"PUSSYFOOT” ARRIVES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 September 1922, Page 6

"PUSSYFOOT” ARRIVES.

TENDERED CIVIC RECEPTION. ! FACTS ABOUT PROHIBITION. EXPERIENCE OF AMERICA. I Known popularly as “Pussyfoot,” Mr. W. E. Johnson probably enjoys a world-wide reputation as an advocate of the total prohibition of the liquor traffic. To him is attributed no small measure of the success of the efforts of the prohibitionists in America to wipe out the traffic in that country, and his travels since the prohibition enact- i ment came into force have made him known I throughout the British Empire. Big and massive, and clear-cut in his manner of presenting his side of the prohibition story, he strikes one more as a fighter than as an orator, but he nevertheless drives the salient features of his re . marks home. Mr. Johnson arrived from Eltham on i Saturday morning, and in the afternom was tendered a civic reception by the 1 Mayor (Mr. F. E. Wilson), at Kawiroa Park. There was a fair attendance of the i public, and the Salvation Army Band r<*n- , dered selections during the afternoon. In the evening Mr. Johnson addressed a crowded meeting at the Empire Theatre, and later an overflow meeting at the Whiteley Church. He spoke for a little over an hour at each place dnd was listened to patiently throughout, though at the Empire Theatre there were one or two interjectors. THE RECEPTION. The guest was introduced by Mr. C. E. Bellringer, who stated that Mr. Johnson ' had come to New Zealand at the invit iI tion of the New Zealand Alliance, to tell them about America. He then asked the Mayor to extend Mr. Johnson a welcome. His Worship, in the name of the citizens of the town, extended Mr. Johnson a hearty greeting on his first coming to New Plymouth. (Applause.) “We do not often have the privilege,” Mr. Wilson continued, “of welcoming to New Plymouth one whose name is so well known throughout the Eng-lish-speaking world, still less a gentleman from that great country, the United States of America. Both these two qualities are united in you, and it is with the greatest pleasure I extend to you a cordial welcome. Our people only see in you a fighter engaged in a crusade for what you believe to be right, and that appeals to every Britisher. I do not intend to enter into the pros and cons of this question, but I can say that the isuse is one which affects in a most vital way the welfare of our country. (Applause.) It therefore behoves every right-minded citizen to carefully weigh the facts and arguments to come to a right judgment on the question which will be put before them. I know your time is limited, and maybe you will not find the time you desire to learn all about our little country, but I hope you will find time to see what we deem our little excellencies and deal kindly with our little failings, so that when you return tb your own country you will be able to remove some of the prejudice which seems to exist between two sucn great English-speaking nations. I bid you welcome to this corner of the Dominion.” (Applause.) HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS. Mr. Johnson was greeted with continuous applause, and it was some little time before he could commence. He said he appreciated from the bottom of his heart the cordial British welcome he had received. “As a matter of fact, it is the sort of welcome I have received from British people everywhere,” he said. “The name of your beautiful city—Plymouth—is not strange to me. One of my ancestors embarked from Plymouth, England, and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, and now I have come to look at Plymouth, New Zealand. 1 appreciate all the Mayor has said about the cordiality between the Anglo-Saxon races. I have always felt that the destiny of the world is largely in their keeping, and it is up to us to promote good-fellowship between the different elements. We come from the same racial stock. We get our literature, ideals, and the basis of our laws from the same Mother Country, England, which we all love so well; and I tell you that England is just as much to America as she is to New Zealand, and we in America regard her as a mother. There is no prejudice in America about New Zealand; there is some ignorance, but no prjudice. We owe very much to New Zealand, because she leads the world in social legislation, and at different times some of our public men have been over to New Zealand and studied youi progressive laws. One of them wrote a book on New Zealand legislation, and it had a large circulation I in America. “We feel that an idea is not a thing to I be bottled up and laid aside,” continued Mr. Johnson. “An idea, no matter where it originates, should be put to work for the welfare and betterment of the human race. We got our, ideas from different systems —our social legislation from New Zealand; the ballot, from Australia; ideals from England; millinery from Paris; and, when we wanted a religion, we went to Jerusalem. (Laughter.) We in America owe you in New Zealand for some of our

best social legislation, and the mroe you cai give the better it will be for America an< the welfare of the human race.

