UNTRUE STATEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 November 1922, Page 12

UNTRUE STATEMENTS.

THE REV. WYNDHAM HEATHCOTE'S CAMPAIGN. (By William E. Johnson, Former Chief Officer, United States Indian Service.) According to the. Lyttelton Times, (September 28th, 1922), the Rev. Wyndham Heathcote is an ex-Anglican Priest, vicar of All Saints. Penarth. He went to Canada and later io Australia, where he quit the Anglican ChurcJi and became a Unitarian. He was a Unitarian minister in New Zealand for a while last year, returned to Ottawa, Canada, where he was minister of a Unitarian church for six months, whence he returned to become minister of the Unitarian church in Wellington. DRUNKENNESS. Mr. Heathcote in the Christchurch Weekly Press,' dated October sth, stated the arrests for drunkenness in New York to be for the year 1921, 271.75 b. The Police Department of the City of New York, in a letter signed by Mr. D. (.’, S. Young Secretary to the Police Commissioner, and dated March 30th, 19-22, gives the arrests for drunkenness

as 8,169. LAWS THAT DON’T EXIST. In his address reported in the New Zealand Times (September 18), Mr. Heathcote is quoted as saying regarding the promoters of prohibition in America, (which includes President Harding) : •'These same people arc behind the Blue Laws which are already carried in some States. By these it is made illegal to cook a hot dinner on Sunday.. It is illegal to ride in a car on Sunday, except to go to Church. It, is illegal to dance, or walk arm in arm with a girl on the streets. It is illegal to smoke at any time.” The above statement is an absolute fabrication. No State has adopted or carried any such legislation. A “CONVENTION” THAT WAS NEVER HELD. In the same address. Rev. Heathcote also said: “The bootleggers have held their first international convention. It was held in a. large hotel in Winnipeg. There were present over 100 delegates from •Canada and the States. The convention lasted three days, and the delegates spoke in the most, optimistic terms as to the prospect's of the new industry. To ascertain the facts, I sent the following inquiry to the mayor of Winnipeg:— Cablegram: ■Wellington. Sept. 23rd, 1922. ‘•Mayor. Winnipeg,’’ “Reported hero recent international convention 100 bootleggers assembled Winnipeg. Delegates from Canada and States. Is this true ami when held?” Johnson. Caro ‘Temperance,’ Wellington. To this inquiry, i received the following reply," dated September 27th:— Cablegram: Johnson, Caro ‘Temperance,’ Wellington, ton. , r ,» “No such occurrence took place. ■ Fowler, Mayor. OHIO’S ILLICIT DISTILLERIES. Mr. Heathcote has been telling quite promiscuously that the prohibition Commissioner of Ohio has oflicifili." reported that there are 50.000 illicit disLiilerieri in that State. On September | 23rd; 1922. I sent the following inquiry:— Cablegram Prohibition Commissioner, Columbus, I Ohio. “You quoted here officiallv report- j ing 50,000 illicit stills exist Ohio. Please cable facts.” Johnson, Care ‘Temperance.’ Wellington. To this inquiry, I received the following reply September 27th: — Cablegram: “Fifty thousand stills false report.” ABOUT ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In his address at Wellington, September 17th, Rev Wyndham Heathcote said: — “1 will give another quotation about which there can be no dispute. 1 quote from Lincoln’s Complete Works. vol. 1, page 57. On February 22nd, 1842. Lincoln said that “Prohibition was impo- • ) litic because it is not much in the nature of man to he driven to anything, still less to be driven about that which U exclusively his own business, and least of all when such driving is- to he submitted to. at the expense of pecuniary interests, or burning appetite.” On September 23rd. J sent the following inquiry.— Cablegram: Librarian. Congressional Library, Washington. “Lincoln’s Complete Works, Volume one, page 57 quoted here against Pro- i hibition. It this authentic?” Johnson, Care ‘Temperence,’ Wellington. To this inquiry. 1 received the following reply on September 23rd: Cablegram: 1 Johnson, Care ‘Temperene?,’ Wellingl on - „ > “Nothing in Lincoln against.” Libcon. The full text of this particular temperance address of Abraham Lincoln s preserved in the public library at Springfield, Illinois, in the files of a . Sangamon count v newspaper published • in 1842, and which gave the address m full. This address made no reference to 5 Prohibition at all Prohibition was not under serious discussion at that -.imc. The nearest approach to that subject m the whole address was the following paragraph toward the close: “Whet.iier <»’• not the world would be > vastlv benefited by a total and fimil banishment from it of all intoxicating drinks, set-ms to me not now an open ? question. Three fourths of mankind 3 confess the affirmative with their { tonsues, and. I believe, all the rest acknowledge it in their hearts. ’ A NOTORIOUS MISSTATEMENT REGARDING LINCOLN. P Here is another paragraph that Bev. f Heathcote has been circulating, claiming that it is an utterance from Abra- - ham Lincoln:— “Prohibition will work great injury to , the cause - of temperance. It is a species of intemperance in itself for it goes' bevoncl the bounds of reason in that, it attempts to control man’s appetite by legislation and in making crimes out of tilings that -are not crimes. A prohibitory law strikes a blow at the vorv principles on which our government was immdwl. I have always been I found laboring to protect the weaker I Classes from 'the stronger and I can

