PROHIBITION. LECTURE BY MRS. LENTE STEVENSON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1909, Page 3

PROHIBITION. LECTURE BY MRS. LENTE STEVENSON.

Last evening Mrs. Lente Stevenson addressed a meeting in Wesley Church, Taranr':i-street, upon 'The (Growth of Prohibition Territory in the United States." The Rev. Thos. Fee was in the chair. In commencing her address, Mrs. Stevenson said the growth of the movement for prohibition in America vvas advancing rapidly. Since she had left her own land two of the black patches on the map, representing the liquor interests, had been wiped off. Of the eighty millions of people residing under the- shadow of the American flag, nearly forty millions lived in states where the legalised liquor traffic had been swept out of existence. The prohibition movement was growing in power — growing like a great tree whoso leaves would be for the healing of the nations. This result was the outcome of an educational campaign during a quarter of last century ; a campaign tnat was still being pushed on. It was said that before Maine was won, the prohibition party sowed the state kneedeep with literature. In the public schools of America there were twentytwo million scholars who had the opportunity of learning what alcohol does to tho body and the brain. The children who had been taught during the past twenty years were now casting their votes. What this had done for America was shown in the definite policy adopted by a large proportion — nearly forty minions — of the people. This policy "had, in those states w.here it had been tried, practically emptied the prisons. It had increased the bank accounts. In the lecturer's native city crime had decreased by one-fourth. The premier prohibition state of Maine was rapidly becoming a tourist resoit, yet there seemed no need for saloons. The speaker remarked that a law was but a tool, useful or otherwise, as it was used, and touched upon the difficulty of enforcing a law unlsss the people were taught how to use it. She closed with "expression of a wish for the day when the map of New Zealand will be "all white," along with the map of the United States.