An Appeal to Reason

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2500, 31 October 1922, Page 2 (Supplement)

An Appeal to Reason

(By “FAIR PLAY,” Invercargill)

I object to Prohibition, firstly, on personal grounds, and the rest of the time for the reason that it is not, and never will be, a cure for the taking of alcoholic liquor in excess. From the personal point-; —I have Used' liquor for 28 years in moderation svnA have found it to be good and beneficial. , I object strongly to anyone dictating to me as to what I drink, provided I do not go to excess. Should I. do, so, I should expect to be dealt with as any other irresponsible would be, whether the irresponsibility took place ir? connection with liquor or anything- else. „ This is- the foundation or our law. The law allows a person to drive a motor car, hut should he drive it at 40. miles an hour through a crowded street, it would deal with him, and rightly so. I should go further, and take away from him the means of repeating the offence. - _ „ If a man or woman drinks to excess they should be placed where they are tin a bio to -get it, and should not he allowed at large until such time as a mental balance | has beete-gained. To eay that all liquor should be cut off because a percentage of persons take it to excess is reasoning on the same plane as to stop all railway traffic because some people go west through getting in front of a railway engine in full flight. Both the engine and the liquor have a use in the world. Concerning Crime. At this stage the statement made that liquor fills our goals must be combated. It does nothing of the kind. An ex-warder of 10 years’ experience Btated to mo his impression as follows: “I'know that mot 1 per cent, of gaol inmates is there through drink directly. The bulk of them arrive there through sexual cases, then comes theft, burglary,’ assault, and crimes connected with money or property.” To continue: —Through our system of mating for -affinity, and physical fitness being- a secondary consideration, a percentage of issue is- produced which, in life’s battle must, go to the .wall through some crime avenue. When these unfortunate people get into the hands of the law they offer as an excuse for, their failing, drink, and the pjea is taken down by many people who do not know -better. -The offender gets a prohibitionist’s sympathy readily because it suits his cause to absorb it, -anfl ,lie loses no. opof. making pso.of it. In 90 cases out of a hundred, if tlio criminal cquld or wpuld tell the truth, he" would ,say straight out that the trouble was in lps breeding, and though it was possibljy a lack of edu-

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cation and -religious training, he was unable to keep on the right side of tin© crime line. Demand for Liquor. Let us suppose that prohibition were a fact. Would drinking liquor stop? I think nob. What would happen? The demand is there, and would have to bo met in some shape-or form. It would be met for a time from stocks laid in, and when this was finished, the trouble would start. The next stage would he a crop of law-breakers dealing in liquor, good or bad, and numbers would commence home-brewing, graft of ail kinds would Be rampant in connection with the traffic, and wo would have the commencement of the making of otherwise honest and law-abiding citizens into straight-out hypocrites and sneaks. The consumption of bad liquor would .-■have a marked effect on the community. No one has been so hold as to say that good liquor taken as it should be is harmful, so -that there is no argument as to which is the best means of ’ handling it, that of selling, buying, and consuming it under the law’s direction, or doing it behind the law. Additional Temptation. The worst aspect of the question is that, under prohibition, which is impossible in toto, liquor is made or kept in private houses, and this is a temptation, in that these who have not arrived at the age of discretion have direct access to it. An increase in drinking by girls, youths, and women is directly traceable in this prohibition district to this. With regard to excess generally, nature provides a punishment without fail, and in connection with tho liquor traffic it seems to receive tho blame for most kinds of excess. This is putting tho cart before the horse with a vengeance. Prohibitionists should understand that, in attempting to bring the consumption of alcoholic liquor to a dead stop, they are dealing with a commodity that has been in use as far back as the world’s records go, and they have as much chance of doing so as a small boy would have in stopping a tranuj:ar with a toy tricycle. TJo -my mind, the solution of the question is good liquor, proiiev administration, the light of day, and a teaching of the evil of excess, not necessarily as regards liquor alone, but in everything we use. * Let us have at least FAIR, PLAY.