SOCIALISTS AND PROHIBITION.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 41, 15 December 1911, Page 17

SOCIALISTS AND PROHIBITION.

Sir, — i; Let it rip. We have more important work on hand" is the .ejaculation of a scribe in concluding a contribution to your columns of October 2. entitled •'The ethics of Socialism and Prohibition compared. ,. According to his line of argument, if the liquor traffic is absolutely immoral, then all trades prosecuted with the same motives and in the hands of the same class are on the same footing. This, to m\ mind is ridiculous reasoning, but allowing him to be right, the fact of rooting out one means the removal of one hindrance towards the goal we arc fighting for. Prohibitionists are wielding a wcapor in opposition to capitalism, the full force of -which cannot be estimated. Bah! i; lf the tree is evil, the fruitr nre ■evil.' , is another observation by till is same writer, signifying that the p'.-ils of drink are fruits of capitalism. but surely it is more compatible witr< reason to assume that capitalism, \f not altogether the fruits of the evilr of drink, is nourished immensely thereby, and if this nourishment is diminished the fertility is diminished accordingly. The vicious results of our licensinc; law are too manifest to enumerate here, but if the , cancellation of licenses vrill give the workers clearer mental vision pud more opportunity for thought, prohibition is worth striving for.—l am, etc., Westport. THE FACTOTUM.