“THE TRADE" ON EARLY CLOSING.

White Ribbon, Volume 22, Issue 254, 18 August 1916, Page 15

“THE TRADE" ON EARLY CLOSING.

The licensed victuallers are once again victims of publ c apathy. The fanatics, the oneeyed, the goggle-minded, and the long-whiskered “kill-joys” of the ‘ State fell over one another in their anxiety to vote six o’clock. - “The Hotelkeeper.” “Women, unfortunately, have got a vote. —“W ine and Spirit News.” What is to become of the homeless brigade if they are turned out of the hotels of Victoria at 6 o’cloc k eac h evening ?- “The I lotelkeeper." The liciuor trade may well call itself “The Trade,” for surely no other trade is like* it. When any other trade has to go out of business for the good of the people, it gracefully “bows to the inevitable.” When a very large carrying firm had to retire from business owing to the opening of a railway line, they sent a dignified circular to their patrons saying that owing to railway competition, they were recir ng from business, and thanked patrons for past favours. They had much money invested in plant and stork, but it was better for the public to have the railway, and thev recognised this, and promptly retired. Hut the* liquor trade has been proved to the hilt to be .1 nat onal de stroyer, and when for the very salvation of the State* its hours arc- restricted, or even threatened with restriction, it howls and shrieks in the most undignified manner because its dollars are in d inger. We can only remember two instances at all worthy to b* compared with its laments: the makers of images of the great goddess Diana crying out against Paul and Silas because “our craft is in danger,” and the wreckers shrieking out against the erection of a lighthouse because “it will deprive honest people of a living.”