STATE CONTROL

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 91, 11 January 1919, Page 8

STATE CONTROL

■ Sir;—" Silas Start" pokes n little fun at me iis a schoolmaster. Tf lie -had como Lto my school lie would, liavo learlied ■ two . things. First, when, a gentleman controverts another bynamo he does not conceal his own name. Secondly.- that "time" as well as "plaiie" are qualified by the word "partial." 'A law which ••prohibits the sale of liquor for 18i hours-out l of 'tho 21 is certainly a'"partial ProhibitionV If my friend tried; the 'experiment of getting a drink in London, say, in the morning hours, he would find "partial Prohibition" very- much in force. / "Mr. Start" concedes my point that tho reduction in - drunkenness' throughout Great Britain is not due to the State ownership and operation of tho ' liquor trade. Only in the Carlisle area could j such a claim possibly be made., but he gives away his whole case when he explains that the success of Carlisle > consists in the Government having made 15 per cent, on the capital invested. What thft nation needs is not revenue from the debauching of its citizens, but tho elimination of tho debauchery. "Mr." Stark" will find, on investigation that the State "pubs" in' Carlisle created as much drunkenness as did the private "pubs" elsewhere. It was the shorten-' ing of the hours and the limitations of the output that really made the improvement. \ln other words, "partial Prohibition" partially removes the evils of tho drink. Total Prohibiiou,. ; whe!i enforced, eliminates those evils. _ ,/'• "Mr. Stark" again 'confuses the Control:. Board -of Great Britain'with the State control" proposition ill . Now Zealand when he suggests that: "We could institute a system pf State control with similar -results as those obtained in! Gje.it Britain under tho .Control Board." Let me -restate'that the Control Board ■of England, with the exception of Carlisle and a few other small areas, did not purchaso.the liquor trade, and docs not own and operate the liquor business as a Government .enterprise. Perhaps "Mr. Stark" can explain why if the Carlisle experiment has been so successful that three years have passed and yet Great Britain has not extended the system. "Mr. Stark" suggests that it was because the Prohibitionists opposed it. As a matter of fact State purchase in Great Britain was used, as. it is being used here, ns a "red herring Across the trail"—to postpone the. inevitable day of Prohibition'. State control,' that is State -purchase and operation, as proposed in New Zealand; is an absolutely discredited suggestion. At one time over a hundred million people in Europe and America lived under tho, State control system, but to-day less than a million. On tho other hand over a hundred million people at the present moment live under Prohibition. Even the old autocratic Russian Government finally shrank from the evil results of their State liqiior houses. Sweden's population voted for Prohibition •recently by a hundred to one; South Carolina and Saskatchewan voted put State i dispensaries in favour of Prohibition. It is the advocates of State control who; lag behind. "Mr. Stark."- along with other opponents of .Prohibition, continually refer to : such men as Sir Thomas Whittaker and a few others in G'reat Britain, well-known. Prohibitionists, who did give their support at one time to,' the State < control proposition, I have Jienrd Sir Thomas speak myself, and know his. viewpoints. He advocated State control as a short out to Prohibition. But in New Zealand he would strenuously oppose spending , ten million pounds to continue tho trade nndw State auspices -when for four and a half million ho could realise his lifelong desiro, namely, Prohibition. . Mr.T/lovd George has agaiii and again affirmed that his idea was along tho samo lines. In conclusion I wish to congratulate "Mr 1 . Stark" on his ovidont satisfaction iit the reduction in drunkenness in Great Britain, ami to assure him that when he has carefully studied the reliable statistics of "dry" States'ln America ho will no longer doubt tlmt.Prohibition -is. the best remedy for the' evils of the : drink. The Hon. Robert Trvine, Speaker: of the Novil Scotia Letrislatitte, said „in June of this year: "Drunkenness -lias practically disapueared." Hundreds more of Canada's leading men say the same.' Tho most ardent advocate of State control has never dared make such a claim for -Carlisle.—l alii, etc., . YT.'B. IUYLEY. January 10.