THE LIQUOR REFERENDUM.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 69, 21 March 1919, Page 7

THE LIQUOR REFERENDUM.

(Published hy Arranrgement.)

REPLY TO MR. W. D. LYSNAR, MR. JAMES BODDIE'S VIEWS. APPEAL TO FARMER*.

In last night's "Star," and this mornnight's "Herald" I notice a letter from the pen of Mr. Lysnar. Now, as Mr. Lysnar is a farmer, and well-known among farmers, I feel it would be unfair to electors to let his statements go unchallenged.

First. Mr. Lysnar claims "he has given the prohibition question close study"; so have I. For 45 years I have watched every phase of the liquor question and have read or listened to every conceivable argument both for and agamst. As a result of these years of study and investigation, conducted in a tolerant and open-minded manner, J have arrived at the conclusion that in the interests of all sections of the community the report of the National Efficiency Board should certainly be carried into effect.

1. Mr. Lysnar acknowledges "that the evils of drink are bad." but goes ou to cay that no-license is "an ungodly and immoral reform, for it begets worse evils than drunkenness." Why take Mr. Lysnar's opinion or mine? Surely every elector is capable of arriving at his own conclusions when he has the facts fairly presented—here they are.

Even omitting drunkenness altogether, the total arrests in New /'.aland last year were 40.490, which equal. !'" in every 1000 of our population, while the arrests in no-license districts were but 3.286, which equals only li) in every 1.000 of their population. So that our own experience within New Zealand is right in line with that of Canada, that prohibition reduces crime to less than halt. If to save over 24.000 New Zealand homes every year from the disgrace of an arrest is, as Mr. Lysnar says. __ "ungodly reform." then Mr. Lysnar's God must be quite a different being from the One usually believed in. SLUR ON MODERATE DRI3.KERS. 2. Mr. Lysnar suggests here ti.-i if prohibition is carried the drinking minority will defy the law. Surely he is overstepping the mark here, in casting such a slur on our moderate drinkers, thousands of whom have decided to vote for the Efficiency Board's proposal. It must be the moderate drinker he refers to, as he has already counted the drunkards out in his first paragraph by calling them 'degenerates and unprincipled brutes." Next, Mr. Lysnur makes the remarkable statement that -'a law that is disobeyed is wor-e than no law."' According t.-. our police records the law against theft is broken every day, 2,048 breaches being the yearly total, while the law against drunkenness is broken more often, with its 10.795 annual recurrences, than any other law. After calling the drunkard an "unprincipled brute." Mr. Lysnar says that because the law against drunkenness "is disobeyed" it is "worse than no law," and, as the same argument can he applied to all our laws in a lesser degree, bis suggestion is that to do away with a law all that is neces--.ary is for a section of the people to "disobey it." Carry his argument to its logical conclusion, and we replace democratic government with social anarchy. 3. In reply to the claim made in this paragraph, let mc assure Mr. Lysnar that New Zealand is quite capable of seeing that those who disregard its laws will _c punished in the future, as in the past.

4. This paragraph is a direct insult to the i telligence of our women and to the eh racter of their drinking relations. Mr. Lysnar can acc-pt my assurance that thousands of heavy drinkers will glory in the opportunity afforded them on April 10 of removing their greatest temptation, the open bar. and their womenfolk, who have their best interests at heart far more than Mr. Lysnar, will line up with them to lend a hand iv wiping drink out for ever. £5,000.000 IS TOO MUCH. 5. The war did not create the efficiency, destroying effects of drink, it but revealed them. True, the war is over, but what it disclosed about the drink trade still remains as true as ever, and surely Mr. Lysnar knows that the great commercial warfare of the future demands that we have not only clear heads and steady hands, but that the waste 01 £5,000,000 per annum on drink in a little country like ours, already overburdened with debt, should, in the interests of all, cease immediately.

