PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 263, 24 March 1898, Page 4

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

I.\ 1593 a committee of 50 gentlemen was voluntarily formed in New York for the purpose of investigating the licjuor problem in the United States. The members represent 13 different States, and to judge from those names which are known on this side "of the Atlantic they constitute a body whose deliberations are entitled to a high degree of reipcct for impartiality and ability. The full committee appointed four sub-com-mittees to investigate respectively the phyriolog : cdl, the legislative, the economc, and the ethical asptcts of the question. The present volume is the tarit published result cf their labours. The book deals with t:o highly contentious questions, in which important interests nud very strong feelings are involved, and upon which, therefore, ex jwrtc statements must ba regarded wiih (suspicion. Hie chief merit of this report is its freedom from any such objection. It c u be safely recommended as a careful and unbiassed study of a subject on which authoritative information has long been wanting. Of course, the conditions differ materially in different countries, but the social habits and temper of the people in America resemble our own sufficiently to permit some broail lessons to be drawn from their experience. Tl.e system of local government in the United States has made it possible to try the most varied experiments in l'quor legislation in different parts of tho country. The eight .States dealt with in this volume furnish specimens of absolute prohibition, local veto, local opticn, State dispensing, high licensing, simple taxation, and what not. In short, they offer for our instruction a perfect museum of experiments. From the English point of view, the chief lessons to be drawn from it arc the folly of attempting the forcible suppression ot the traffic and the danger of making liquor legislation a question of party politics.

The one leads to an ill'eit trade worse than the original, to police corruption, bribery, and perjury ; the other to a "full"blown hypocrisy," the degeneration of public life, and the demoralisation of the electorates. Of these truths abundant proof is offered. The worst of all the sj stems appears to be prohibition. It has a particular interest for us, "because it is the avowed object ot the most militant section of the "Temperance" party. In Massachusetts it has been tried aud abandoned ; in lowa, after a fair trial under most favourable conditions it has been virtually given up ; and in Maine it is sti 1 retained, with what results the reader may learn from this book. Maine may be said to have had half-a-ceiitury's experience of prohibition. It is generally represented to have In en successful on the whole, but that pleasing delusion is effectually shattered by Mr Koren's searching and dispassionate examination of the facts. The law is evaded by means of a regular system of biihery. Drinking and drunkenness go on unchecked, and ate accompanied by widespread municipal and political corruption. Local option, which r.vsts in several forms, is more favourably repotted on, but advantage only seems taken of it in small places, and the " no license" vote does not gain ground. In Massachusetts, which had tried prohibition and given it up for licensing, local option was adopted in 1881. During the 13 years from then till 1594 the progress of the "no license" movement only affected 5-tfo per cent, of the population. In the same State the policy of restricting the licenses in a fixed ratio to the population appears to be f..irly well carried out, but there is nothing to show that it has had any effect on sobriety. One of the most successful experiments undoubtedly is the State dispensary system established in South Carolina at the cost (f fatal riots, in which the militia laid down their arms and resigned their commissions. It is a kind of Gothenburg system with the most important part life out, but it has effected a marked improvement on public order and sobriety. In lowa nominally Prohibition is still in force, but evasion is recognised by the State under the " mulct " law, which protects liquor sellers from lea&l proceedings on payment of a tax of 600dol. In other words, one law authorises the state to take a bribe, for winkitig at the evasion of another. For further details those interested in the subject arc referred to the book itself. As a whole, it once more emphasises the impossibility of crushing the liquor traffic. The utm/.st that can be done is to regulate it.—Times.