never give my consent to such- a law ae you propose to enact. Until my tongue be silenced in death I will continue to fight for the rights of men.” Rev. Heathcote first quotes a notorious patent medicine manufacturer as his authority for the authenticity of the par,, graph. Then he quotes from the Congressional Record of a period more than forty years after Lincoln’s death. It is true that a whisky congressman did quote this utterance in a debate against prohibition in Congress a few ears ago, but after he found that it was unauthentic he had manhood enough left in him to not repeat the • offence.' This misstatement was\committed ar Atlanta, Georgia, in 1887, by a wet politican by the name of John B. Goodwin, during a local option fight. It was "committed for the purpose of tricking the ignorant negroes into votin® against prohibition, and the trick was succecSsful, but it was immediately exposed by Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, hv RpV- S' atn lones, the great evangelist, by John <l. Nickolay, private secretary and biographer of Lincoln/ and many others. Goodwiq. confessed to the offence and I have an affidavit- from Rev. S. W. Small, former sub editor of the Atlanta. Constitution, and now lecturer for the National Reform Association of Pittsbithj, testifying as to Mr. Goodwin’s confession.

It is this same thing that was used to influence the ignorant voters of Atlanta in I'BB7 that Rev. Heathcote is now trying to work off on the people of New Zealand. HEATHCOTE’S (EPITHETS. In his address at Wellington, September 17th, as reported in the New Zealand Times of the day following, Mr. Heathcote used the following epithets against American and Americans : “Males and Females of creeping foot and weep: ig eye.” “Faddists.” “Sentimentalists.” “Hysterical patients.” “Shameless hypocrisy.” “Indecent.” “No other God than the Almighty dollar.” “Mercenary people." “Talking nonsense.” “Fool idea." “America craze.” “Unutterable drivel.’ 1 “Faddist element.” “Debauches people with moonshine." “Create widespread corruption and lawlessness." “Simply ludicrous.” “Simply an obsession.” “Greatest reactionaries of the period.” “Noisy, faddist America.” “A culture arrogant as .it is ignorant.” ‘‘The hypocrisy is nauseating.’’ “These people juggle with cards.” “Ahsurb and dishonest.” “A screaming farce.” If any preacher in America had used such epithets to characterise the people of England or those of any of her Dominions, his resignation would have been demanded by his people within 24 hours. This is the kind of language that promotes international animosities. Speaking on August the 2nd. at a banquet given in his honour, Mr. Lloyd George said:—“lf a man writes an article in this country to provoke and foment revolution and anarchy you prosecute him. 1 put the man who provokes and foments iilwill between nations in the some category. He is infinitely more dangerous.” ANGLO-SAXON UNITY. At a time when so many good men • are straining every nerve -to promote Anglo-Saxon unity and international jgO(Ml feeling, it is’ unfortunate, to say ' the least, that such language should be : used, especially by one who professes to \ preach religion/ It .is worth while • stating that the Unitarian Church in 1 America is officially on record as advocating the prohibition laws. (Publish .1 by arrangement by the Taranaki Provincial Prohibition Party).