PROHIBITION ADDRESS.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 62, 13 March 1919, Page 7

PROHIBITION ADDRESS.

(Published by Arrangement-)

» ANOTHER CANADIAN ADVOCATE. MR. W. D. BAYLEY, OF WINNIPEG. A large audience gathered in tho Town Hall last night to hear an address by Mr. W. D. Bayley, 8.A., vice-chair-man of the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Labour party, and a prominent advocate of prohibition in Canada. Hon. George Fowlds presided, and in introducing the speaker apologised for the absence of Prof. J. A. Nicholls, of Boston, and Mr. Roberts, of Montreal, who w-ould have addressed the meeting had they not been detained aboard ship in quarantine. Mr. 'B.iyley. at the outset, referred to his journey North from Invercargill in the past week. All the way, he said, there was only one story, that New Zealand was ''going over the top"' four weeks hence against that great foe of humanity, the liquor traffic. New Zealand hud led the way in the introduction of woman suffrage and State enterprise. It hnd been whispered to him that New Zealand had lagged behind in liquor reform, but this -was hardly correct. In Canada seven out of nine provinces had "jrone dry." The other two had only to take a vote on the question, but their decision was assured. On July I next the whole United States would go dry for the ]>eriod of demobilisation. nnd on January 1 next the inportation, manufacture, and sale i>f alcoholic liquor would be prohibited over the whole of Incle Sam's dominions. (Applause.) He felt sure that New Zealand would get ahead of Uncle Sam in this matter, by striking out the top line ;!t the April poll. (Applause.) The principle of prohibition, lie went on, was exemplified to him that day. when at closing time for the shops he was not allowed to buy a clean collar because it would prejudice tho rights o s . the shop employees, who had to pet off ;>t the proper time. He wished, continued Mr. Bayley. to champion the cause of those women of New Zealand who had suffered in many ways through the operations of '.he 'liquor traffic. He wished to demonstrate some important facts relating to the effects of alcohol on the mental ability and physical health of children. An examination of over 1,.'J00 children in an American city had shown that of children of drinking parent* 23 per cent, were above the average in intelligence, as compared with !H> p?r cent, in the case of children of abstainers. The percentages of children suffering from some constitutional disease or organic defect were 76 and 1.3 in the two classes respectively. People in New Zealand were speaking in defence of the "natural right" of man to a glass of beer. Tie stood for the natural right of women and children. Food, water, air. and many other things were natural rights of humanity, but there was no "natural right - ' to alcohol. Nature had many ways of dealing with the intrusion of foreign or harmful matter into tlie body, ami expelling it. If anyone doubted how the lungs dealt with the alcohol a man swallowed, let him smell the man's breath. \ Laughter.) CANADIAN* TESTIMONY. ■He came, proceeded Mr. Bayley, as an ambassador, and his personal character was hardly in issue. However, every effort had b;>e:i made by his opponents in Canada, but the only charge they had been able to sheet home against him was that he was an advocate of prohibition. He had with him a large portfolio containing a great collection of messages sent to him for transmission to the people of New Zealand. These messages axe from leading men of all sort.s in Canada testified to the great efScacv of prohibition throughout the great Dominion. He proevded to summarise a few of them, beginning with the LieutennntGovornor of his own province, aud going on to mayor?, chiefs of police, educationists, social workers, all of whom testified to benefits in their special and particular spheres.

At this stage Mr. Bayley introduced! the stuffed hawk mentioned in the announcements of his address. The linwk. Vie explained, was a native of his | province, hut was not alive any longer, l)ocause a farmer had shot him for carrying off chickens—the same sum-' raarv treatment that ought to lie given to the liquor traffic. He next drew a parallel from the spots upon the hawk's breast. This, he said, was camouflaged to resemble the bark of a certain sort of Canadian poplar tree. In the, same way the Trade took refuge in various tree 3, which' he would describe. The i tirst was the hotel tree. There ought to j be no connection between serving liquor and providing meals and beds. It was found in Canada that prohibition actually improved the hotels, and did not re-; suit in a rise in tariff. Commercial ; travellers, who were keen critics, said so quite freely. The next tree that the hawk Hew to was the revenue tree. It was said that the Trade contributed £1.000.(100 a year to the revenue of Xei. Zealand. Thin was untrue. For every 5d spent in liquor the State took one penny. The Trade paid nothing—every penny was passed on to the consumer. The drinkers paid, but under prohibition the burden would be spread over the whole population. (Applause.) GOOD FOR THE WORKER. " When prohibition came to our town."' said the speaker, "it was found that all the working men were painting their bouses. Don't you think it better that a man ehould spend motiej on paint for hli house than that lie should spend it on liquor to colour his nose?"' Outside shipyurds at Seattle there were dozens of Ford cars which the workers had been able to buy. It was better that alcohol should be burned up in motor cars than poured down men's throats. The speaker then pursued his bird into the " economy" tree. He traced the various liquor issues proposed recently, and claimed that it was the duty of all loyal prohibitionists to unite at the coming poll on the grounds of eeo.iomy. in order that the reform might be brought in without delay. Every year of continuance, he said, meant £5.000.000 in the pockets of the Trade, and it was economy in the truest sense i,o pay £4,500.000 compensation and end the matter. Dealing with the '• law and order " tree, he combated the argument that a smail army of polioe would be needed to enforce the law. It would be hotter, he said, if the country had as many policemen as it now had people selling liquor. He believed that the people who broke the law at present would be the only people who would break the law under prohibition. If the Government of the day were made to see ] that its political destiny depended on the enforcement of the law, the lanwould be enforced. (Applause.) Before i prohibition, he added. Manitoba had five [gaols, all full to the roof; now they

