A Prize Essay: “ Because I Have Lived in a Prohibition Country.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2500, 31 October 1922, Page 3 (Supplement)

A Prize Essay: “ Because I Have Lived in a Prohibition Country.”

Prohibition a Menace to the Young

I have lived in a Prohibition country for the past six years, viz., Canada, and have seen much of the havoc and misery caused by this absurd and tyrannical law. The Prohibition forces who are trying to bring this law into New Zealand get up on the platform and merely state the imaginary advantages derived from this law, and quote statistics given them by chiefs of police, governors of prisons, etc., as to the decreasing number of drunkards and criminals. In their enthusiasm they omit to mention the disadvantages which, in my opinion, far outweigh any advantages. Passing through a country under this law, and proclaimed as staunch adherents and advooates of Prohibition, what do they know of the secret drinking and drugtaking that is going on “under the rose?” One has to bve under the law and get into the heart of things before one can have any conception of the numbers who are breaking this law every day, and yet in every other respect are good law-abiding citizens. Making Criminals. The police, the magistrate even, who aits on the bench and imposes fines on the drunkard picked up on the street, with very few exceptions, breaks this law, because it is breaking the law to even take a glass of wine under the Prohibition law. '-Thus it makes criminals of every class of society. True, the majority of these lawbreakers are not caught, and the police will tell you there are not half tbo convictions for drunkenness‘'there used to be; but there is a reason for that: The drinking takes .place in the home or in hotel bedrooms, and if a person gets a little too much to drink it is to tile interests of his friends, or to the hotel people, to see that the police do not get him, and he is either put to bed or taken to his own home in a car, thus eluding the vigilance of the police. A Rich Man’s Law. Another reason why I am opposed to Prohibition is that it ia essentially a rich man’s law.

- It-ia always possible to obtain liquor in a Prohibition country providing you have the price, which, of course, rises in proportion to the demand. I have seen men pay twenty dollars for a bottle of very doubtful whisky. These

A STIRRING APPEAL TO ALL THINKING PEOPLE

By Mrs. M. G. ( Auckland )

prices, of course, are out of the question altogether with the average working man. I have heard well-to-do men in this country state that if Prohibition comes into force here it will not bother them in any way, as they can store away all they will need far two or three years, and it will always be possible to replenish their stock. A Menace to Youth. I have heard women, mothers of growing boys, state that they would vote for Prohibition for the sake of their sons’ futures 1 My answer to them is that their sons are far better protected against drinking under the liquor act as now administered than they will be under a Prohibition law. No youth under twenty-one oan get a drink served to him in a bar now, but under Prohibition there is no agelimit. More Drug-Taking. It is well known that in the United States and Canada the numbers of drug-addicts have increased enormously, although the Prohibitionists strenuously deny this. It is a fact, though, as anyone who has lived for any length of time in these countries oan verify. When Prohibition first came into force in Canada extra police forces and vigilance committees were organgised to see to the enforcement of the Act, their wages being paid out of the rates, which correspondingly increased. The same thing will happen in New Zealand if Prohibition is voted in, and the ratepayers will feel the pinch. These are only a few of my objections to Prohibition. It would take pages to write all of them. I am a married woman and have a daughter growing up, and it would break my heart to see her partaking in some of the drunken orgies that are considered the smart thing in Canada and the United States, and at which young girls and youths are present. I have heard young girls boast of the number of bottles they have “helped to kill” at various parties. We do know now when our children attend dances they will not be drinking, but if Prohibition oorues in, God knows what, or how much they will he drinking. Prohibition is not a blessing to the rising generation, but a menace.