforts to i hange human nature Ij v legislation. New Zealanders should read Anierieaii la-wspatiers, summarise their daily display of new audit crime, vicloiisness. and evil, and then think whet her they'll rntiler he legally purified m naturally orderly. Haws do one or other ol two tkii g- . ,me law in America mis done the other. That is the evidence "f an m Dial • • ev e witness" of conditions under Hroliibition. \\ liy listen to the vague assertions of paid speech-makers V. nett the farts presented by men on the spot proves I’rohibition to be worse than an absolute iailurer 1.