“I do not come here to give you any advice and to give you instructions, or in any way interfere with your affairs; and whatever you do in regard to this drink business you must do yourselves,” he add ed. Mr. Johnson then spoke of the growth of ihe prohibition movement in America and traced the demand for total prohibition through the various temperance movements. The people in America had adopted prohibition because they were free people, and the movement had spread not because it was a failure, but because it was a success He proceeded to quote figures respecting the number of gaols which had been closed since national prohibition came into force, and the opinion of the Governors of the States, college professors, and social work ers regarding its success. AMERICA’S TROUBLES. i Continuing, the speaker said: “I came . here upon the invitation of your own organisation, and without any expense to that organisation, to state the good and the bad of prohibition in America. I will tell yon i everything,” he con'.inued. “Our laws and | people are not perfect, of course. We have • a very large population, drawn from the slums of Southern Europe, and it is these 'people who are giving us the trouble. There | are a whole lot of people who don’t like ' it, but it is written into the fundamental law of the land, the Federal Constitution,

and it will stay there until the Stars and Stripes come down, and that is not going to happen. Prohibition is not my problem, but yours. I come to tell you about my own country, but I can’t tell you what to do. I have had some wonderful times since I came to New Zealand,” Mr. Johnson concluded. “You have the finest and cleanest Anglo-Saxon population in the whole world. You will lead the Southern Hemisphere in the higher type of civilisation : you are doing it now. Mr. Mayor, I thank you and your friends for the welcome you have extended to me.” (Applause.)

A pleasant half-hour was then spent in presenting local citizens to Mr. Johnson. THE PUBLIC ADDRESS. THE AMERICAN LAWS. HOW PROHIBITION WAS CARRIED. - Long before eight o’clock the Empire Theatre was packed to the doors, and many could not get in. When it was seen that the theatre was full a start was made, those outside making their way to the Whiteley Church for the overflow meeting. The chair was taken by the Mayor, who briefly introduced Mr. Johnson. On rising to speak, Mr. Johnson was greeted with applause. He made his position clear by stating that he had not cbme to advise or argue on the question of prohibition, but to tell them of their struggles and experiences in America. After many years of experimenting with legislation to control the drink traffic, they had at last decided to remove its evils by removing the cause—the traffic itself. There was a good deal of misapprehension outside of America as to what they meant by prohibition. Their laws did not prevent a man from eating or drinking what he liked. He could eat as much bad meat or bad fruit as he liked, but the law prohibited anyone from selling food in such a condition for human consumption. Similarly, in regard to the liquor traffic, a man could drink as much whiskey as he could hold and violate no law, provided the i whisky could be obtained! The laws did f not prohibit the use of alcohol in the arts and industries, and in medicines or fermented wine in the Sacrament; the only thing the law interfered with was the business of making men and women drunk. No useful thing to Which alcohol could be put was interfered with. Mr. Johnson traced the history of the demand for total prohibition in America and the means that were adopted to have the law passed. The State legislators would not trust the people and let them vote on it. so the people changed the legislators, j and before national prohibition came into I being 32 out of the 48 States had gone dry. I Fifty years ago they commenced to experii ment with prohibition, and it was tried in I every conceivable way. The people were i so convinced and so satisfied with the rei suits that they decided to free the whole i nation from the drink traffic. Before they could do that, however, it • was necessary to change the Constitution, which was a very difficult thing to do. The amendment had to go through both Houses of Congress by a two-thirds majority, and then be ratified by three-fourths of the Soverign States. Mr. Johnson said the legislators went to the polls on the licensing issue, and in the Congress, instead of getting a two-thirds majority, SO per cent, of the legislators went “dry,” while in the State elections they secured majorities in 45 out of the 48 States. The amendment had to be dealt with finally within six years of its introduction, but it was ratified within 13 months. EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION. Continuing, Mr. Johnson said that every good thing in America had been promoted, strengthened, and increased in its power by the adoption of the prohibition policy, and every bad thing had been discouraged and lessened for the same reason. One of the first things which happened in America after national prohibition came into force was a decrease in drunkenness, in crime, and all the things which were harmful to the people. Their institutions for the treatment of drunkards, and 20 per cent, of the gaols, had been closed; while he had the authority of Judge Gemmell, of Chicago, for saying that it had been the means of closing up half the gaols of that State. The speaker instanced the building of a new gaol in Alabama, because of the overcrowding of the existing one. The new gaol had been built at a cost of 100,000 dollars, but just as it was completed prohibition had come into force, and since that date not one criminal had entered it. The authorities had become worried about the matter and had finally torn out the concrete and steel cells and had turned the building into a school. (Applause.) He also mentioned the case of a workhouse, whffre men served short sentences, about 7000 going through the place every year, but since prohibition had come into force it had been closed. UNEMPLOYMENT. Regarding the possibility of unemployment because of the abolition of the drink traffic, Mr. Johnson said that, in America, there had been no unemployment following the abolition of the saloons, because other industries had sprung up and the bar tenders had got better jobs. In West Virginia, there was a very large brewery, which had been turned into a packinghouse or freezing works. During the first year of its new existence, it had employed four times as many men as it had employed as a brewery, and was paying better wages and making more for the owners. He had a long list of other breweries with similar results. Some months ago, he continued, he had driven round New York City, looking for a saloon not now in occupation hy some other line of .industry, and he fou..d

