AN INDICTMENT.

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 104, 29 October 1925, Page 8

AN INDICTMENT.

The time has arrived for very plain speaking. . , r

The paid Prohibitionists have descended to the primitive mud-slim*, ing tactics common to all extreme fanatics who find their "arguments" flouted, their statements doubted, and their bluff called. ,

Knowing they arc beaten, secretly recognising that, the house of ... their "cause" is built on the.shifting sand of illogical emotions, they shout, "A Lie" to every scrap of reliable evidence which destroys one more of their false theories.

Such tactics make no appeal to fairminded New Zealanders. Pacts are facts, and this nation is now fully alive to truth about the total and disastrous failure of Prohibition.

Honest observers in the United States—including the Council of Churches of Christ—have placed it on unalterable record that the wages of Prohibition are crime, drunkenness, and social chaos.

The verdict of the great mass- of those who know Prohibition intimately is that it is EOTTEN TO THE CORE. Even its defenders are forced to qualify every claim they make.

The great shout of protest arising from the American people, the stem denunciations of Prohibition uttered by such great Americans as Dr. Murray Butler, H. L. Mencken, the late Samuel Gompcrs, Hon. Cabcll Bruce, and a thousand others, makes the feeble, pipings of the paid Prohibitionists here in New Zealand like the rattling of a tin can amidst a peal of thunder.

Do these professional "reformers" think they can stem the overwhelming ilood of Prohibition-condemning evidence—evidence from unbiased .sources—with petty sentiment and a handful of mud 7 Their attitude is an affront to the intelligence of the electors! ■*

The grCiit aut-horilies give concrete evidence tlint. drup;-tfilving hus incrensed under Prohibition.

The police records of the United Slates prove that crime has increased since Prohibition. WHO WILL YOU" BELIEVE? The late Prime Minister said that the burden of Prohibition would fall on the people by way of all-round taxation. Colonel W. L. Barker, of the. U.S. Salvation Army, stated that younger girls were being taken into the Salvation Army rescue homes as a result of Prohibition. Police Commissioner Unnght, of New York, says, "Incre.ii-j of. crime among the. youth of the nation has readied al.-inniiig proportions."

The "Detroit. Free Press," a great American newspaper, says I'rohibitkm has brought a CUUSE to the vonth of America.

Who will you believe? —the authorities (those who are the eyewitnesses) or the. paid "reformers"?

The contrast is almost pathetic in its absurdity—yet the. professional .IVohilntiouisls expect, you to be deceived by their purposeful piely. Are. you going to let them deceive you? We. think not.

This question goes far deeper than thai, of "1.0 drink or not." It li:is long since ec;c.<ed to be just. :i uiaHer of liquor. A vilal principle is at, staki!—;i principle' which is embodied in the vilal traditions of the great I-Jinpire. of which iN'ovy Zealand is a proud Micml'cr. Defend that principle, and for Ilic sake of it VOTJS C'UXTLNUA.N'CJi).