ANOTHER VIEW OF PROHIBITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2358, 22 November 1921, Page 4

ANOTHER VIEW OF PROHIBITION.

The argument that prohibition has been foisted on to the American, people by “a well-organised minority” is challenged by an American correspondent of the London Spectotor. • He says that not only did the American people accept prohibition, but before national prohibition came into operation 36 States of the 48 had already, through their legislatures or by popular vote, chosen prohibition for themselves. So, to be sure, 36 “dry” States foisted prohibition on 12 “wet” States. But out of the 12, 9 of them through their legislatures ratified the eighteenth amendment. “I chance to live in one of the three States which did not ratify the amendment.. Our largest city is about the size of Edinburgh. I am frequently there —usually on Saturday nights—and with all the opposition of a vast foreign population I have not seen as much drunkenness in two years as I saw in any one night visiting certain cities of Great Britain only one-third as large. Home brewing there is, to be sure, but its effects make it a negligible factor in comparison to the old system of license. Law enforcement in States which did not choose prohibition for themselves will be a difficult problem at first, but the traffic is outlawed and the trade no longer has a standing. It is onl>v then, a question of time until the will of 36 States must prevail in the entire 48. One thing is ever to be remembered —that the opposition is from the ‘wet’ States; and, unfortunately, all the news I saw in Great Britain on this matter came from a few of these, not from the great mass of the nation which represents the real will of the people.”