Mr. Lysnar raises the old worn-out cry that "there is more liquor consumed under no-license than under license." As we are new consuming liquor at the rate of over eleven million gallons per annum will Mr. Lysnar state irankly hoy.' much he considers the figures will go up after the moderate drinkers and abstainers have voted it out on April 10, and by a majority made it law that it shall not be manufactured or sold in our Dominion as a beverage. Mr. Lysnar then proceeds to deal with the results of prohibition in Canada and United States, and glibly brushes aside the testimony of one hundred million people with the statement: "Prohibition in certain localities in the States and Canada, the sace as in New Zealand, has been tried with unquestionably bad results, if impartial testimony is obtained." 1 submit that the Government statistics of the great Canadian province of Alberta constitute testimony as impartial as any impartial man could ask for: — General average One year Dpof eonvietlnns under crease for four years Prohihi- 'per before Prohibition, tion cent. Edmonton (Capital ntv of Province!: All offences .. SOS's ■_*( 7* Drunk* 1879 .-,7 lit! Vaerants 323 2tl 01 Whole Province of Alberta: All orr ences. . 12 706 7,171 7,6 D milks 3IWI 3!>3 S*> Vagrants 1204 164 SO The evidence of America cannot so easily be disposed of as Mr. Lysnar suggests. A recent article in the Sydney "Morningr Herald" outlines the position in the following sane, logical manner: — "That the greatest democracy in the world should prohibit within its borders the use of an article of diet which is nlmo--t a*- o'd as the human race it<=elf certainly challenges attention, and, instead of repeating threadbare phrases about 'extremist*. 'fanatics,' and 'inter ference with personal liberty.' it would be more profitable to discover the motives which lie behind the present action of the United States."' A GREAT EXAMPLE. A democracy comprising about onefifteenth of the entire population of the globe putting itself under voluntary prohibition is surely an amazing spectacle. A nation where all men are equal and free, where rail-splitters and barge-boy 6

have risen to supreme authority—such I a nation is not likely to cherish errone- ! ous views about "personal liberty." It may be that we in New Zealand will j have to revise our definition, it may oe I that our ideas of "personal liberty" (on ! this subject at least) are out of date. j American democracy believes in the utmost freedom of individual action, provided it is consistent with the welfare of the whole nation, but when, in the opinion of the majority, either a personal habit or an individual trade is inimical to the well-being of the people at large, the personal trade must give way before the good of the whole community. America believes that Euclid's axiom. "The whole is greater than the part," is applicable to national questions. A SIGN OF THE TIMES. In 1014 there iwere only nine prohibition States, to-day there are at lesst 20 j where prohibition is actually in operation. The last was Florida, which went "dry"' on the first day of the present month. These States are as follows, and the dates when prohibition became effective arc also given: —

Maine 1?"1 Knnsas ISSO North Dakota ISWI Oklabama IUO7 Georgia IBOS North I'arollna IHOB Mississippi 1900 Tennessee l'.Kf.i West Virginia IHU Alabama Win Arizona l!i].*v Virginia U>l« Colorado 1H1« Oregon It'tli Washington mill Arkansas Will lowa IHIH Idaho mm South Carolina ll'lll Nebraska 1017 South Dakota 1017 Utah Wl7 Indiana WIS Michigan WIS New Hampshire 101S Montana WIN New Mexico WIS Texas WIS Florida WW In addition, Ohio goes dry on May 27 next nnd Wyoming on New Yeai's Day, 1020. It is very significant that Ohio has carried State-wide prohibition. Almost all the States containing the great cities have hung out to the last. But the "rfrys"' arc now capturing the

"big city" States. Michigan (with Detroit), containing a population of over a million, went dry on May 1 last: to be followed next May by Ohio, with the huge city of Cincinnati. Time after time the Cincinnati wet vote outweighed the dry vote of the remainder of the State, but the change in opinion has come, and is shown by the following figures for that town: — 1014, majority for continuance. 84,15*2 101."., ",. .. ■• 55,408 1017, ~ .. ■• 1,135 1918, majority for piGhibition .. 24,719 We may so reasonably ask the question why so many thousand electors have changed sides within four years. There seems only one possible answer, that, having watched prohibition close at hand in actual operation, they are convinced of its success. If prohibition is a failure why have tbe nine dry States of 1014 grown to such numbers in 1919? Sensible men do not copy failures, but they do .mitate successes. If our nextdoor neighbour makes some improvement in his property for comfort ami health, nnd later .we adopt it ourselves, it is evidence that we think it a success. This is precisely what is happening in America. State has copied State, until now 89 per cent, of the territory and 04 per cent, of the people are under prohibition. THE PAPER 1 -* SPEAK OUT. The testimony to its benefits by newspapers and public men would fill a volumv, but a very few are taken from a recent Detroit (Michigan) paper. Thk State went dry in May last:

"Five months of prohibition finds many Michigan gaols without prisoners. Some have not had an inmate for weeks. Police officers give all the credit to prohibition, and a definite campaign is under way to close many gaols.

"The jury have been excused for the third successive term in Wexford County as there are no criminal cases. This never happened while open bars were running in Michigan.

"The adoption of prohibition is the greatest accomplishment that Michigan lias to h.r credit." said Sheriff Berry, in his address at the Traverse City Convention. "Evidences of the great social uplift that have resulted since May 1 are apparent everywhere."

