MPERANCE COLUMN.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 56, 27 October 1911, Page 4

MPERANCE COLUMN.

(This column is the property oj the Waikato No-License League, and we are in no way responsible for the opinions expressed. — Ed. W.P.J

At no time in the history of this Dominion has there been so much interest shown in the No-license question as there is to-day. From one end of the country to the other, reports tell us that public opinion is being educated on this most important of all questions.

The forthcomingelection will see a record vote cast, and we have no doubt, that in spite of misrepresentation and calumny, that the right will win. The liquor party are working as they have never worked before, to safeguard the interests of the trade, and it is reported that they are spending £250,000 on the light.

But their cause is bad and therefore hopeless. It has no argument to support it; nothing good in it to commend it, and supported as it is by avarice, selfishness and appetite, it must go down, in spite of all the money that is spent to bolster it up.

A very striking document has been circulated during the last few days bearing the signatures of 7 Archbishops and 27 Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church of Canada, denouncing in no unmeasured terms the awful evils of the drink traffic and urging upon all those who are interested in the welfare of the people to do all they can to help to suppress the traffic.

Father Lynch made a great effort to explain away the statement of Archbishop Ireland. He will have his work cut out to deny the authenticity of this document, and will scarcely be able to set himself against the whole of the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Canada. He is doubtless entitled to his opinion, and if he thinks the liquor trade is good and produces good results he is entitled to vote for it.

But as was remarked by the Rev. F. W. Clarke, he is not the only pebble on the beach, and when a council of 7 Archbishops, 2/ Bishops, and other prominent clergy denounce the traffic in such scathing language, it ought to make him consider his position. And, in fact, any man worthy of the name must look into a question like this carefully, and give his vote conscientiously. If the traffic is good and produces good fruit by all means let us support it. But if it is bad, and its results are crime and misery and wretchedness and sin, then there is only one thing to do with it, as the Pastoral letter, says, viz., ‘ that the traffic in intoxicating liquors should be suppressed. And for any man who has any claim to enlightenment and education, ' let alone -any desire to help his fellow men, to support a trade which takes the bread from the orphan, takes the comfort from the home, and brings in untold degradation and woe,_ which does more harm in one week than the church does good in twelve months, how that man can justify his conduct in the sight of God is impossible for us to say. But whether Father Lynch gives us his support or not, we are sure of the support of every man who loves

right rather than wrong, j who cares for men’s souls! more than for men’s money, who regards little children as' a precious heritage to be safely kept from danger and harm, who desires the enlightenment and uplifting of his fellows and not their downfall and degradation, who wants men to go to heaven and not to hell; that man, who wants these things, will strike out the top line on both ballot papers.