PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 55, 4 March 1908, Page 6

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

subjects to a heavy fine and imprisonment any individual who, whde travelling takes a sip from his own flask, unless he carries a medical certificate enjoining him to do so. Throughout the Southern States the prohibitionist movement is rising like a flood tide. Within a year two, it is predicted, Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Tennessee wiU follow the example of Georgia and Alabama. In Kentucky, where £20,000,000 is invested in the farfamed whisky distilleries, ninety-seven out of 119 cpunties have already gone wholly "dry," while the remainder only four are wholly "wet" In Tennessee legal drinks can be obtained only in the cities of Memphis, Nashville, and Chatanooga; in Mississippi only seven out of seventy-five counties remain "wet." More than half of Virginia is "dry," and a similar condition exists in theother Southern States. Wliat has imported so vast an impulse to the anti-liquor movement is the conviction that alcohol is the main cause of those negro crimes which result in lynchings.. Keep intoxicants beyond reach of the black, the whites say, and he will not be tempted to risk a lynching. But can prohibition prohibit. The experience of Maine, where it has been law since 1851, suggests that it cannot. Dr. Alison tells mc that in Maine, as elsewhere, prohibition has been enforced as thoroughly as the licensing laws have ever been. But the testimony of imj partial witnesses is that Maine, in consc- ■ quence of the liquor laws, is a hot-bed of hypocrisy and political corruption. EVADING THE LAW. By rich and poor alike the laws are evaded. To supply the needs of the rich a host of so-called Express Companies, j which are nothing more nor less than liquor retailers, have sprung into exis- i fence. Anyone desirous of purchasing beer or whisky has merely to go to one of these numerous companies. He politely inquires, "Have you a consignment from ! Boston for mc?" "What name, sir?" j 1 "Brown." Instantly the dexterous clerk | will write out a freight card in that name, paste it hastily on a box of beer j !or a keg of whisky, as the case may be, | and announce, "Yes, sir; your consignment has arrived. Where shall we send I *r The address is giveu, the man obtains his liquor, and the letter of the law is observed; for, be it noted, anyone, by j virtue of the Inter-State Commerce Act, j may order whatever he needs from another State. In every town in Maine the ! express companies do a roaring business. Nor is it difficult to obtain a casual j drink in Maine, where every city and vil- j lage is furnished with druggists' shops ad ; lib. Kitchen "dives," "speakeasys," and "pocket peddlers" swarm everywhere. As they are carrying on an illicit trade, it may readily be imagined that the liquor they serve is vile and most injurious to health. Here is the formula furnished mc by an experienced traveller for the manufacture of one obnoxious kind of Whisky as used in Maine: 2oz of glycerine 20 drops of arranthalite ether j 1 teaspoonful capsicum tincture j Half teaspoonful vanilla I 2 quarts alcohoL i 2 quarts water. i

ME. CHABI.ES W. FAIRBANKS, Vice-President of the U.S.—the innocent victim of the famous "codfctail luncheon." "In twenty years," prophetically observed the Rev. Dr. Alexander Alison, secretary of the National Temperance Society, "there -will not be a saloon left in the United States. Already 33,000,000 Americans—nearly half the nation—are living under the operation of laws -which apply to the sale of alcohol the restrictions that are everywhere enforced in regard to poisons. "The Prohibitionist movement, in fact, is s veeping tl.e country like a prairie fire, destroying its beerhouses, its breweries and distilleries." As Dr. Alison spoke of the evolution of the anti-liquor sentiment in America 1 could not help recalling an amusing yet highly suggestive incident illustrative of its power. A few months ago Mr. Charles W. Fairbanks, Vice-President of the Republic, gave a luncheon to Mr. Roosevelt in Indianapolis. Mr. Fairbanks is ''almost" a total abstainer. When, therefore, the news was noised abroad that at that luncheon both ladies and gentlemen had sipped the inskluous cocktail, a feeling o£ indignant horror overcame the "tem2>erance"' half of the nation. The Church denomination of which Mr. Fairbauks is one o£ the most notable members refused to renominate him as its delegate to the general conference, and a movement was immediately started to defeat his nomination for the Presidency of the Republic. Mr. Fairbanks, it should be addea, was not guilty of ordering the offending cocktails; his caterer had served them in the ordinary course. But the incident discloses the secret of the immense power wielded by the temperance party. There are now only eight Statee and Territories in all the Republic—Montana, Idaho, Wyoming. Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico—where saloons are licensed with virtually no restrictions ; and in four of them the AntiSaloon League is engaged in active propaganda. In all the other States of the Union save six where prohibition pare and simple is- enforced, local option prevails. The Prohibitionist States are Maine, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama, In Georgia, under the law -which came into operation on New Year's Day, wine is banished even from communion services. The selling of liquor in clubs is illegal, and it is a crime for one member to ask another to join him in a drink from a bottle which is his own property. But it is to Texas, the home of the cowboy, that belongs the honour of having framed the most absolute restriction on the drinking habit. Texas is not yet a Prohibition State, but more than half its immense territory s "dry," through local option. FINED FOR A "SEP." Not only does it prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquors cm railway trains, it

