ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS TRIUMPHANT.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 33, 20 October 1911, Page 9

ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS TRIUMPHANT.

MAINE EIVSANGIPAV&tr.

PHomemoN routed.

TT was & fight against tyranny and coercion, and the lovers of ftieedom won a great victory- Maine, writhing under the domination aaiid the abominations of Pr'ohi'bitioai for fifty-one years, has at last thrown off the shackles of enforced temperanoej so-called, and possessed 'herself again of the privileges of freedom. She was the first of the original thirteen States who went in for Prohibition; and - no-license, and is now the last to renounce Prohibition arid no-license as a sham, a delusion, and a snare. : Maine became no-license in 1858. lii 1884 she re-affirmed Prohibition and no-license by a majority of 46,972 votes. Now, in this year, 1911, Maine has overthrown no-license and Prohibition by certainly a narrow majority, but a gain o'i nearly 47.000 votes in that time is probabJy the severest criticism of no-license and Prohibition that has yet been offered to the civilised world. Maine has been held Up as a noble evarnple by the prohibitionists, but her people have proclaimed to the world"-that the evils and; iniquities that groAv. up under' Prohibition and no-license are: infinitely woi;se than anything that the licensing sj.stcm ever developed. As the Rev. Gibson Smith says: "No-lic-erfee will not furnish, a permanent settlemeni of the Liquor Problem." —(Vide "Dominion" October 6, 1911.) ; •.■.''• The people of Maine found this out by experience, and have revolted against the domination of the prohibitionist and t'he sly-grog seller, and so made a return to licensing and a clean trading pofesiJjlcv ■■. This the Rev.- J. Bawson, and his Deliahce friends, proclaim a prohibition victoiy. They deceive themselves, and proclaim an untruth. All friends of temperance, which is not- no-license— nwxl oration, not prohibition.^—-will rejoice that: Maine lias retvvraed to sanity, for under prohibition the State of Maine, iii point of morals and religion, was fast becoming a disgrace to the American Roptiblie. Re,?i>eet.'for Jaw"and religioii had fallen to so--low. "an-'e,bb that the condition of Maine was utterly appalling to all seriptls-minded people, and it was all attributed to , th'e uneonirol.k'd illicit ■trafficking in liquor that wont on ; and ■ if-our:'prohibition friends, of New Zealand had been in Maine, so groat its their infatuation for the cause of Prohibition and no-lk-ejise thai-thoy would have been found fighting'hand in glove with, the; gly-g-rog seller for the coetinuaji.oe of a state of affairs tliat 'allowed the worst of evils to grow up under the protection of Prohibition. Maine has proved to the world, after ■ fifty years' experience, that.J'rohibition" is a failure. That it broed-s evils and abominations unspeakable and .abhor-; rent to all s'elf-reep-eeting citizens. Why, tlien.; .should the. people of this country—sober, respectable and cleanliving, as th«.-y arc —be compelled to accept a species of alleged reform- that is no reform at all —a si>ecie-s of alleged betterment that is only a policy jof ■ negation, productive of enormities and iniquities- Vmsur-pr.fcw/d? Prohibi- ■ tion -and no-license may. k.a nice sentimental thing to make fine, flowery speeches about, but. the rr-al thing, as Maine has experienced to her soorow, is no degrading and demoralising in the extreme tliat she will , .have no more of it. The absence-of lieensi)ig or control in Maine attracted the lowest characters to the Stale, and.these men, who pandered to the worst pli-asee of lmm-an nature./ together with the- infatuated clerical prohibitionists, were the most strenuous opponente of the repeal of the prohibit cry movement. The lesson. of Maine is -one that is easily read: If you woukl avoid the. evils that follow the eornmg of no-li-cense and Prohib.ition you you will say: "Better the methods we have than adopt something worse/ , and fto vote far continuance By striking the lines on balloUpapers on cektioit dtay.*'