were all but empty. He had examined the New Zealand crime statistics, and these showed on analysis that tho I charges against the no-license districts I were unfounded. They had nothing ; 'iiinst the medicinal use of alcohol ! under medical advice—though in AmeI rica the profession did not rato it highly. ■ STATE CONTROL OUT. I Another place of refuge for the hawk, i went on Mr. Bayley, was the tree of ; " socialism." The public, he said, were told that by paying £4,500,000 the counI try was lacing " blue ruin," but that it could well pay £10,000,000 \to start State control. He declared that State control had failed in Russia. Sweden, South Carolina, and Saskatchewan, and in the last two had j been superseded by prohibition. State control had succeeded in England just so far as it had restricted the hours of sale and the strength of the liquor. In ; England it was three-fourths prohibition ' and it was reckoned to have reduced drunkenness 75 per cent. Full prohibition would have abolished drunkenness. Tho State had bought out the hotels at Carlisle, but it had been shown that the reduction was no greater there than wliere the hours were merely reduced. Hence there was no additional benefit from State ownership. The trouble with State control was the alcohol in the liquor, and the only way to eliminate that was by a prohibitory law. The Moderate League wanted New Zealand to cover the distance in two jumps—State control, and then, if necessary, prohibition. He hoped the people would do it in one ,jmp. (Applause.) The State should control the means of life—they wanted nothing to do with the means of death. The Slate wanted production for use, not profit, and the liquor traffic was neither use nor profit. (Applause.) Another refuge was the labour tree. It was urged that the drapers of Auckland were behind the movement, and that therefore labour should oppose it. In the epidemic Labour men had joined their political opponents in fighting the common enemy, and what greater common enemy was there than drink? Prohibition was against profiteering. Out of pvnry £100 received by the manufacturers for boots and shoes the workers got £7fl, but of £100 received for liquor the workers got only £37. Distillers on the Pacific Coast were now making useful goods. The Trade did not employ inferior mcn —it did not want fools on both sides of the bar —and there was no real danger that its workers would not get other jobs. The Trade was the meanest form of profiteering. "In the main the Labour movement has its face towards the light," he added, " and we will not stand this thing that degrades and disgraces us, and destroys our manhood." (Applause.) The only policy that Labour could ever succeed in putting over must be a fundamentally right policy, and the greatest minds in the , Labour movement were against liquor. PERSONAL LIBERTY. The last of the trees, said Mr. Bayley, was the " personal liberty " tree. There was no such thing now. he declared, as personal liberty—it hs>d been sacrificed in the interests of social liberty and order. Prohibitions were no infringement of true liberty—without them civilisation would crumble. By voting for prohibition the people would vote for liberty— freedom from the oppression of .the liquor traffic. The moderate drinkers, he was cure, would be the heroes of the coming poll. They had boasted that they could lay down their glass, and if they did so, sacrificing their little pleasures for the common good, they would never regret it. The results I would endure, and the good things bequeathed to their children would be their I reward.

At the close of Mr. Bayley's address representatives of the Returned Soldiers' ! Association were allowed to submit a ■ resolution bearing upon returned soldiers' votes at the coming poll. The spokesman, Mr. S. Thome George, expressed the thanks of the Returned Soldiers' Association to the meeting for giving him an opportunity to ask for I help in securing the right to vote for several hundreds of returned soldiers who had lost that right through the I cancellation of an Order-in-Council only I a few days before the rolls closed. He j was not there as representing any poliI tical interests, but he would ask those I present to help towards bringing pressure in reference to this matter to bear j upon the Acting-Premier, who had said I that nothing could be done. He moved: "That this meeting views with regret and alarm the disenfranohlisement fof several hundred returned soldiers, and demands that the Minister of Defence take action to restore to these men their political riehts." This was seconded by Mr. R. H. Dalhousie, another representative of the Returned Soldiers' Associajtion, and carrier! unanimously amid applause. The chairman promised to fori ward a copy to tlip Minister.

i Tn the course of the evening Mr. Bayley was subjected to a good deal of interruption from the back of the hall, and two men were escorted out by the : police. The meeting, however, was in J general enthusiastic.