PROHIBITION BILL.

White Ribbon, Volume 23, Issue 271, 18 January 1918, Page 7

PROHIBITION BILL.

HON. W. H. 11 KARST INTRODUCES IT INTO ONTARIO’S PARLIAMENT. “The soil of France and Flanders is red to-day with the blood of Canada’s best and bravest. The flower of our young manhood is marching out daily in thousands. How long can this fair young province stand the strain? Before our 500.000 n.en from Canada that we have promised have been secured at the present ratio of recruiting, Ontario will he depleted of the very pick and best of her citizenship, and it will take us generations to make good in man-power what this war is costing us. In the name of High Heaven, then, what is the duty of this House and this country ? Surely it is to bend every energy, to use every effort, to enact every law that we may believe will bring to and end, and that as soon as possible, the terrible war tragedy now being enacted. Is this a time to talk of personal liberty, to think of our pleasures, our appetites, our enjoyments, when the civilisation of the world is hanging in tb~ balance, and the very foundations of liberty are tottering and dependent upon the strength of Great Britain and her Allies in the field and on the high seas?

“In this day of national peril, in this day when the future of the British Empire, the freedom of the world, and the blessings of democratic government hang in the balance, if I should fail to listen to what 1 believe to be the call of duty if I should neglect to take every action that in my judgmnt will help to conserve the financial strength and power and manhood of this province for the great struggle in which we are engaged, I would he a traitor to my country, a traitor to my own conscience, and unworthy of the brave sons of Canada that are fighting, bleeding, and dying for freedom and for us.”