every one was occupied. That meant employment for other people. There had never been any unemployment problems America arising out of prohibition. THE DRUG TRAFFIC. Mr. Johnson then gave some interesting figures concerning the deaths from alcoholism and the drug traffic. Quoting from official records, he said that the deaths from alcoholismin New York in the last year of - were 252; in the first year of pro 1 ’ ,- -^ n only 98. In Boston, the figures were 103 and 31, and in Pittsburg 38 and 17, and this decline was also the. case everywhere else. The alcoholic ward at a New York hospital, which used to deal with about 1000 cases annually, was now closed, as were also simliar wards in the city of Brooklyn, in Philadelphia, and in other large cities throughout America. “In the old dark days before we became civilised and adopted the prohibition policy,” the speaker went on, “there had developed a big, strange business in our country, of treating victims of drugs purely as a commercial enterprise. Dr. Neill had 65 such institutions throughout America, and he said he had treated 125,000 victims of

of drugs and drink during the last 12 years of the existence of the institutions. In addition we had 200 Keeley institutes and a long string of others spread throughout the country, all doing good work, though it was done for profit. What has become of them? You don’t see their advertisements in the newspapers any more. All, except about 12 or 14, have closed their doors and gone out of business. (Applause.) In less than three years of prohibition, in spite of our difficulties and troubles and failures, this has been wiped out of American life. They did not close their doors because their business was increasing; they were making a lot of money out of the treatment of victims of the drugs and drink, and they have gone out because it was no longer commercially profitable to run them. The institute at the Keeley headquarters has been leased to the Federal Government for a military hospital. All these institutes have gone out of business in America.”

Continuing, Mr. Johnson advised anyone wishing to know about the results of prohibition in America to write to the Stale Governors, 47 of whom would tell of the benefits which had come to the people because of its adoption. He then read a number of letters bearing out his statement, the reading of which was greeted with applause. Before the Presidential election, Mr. Harding had had a long statement prepared and circulated throughout the country endorsing prohibition. He had gone to the polls on that issue, and the people had voted him in by a majority of almost seven million votes. (Applause.) He was elected by far the largest majority ever given to a President in the history of the country. “I tell you this,” the speaker continued, “that the American people tight now have the power to go bail to the old system if they want to, but they have got something which is a success and they are going to stick to it. Mr. Taft, now Chief Justice of the United States of America, once vetoed a ‘dry’ measure when he was President, but when he saw the benefits of prohibition he came into the ‘dry’ camp, 'body, boots and breeches.’ ”

At the conclusion of his address, Mr. Johnson answered a couple of questions by stating that prohibition in America was a success and that it had been brought about by the people themselves. Mr. Johnson was accorded a vote of thanks for his address, while thanks were also tendered by acclamation to the Mayor for presiding.

ANOTHER PACKED' HOUSE. LAST NIGHT’S ADDRESS. A full house greeted Mr. Johnson at Everybody’s Theatre last night, a steady stream of people flowing into the theatre from seven o’clock onwards, till at eight o’clock all the accommodation was taken up. The Rev. Oscar Blundell presided. Mr. Johnson, who spoke for about an hour, delivered an address on parallel lines to those given at the previous night’s meetings. Discussing the effects of the prohibition of the liquof traffic in America, Mr. Johnspn said much had been said about the violation of the American licensing laws. Of course they were violated to a certain extent, for bad men were not dead, and there were still some in America; but the laws were not violated to the extent the liquor interests said. Prohibition had been carried by all classes of the community, who had effected the patriotic movement for the common good. Welfare associations all over the country had told him of the good effects wrought by prohibition, and from a sheaf of letters Mr. Johnson produced one from the general secretary of the National Editors’ Association—“and it is generally admitted that editors know a thing or two,” said the speaker, parenthetically—in which it was stated that prohibition was working better than was expected. Mr. Johnson concluded: “It is up to the present generation to take one step further, and bring in prohibition, so as to present the world to the next generation a little cleaner than we ourselves received it.” (Applause.)