The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18. 1914

White Ribbon, Volume 20, Issue 233, 18 November 1914, Page 9

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Human ity. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18. 1914

Lord Kitchener, when speaking at the Lord Mayor’s banquet, said that the British Empire is to-da> struggling for its very existence. 1 he Empire realises this, and to its remotest dependency is straining every elfort, and making gigantic sacrifices to assist with men and money. And because of this willingness ol every member of a united Kmpire to spend their last penny and give their last drop of blood in defence of the land we love, we have no doubt of the ultimate issue. Not lightly did our leaders enter into this struggle, but when the stern hand of Prussian militarism stretched out to grasp th'“ little State of Belgium, then, because honour demanded that we stand by our treaty obligations to our less powerful neighbour, we entered the conflict in defence of a weaker brother. Terrific is the struggle, fearful the loss of life and destruction of property, yet the Empire, putting its trust in One who bids the strong

help the weak, faces the future with courage, calmness, and a certainly of ultimate victory. Our little Dominion, far from the scene of ac tion, only feels the faint and dying ripples of the mighty waves sweeping over Europe. Vet before this year < loses we shall be engaged in a life and death struggle with .1 deadly and unscrupulous foe. We often wonder do we fully realise the greatness of the issue at stake? Do we realise that the liquor trade threatens our very existence as a nation." Look at the combatants, l or many years the Liquor Trade has vast its deadly shade over this land. It is a foe which spares neither age nor youth, kills the infant at its mother’s breast; makes that mother sacrifice honour, home, children, life itself, to obey liquor’s behest; takes the father and turns him into a raging fiend, at the sound of whose footstep wife and children fly; fills our gaols our hospitals, our asylums, with a never ending stream of patients. Into the arena against this unscrupulous foe enters Prohibition, young, alert, vigorous, determined to rescue the weak and helpless from the dominion of the Liquor Trade. At first sight it seems as if he must win, but his hands are manacled with a heavy chain labelled “three-fifths majority,’’ and he fig lit s at a fearful disadvantage. We appeal to all elec tors to help to strike the fetters from the champion’s hands. Ask every candidate for yout suffrage if he is in favour of striking off these fetters, and refuse to give your vote to any man who will not support fairer conditions for this great battle. If we vote for Prohibition with one hand, and with the other vote for .1 c andidate who supports this handicap, we are rendering our vote useless. The American Government lets every State light the battle Prohibition v. Liquor Trade, and sees that it has fair conditions. Virginia went dry with a majority of 35,000. New Zealand, with a majority of over 55,000, still this accursed traffic hound upon her. Will not the electors use their power at the ballot box and put in men pledged to give us fair conditions ?