LABOUR AND LIQUOR,

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1029, 19 January 1911, Page 5

LABOUR AND LIQUOR,

DEBATE AT THE TRADES HALL. A well-attended: public meeting was held at the' Trades Hall last evening, when Mr. W. Maddison, a member of the Carpenters' Union, and Mr. W. J. Jordan, a member of the executive of the' New Zealand Labour party,, debated the" question as to whether or not the liquor question should remain an issue in labour politics or be excluded. Mr. M. J. Eeardon presided. ' Mr. Maddison,- arguing for tho exclusion of the liquor issue, claimed that gTeater questions should engage the attention of. tho Labour party. In this category he included high rents. Mr. Maddison declared that' ho could not; interest himself in a party which interested itself in the abolition of the liquor traffic. Prohibition, he claimed, had been a-failure in; tho United States, as well as in New, Zealand, and whilst lie was by no means an advocate of drunkenness, -'he B6lieved"!tllat the liquor question was of insufficient importance to justly occupy the attention of .the Labour party. Finally, Mr. Maddison expressed a belief .that the .Labour party would be split up by the inclusion of the liquor question in its platform. Mr. Jordan, championing the opposite view, contended that the Labour party was bound to stand for the moral and general welfare of tho people. He quoted authorities,' with a view to showing that drink caused degeneracv. and was working against the welfare" 6i our race. Mr. Jordan outlined the history of the drink traffic, and ex-'-plainerl it from an economic standpoint. 'Proceeding from a statement that 80 per cent, of criminals were reduced to that level through drink, the speaker related some instances of such cases that had come under his. immediate notice. Prohibition, he remarked, was spreading rapidly in America, and Labour throughout theMvorld was working for the abolition of tho traffic. Men who would mutilate a party platform merely to catch, votes, Mr. Jordan declared, were cowards. In concluding, he quoted figures showing that the carrying of .No-License had greatly reduced crime. While Auckland, by the latest available figures, showed an increase of crime, Masterton, Waihi, Oamaru, and ojher counties in which NoLicense had been carried showed extraordinarily clean crime-sheets. Mr. Maddison, in replying, claimed that the free will of the people should not be disturbed. . People should bo left to act as they thought best in their own interests, and one party should not attempt to control another. He believed in teaching men the power of self-control. At the conclusion of the debate votes of thanks were passed to the speakers and .the chairman.