, 'Mayor Bruce, of Cbarlestown, West . Virginia, writing to the Los Angeles , "Tribune"' says: —"The city has forged j ahead and has built in the last two years 40 miles of streets and kept pace ' with all improvements. We have re- . duced the tax levy 24 cents, and have , ample cash in hand for all obligations. Real estate is much more valuable, and , the closing, of saloons has increased mer- " j chandise nnd food consumption." Mr. Lysnar complains that it is very hard to get unbiassed opinions. Perhaps he will accept the following taken from the "Literary Digest." New York, . of January 25, 1919, which paper endeavours to interpret in concise form the public opinion of the whole people: — 1 THE PEOPLE'S JUDGMENT ; "The Pittsburg 'Gazette-Times' states 1 that it is 'the deliberate judgment' of J the people of the United States 'that j the liquor traffic should be abolished.' * No other public question, with the one ", , exception of slavery, this journal tells those who protest at the suddenness of the consummation of prohibition, -over ' has been so long and so widely discussed as has this one.' The conviction in favour of prohibition has. we are told, followed the most careful consideration 3 and a large measure of experimentation, the results of which have been wholly satisfactory. The people, insists this Pittsburg daily, 'will not change their minds on this issue. They have weighed every argument for liquor and rejected all.'"' " 'The Toledo Blade' would inform the distilling interests that they are not fighting merely 'puritans, and cranks, and laws, but a phenomenon as resisti less, as remorseless, as the rise of tides "in the sea.' John death, I declares the Minneapolis 'Tribune,' was j decreed 'for the wronp-s he has com- , j mitted against society.' The Raleigh I • 'News' and Observer.' in a prohibition ; State, declares that prohibition is a - -purely economic' proposition. 'Whisky . j iloes not pay. It has no virtues. It has , | many vices, and it entails a terrible cost. j The sophistries that have hedged it [ 1 around for generations have been torn . ' away, and on any merits that it tries to , I claim if is defeated at every turn. | Whisky is going down because it has no i useful function in society, but is a burI den of the most difficult sort to carry." |j THE NEW YORK "SUN"' SAYS: — . | The New York -Sun" emphatically . ' agrees that "the evil effect of the corner ginmill on the peace and prosperity of [ the American home has been the cause s of the sweep of sentiment against

liquor." From time to time there have come from new prohibition States declarations that prohibition was a good business proposition. In Alaska prohibition, according to Secretary Lane's recent report, "has been p-oductive of highly beneficial effects," and the "Governor doubts that, even those formerly opposed to prohibition would now be willing to return to the old regime."

6. In this paragraph Mr. Lysnar says, "those whom prohibition is erroneously intended to benefit represent but a mere handful of the population." Here, as elsewhere, Mr. Lysnar has not attempted to support "his opinion" with a single fact or figure; he has simply made assertions. For the last five years the convictions for drunkenness in our Dominion have averaged 10,795. On the basis that not more than one member of a family was convicted of drunkenness in any one year, and taking the average of live to a family, this means that 53.975 of the people, out of a small population like ours, every year have tbe sorrow and disgrace of having a member of their household convicted of drunkenness.

SUMMING UP THE CASE. I urge every elector, in self-interest, to take a stand with the Efiiciency League on April 10. Recause, there are 450,000 boys and girls and young men and women under the age of 21 in this country who will be affected by your vote. Because, those controlling the liquor trade have bad centuries to demonstrate how the sale of liquor can be conducted without the evils which are so obviously attendant upon it, and have failed, whilst every conceivable effort which has been made to regulate and control the traffic has proved equally unsatisfactory. Because, New Zealand must be ready to compete on an equal footing with the great prohibition countries of the United States and Canada. Because, in order to lighten the load of debt and taxation that farmers and business men are laced with, the waste and iiH-tliciency caused by drink must be cut out. clearing the way for increased production, reduced taxation. reduced cost of living, and better social conditions. And. just as I have for many years en dcavoured to serve my fellow farmers by pointing the way to many needed re forms, and helping to form an enlightened public opinion on the principal questions of the day. so I now unhesi tatingly urge you to get into line with this great reform. Be on the winning side on April 10 next, so that in the days to come, when the wisdom of banishing the liquor traffic will have come to lie recognised as beyond question, you will be able to claim that you did your part in making this fair land a better and safer place for you and fours to live in. and for the men. women, and children of the future. iSgd.) JAMES BODDIE. President. New Zealand Farmers' Union, Auckland Province.