Page 11 Advertisements Column 2

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 11

Should Socialism Attack the Drink Traffic P ri.HIS is a question that many _essK_° ers of this paper are asking thens- • selves, and the aimed at is this column is to try and assist them to come to a decision. Obviously, then, some reasons should be -«!•' vahoed as to .why the worker shoujifl show an uncompromising front to iha "Trade. v First, let us quote Philip Snowden on the Drink • Problem. He says: "The obvious evils of thf drink traffic have raised this to the rank of a question of foremost political and social importance. Tlie _©«= i suits of ntir other social evil axo m apparent. Mr. Snowden goes oil t» say i>hat gambling, capitalism, leatA- - lordism, with their attendant "evils,** . do not show as clear a "relation between cause and effect" as does tih* relationship of drink to misery, poverty, crime, lunacy, disease and death. Our daily newspapers are pointing to this obvious relation of cause and effect every day. This evil blocks th« way of our police, our doctors, oar educationalists, our refonm.rs, sua Mr. Snowden finally says: "It io one of the greatest ctirses which caat afflict our country to-day." If all this is true, aaid it is the Voice of Socialism Speaking, the truth, which e_ cry day impressa'* ";. itself more intensely on the min<|, then surely it is time that the rank and file of that great army of n_<es_ which is slowly but surely awakens ing to a true realisation of its plaof . and power hi the world, Joined Forces with the Temperamsa Reformer, and fought this traffic to the bit be* death? Surely.it is high time -tihai. . we came to an understanding in the fight against this common foe? The necessity for this unity of action io made clear by Mr. Snowden, when h® says that the drink evil is "a spec.af social evil—a .first cause of many resultant evils." And the possibility of united action is shown also, for if this evil is "a first cause of many social evils," then it is an evil capable of independent treatment, apart from.' all political parties and partisanship, while as a Trade'it stands.by itself. Surely, then, tlie Socialist should seek. to co-operate with any parst*?; that' will attack *ke "traffic" in th« name of the people? And . For Whom is the Prohibition Parly Fighting the Trade? Answer this one question: Which, side is fighting for. principle, and winch for private gain? The answer' is obr vious. The goal at which w-e'ars. a-ntt-*' ing is the betterment of the country, and the uplifting of the community. ThO goal at which the Trade is aiming is th© aggregation of the community's wealth in the hands of a few. We are out to destroy a primal cause of misery, poverty, inefficiency and inequality, and the only gain/ that can possibly come to us from the realisation of our ideals is our share as units in the gain that will accrue to the community as a wholeIt is therefore up to all worker's to help us. The drink problem is tho' workers' problem; tbe solution ia simple'—join with us in finding that solution at the ballot-box, and Stsike out the Top Line c_j Both Papers, and so vote for tbe total abolition of the Liquor Traffic of New Zealand. _We will deal "next week with' ttfo3> "Trade" as a monopoly. ' ,