A WAVE OF PROHIBITION

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 24, 23 October 1907, Page 11

A WAVE OF PROHIBITION

BANNING SALE OF LIQUOR IN

■ AMERICA,

Stringent anti-liquor legislation is spreading'moro andmoro in tho Southern Stntes. A few months' ago tho Tonncssco Legislature passed a prohibition -law, putting a ban on the sale of intoxicating liquor within the StatoJ , Now Georgia has dono tho same thing.. 'Georgia is the largest State that ever: passed a prohibitory law. Nor (writes the American ■ correspondent of the Melbourne- "Ago") is this all. Tho foes of liquor : are confident that other Southern States will follow suit, and the friends of the trade aro trembling in fear. Mississippi is said to be ripe for prohibition; a prohibition Bill is before tho Legislature of Alabama; and; Texas has recently adopted legislation so.drastic as to bo only a few removes from actual prohibition.- Tho Presidont of the National Wholesale Liquor Dealers' Association said the other day:—"During the past'twelve months tho prohibitionists havo inado great inroads in our business. Especially, is this true:-in the south, and unless we:work with more energy and determination to stop this tidal wave'. every State in the south will be closed to us."

Thore'are now five States in America whose,- laws prohibit- the ■ sale of liquor — Maine, Kansas;* North ;Dakota, Tennessee, and Georgia. (This, of course,' is without counting the hundreds of'counties in other States having prohibitory .laws.) In; tho five States mentioned, and in the territories under Congressional prohibition, thero are about : 8,000,000 people; while, according to the New York "W0r1d, , . , i which has carefully collected the figures, one-third of the citizens in the remaining. States, live, in "dry" communities under • the operation of local option laws. Experience shows that these sumptuary' laws do .not drive out intemperance. : -To 'quote a ! paradox ■ which'■".tho liquor people are fond of citing,"Prohibition does not prohibit.". 'But there is no doubt that it greatly lessens, the,quantity of liquor sold and consumed. )■"■ ; . V,.......'..,. -...'■.-

: ;, One reason. why anti-gin .legislation is making such headway ■ in ■ the Southern States.is because those States, are so thickly ■populated' with negroes:- Tho relation between' 1 the saloon and negro crime is very close/ To'get any good'out of the negroes of the worfiing class—and nearly all are of tho working class—it has.been found necessary to;place the opportunity for drunkenness;.beyond; their reach. ~ Throughout : the Southern;.- States -the ■ saloon and : tho ■ gambling/hell .turnout any number of negro criminals' every'yoa'r. All'theso States being alike' in this , respect, it appears to bo' beyond doubt that they ' will all follow tho lead of Tonnossee and Georgia. A liquor journal says it, might -as well be; attempted to sweep back the Hudson River with a broom as to..stay ■ she-present temperance agitation in the South. , ■ •