AN AUSTRALIAN IN AMERICA.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17625, 30 November 1922, Page 3

AN AUSTRALIAN IN AMERICA.

NOTES AND IMPRESSIONS. j (By R.L.C., in Melbourne "Argus.''J | Prohibition Controversy. It was entirely natural that our first i thoughts in the United States should turn to the question of the success or failure of Prohibition. For 21 days, while crossing the Pacific, wo had had Prohibition for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner. Prohibition and the income ta« were the pet abominations of the ships doctor, who presided over our table, and no matter how bravely one strove to turn the current of the conversation to some topic less hackneyed, he returned to Prohibition with the most painful regularity, growing the more fierce in his denunciations the nearer wo camo to tho scene of the inquity. Having had throe weeks of the case against Prohibition at sea, therefore one sought upon land some evidence in its favour, by way of adjusting the balance. It was a formidable task. Outside the officials of the antiliquor organisations, one searched long and wearily for an advocate of the Prohibition cause—so long that one began to wonder what had become of the army of Prohibition voters. I talked to men in all walks of life, and I can number on the fingers of both 1 lands those who gave their unqualified support to existing conditions. Many there wero who declared irrevccable opposition to the restoration of the saloon, but they wero the fost to resent the prohibition of the consumption of liquor in moderate quantities and amid decent surroundings. Prohibition has brought in its train several new and important and flourishing industries. Tho first is liquor smuggling. Tho smuggler finds almost unlimited scope for the development of his business on the Canadian border. Th©; province, of Ontario is dry, but the breweries and distilleries have not bson forbidden to continue manufacture. And the French Canadians have refused to tolerate Prohibition in Quebec. Here, then, are the sources of supply. The smuggler prosecutes his operations on a grand scale. Apart from high speed automobilss, a fleet of aeroplanes is in constant employment. Other liquor is taken down the east coast on small steamers. To combat the movement, the Federal Government has already organised a "dry navv" of submarine chasers, which is scouring within trio three mile limit; and for tho Canadian border an opposition air fleet is in contemplation. Expensive luxuries these. From the Bahamas come the rum-runners. Formerly American vessels, they have transferred their registry to Britain, in order to protect themselves against search outside the three mile limit. A conservative estimate says that it is not uncommon for 12,000 cases of whisky—one should not really dignify some of tlie liquor with the name—to be lying outside New York Harbour, awaiting transport to the shor-s. Much of it the rankest poison. The rumrunners also have their armed Bubmarine . chasers and a fleet of aeroplanes to carry warning of the enemy's approach. When "bootleggers" are discovered in the act of landing liquor, it is not uncommon for an exchange of I shots to precede their capture or escape.

The prohibition organisation, supplemented, as it is, by an army of Federal police on shore, who conduct almost raids on illicit liquor sliops and stills, is, therefore, very costly. It would be some consolation were it effective, but everyone knows that it is not. The man who wants liquor, and is willing to pay well for it, has never the least difficulty in getting as much a3 he wants. The man with means gets good liquor; the poorer man as often as not gets poison. And that is one of the chief complaints—that prohibition operates against the poor, man, and even tho man of moderate means. Wealthy men find 110 difficulty in overcoming the obstacles. Except in one quarter—on the Bowery, in New York, there is at least one of the old-time saloons, where whisky and soda is openly purveyed at a reasonably moderate figure, and there may be moro. The police, it is said, deem it .desirable-to let this stand by way of a safety valvo.

Swearing in a Judge. *

America has little time, apparently, for the tradition Which provides that a judge shall have no eyes or ears except for the gentlemen of the bar. Wandering into the City Hall of Chicago one morning in June, I found a municipal Court agog with preparations for the swearing-in of a newly elected judge. The Bench was laden with huge bouquets and., baskets of tho choicest flowers, such as Britons would reserve for a favourito concert artist. The floor was crowded with lawyers, idlers, and Court officials, many of the lastnamed in their shirt-Sleeves,-which they did not deem it necessary to cover with their coats,> even in the presence of the judge; and the atmoaphoro was thick with tobacco smoke. In the corridor outside a hawker was selling peanuts, chewing gum, and candy, beforo the inauguration ceremony, the new judge and his friends appeared on tho floor of the court, and posed for a small army of newspaper photographers. Then they ascended to the bench to the accompaniment of vast applause. After the swearing-in ceremony began a seemingly interminable succession of speeches, addressed not to the bar, but to "Ladies and Gentlemen." The occupants of the bench having been exhausted, chance visitors were singled cut from the crowd on tho floor and asked to contribute their share. When I lelt the courtroom the speeches had occupied 90 minutes, and the end was not 111 sight. The informality of the proceedings of these lower courts is a strange experience to the foreigner. Jims, at Philadelphia, 1 witnessed tho spectacle of a newspaper photographer tailing a position on the bench in order to 'snap'' two delinquents confronting the judge at the time, and the photograph duly apneared in that evening's paper." As to public bodies like a city council, one reads of Chicago that "The galleries were jammed, and as the aldermen explained their votes the crowd voiced its approval or disapproval by cheers, hisses, and catcalls." Cleanliness and Pure Food. There are not a few things which an Austialian feels lie would like to borrow from America for his own country, and one of them is the American's insistence on hygiene. In no fashion is this more stnkinpjv illustrated than in the complete abolition of comnlon drinking vessels at public taps, fountains, or

filters. At all of these are placed the little paper cux)s 3 already known in Australia, whicn are destroyed immediately after use. Similarly, in washrooms, tii© use of the roner towel is unknown. For it is substituted, if not a small, clean, linen towel, at least a towel of rice paper, to be used only once. The same care for public health i 3 visible in the system of milk distribution. If one orders a glass of milk it is produced in one of the sealed bottles which are in general use. At a huge picnic organised in Los Angelca for the Rotarians' Conference, milk was the staple drink, and not a drop was distributed except in sealed bottles; directly from the ice. Loaf sugar is almost invariably wrapped in paper capsules, if exposed, and the open sugar basin for loose sugar is a rare sight. Cereals are frequently brought to the breakfast table in sealed packets, to* be opened by th 9 consumer himself. Throughout America there is a tremendous enthusiasm for all measures designed to preserve the purity • of food, and to prevent the spread cf contagious disease..