AN AMAZING RECORD. 7- CAN PRa_t_B_TION PKOHTBIT ?-.____ n___ICIT TRADE OP THE «S_rEA______lS_rS,'»-HOW THE "POCKET PEDDEER" WORKS. _____ (Prom the London "Daily Mail.")

10 per cent plug tobacco grated and boiled in water half an hour or longer, and strained through a cheese cloth. Prune juice and burnt sugar for colouring To the whole add a teaspoonful of olive oil broken with two drops of sulphuric acid to give the whisky a bead. This obnoxious compound is sold not only in kitchen "dives," but in drug shops; it is colloquially known as squirrel whisky, because, as my informant observes, it "makes you talk nutty and climb trees." It is served usually in beeftea cups by the druggists, and is responsible for an appalling amount of drunkenness. What is a "speakeasy" or "kitchen dive"? the unrnitiated reader may here ask. Its genesis is usually as follows: — A factory hand invites two or three of his fellow-workmen to his home for the week-end, telling them he has a keg of I beer. They agree to bear their Uiare of the expense. Next Sunday two kegs ar.3 at hand, and the party is joined by several others. The beer is sold at threepence per glass, and whee the Monday arrives the original purchaser finds UiuT ne has made more money in a few days than he could earn in a month of steady work. The following week customers are so very numerous that the wife is obliged to serve, and the children are introduced to the obscenities of the kitchen bar. Soon the whisky botttle is added to the beer kegs. Then the sheriff raids the place, the man is fined £20, but cannot pay. Bail is furnished by a lawyer shark, who secures a reduction of the fine. Thenceforward tho kitchen bar proprietor pays for police "protection," and his business proceeds smoothly, while his children solicit customers in the streets. "HIDES" AND "POCKET PEDDLERS." Another kind of bar is run by pocket peddlers. You enter a villainous-looking I place and discover a counter decorated I with serried rows of Moxie ginger ale bottles. You ask for a drink, the man behind the counter looks you over, and, if Tae inspection is satisfactory, beckons to I a companion standing with his back to the walL This individual draws a bottle from his pocket. i Such pocket peddlers infest the streets; : they may be seen i'J grocery shops and undertaking estabTisnnients. In many I "speakeasys" elaborate precautions are adopted against detection. These are known as "hides." The liquor is concealed, for instance, in the side walls of huge ice chests, which 1 should be filled with charcoal or other non-conducting substances. In Portland not lon'j ago what looked to be a paperhanger's shop was found to he filled with j kr-gs Of whisky disguised as roils of paper. A common trick is for railway porters jto order a box of beer to be sent in a 1 fictitious name from an outside State to their station. No one claims the box, which is stowed away in the cloak-room. A thirsty member of the public inquires of the porter where he can get a glass of ice water. The porteT points to the cloak-room. The man enters, helps himself to a bottle of beer, and tips the porter the price of his drink when he leaves. : . • ~. But apart from these illicit meane of satisfying the desire for alcohol, there are iffumerable clubs. The poor man's club is located usnally in a loft. There working men do- congregate, drink and gamble. Statistics show that there is an appalling amount of drunkenness in Maine, and eminent politicians are coming to admit that prohibition as it there obtains is a farce. W. F. BULLOCK.