NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

Evening Star, Issue 13100, 5 November 1908, Page 1

NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN.

.■ i ■ PASTOR EDMONDS'S MEETING. There was another crowded house at tha Alhambra Theatre last evening to hear Pastor Edmonds give his second and final lecture on Prohibition in America. The chair was occupied by Mr John Wilkinson* Mr Edmonds briefly recapitulated the main points of his former lecture, and then went on to say that the leading newspapers and magazines of America would not at any price or for any consideration insert a liquor advertisement in their pages. Newspapers were not run for sentiment, but to pay dividends, and when the leading papers of the United States discovered that. they could succeed. without liquor advertisements, it was a strong argument of the hold that the Prohibition movement had on the public sentiment. The speaker then went on to deal with the State of Maine. Maine had had Prohibition for over fifty years. It had gone back to License for one vear, and then, .with a vote of 28,500 to S,OOO, it had returned to Prohibition. They would find also that the .neighboring Canadian States had adopted Prohibition. Fifty years ago Maine had five savings banks, "with 90,000 dollars deposited; it now had fifty-seven savings banks, with an aggregate deposit of 113 millions of dollads. Again, in Maine 49 per cent, of the families owned their homes, and this was the highest ratio of home-owning people anywhere in the United States east of the Mississippi. Yet, if they were to believe the liquor advocate, the State of Maine was steeped in cririie and drunkenness. In 1906 there were 10,000 murders and homicides in the United States, and Maine, wliich had onehundredth part of the population of the United States, and should have produced the same proportion of the criminals, produced exactly three. Had they ever read of any serious crime cabled from the State of Maine? The figures that had been quoted by the Liquor party did not refer to the State of Maine, but only to one or two of its cities, particularly Portland. Li Portland there had always been a large party opposed to No-license, and through bribery they had appointed those who would wink at the violation of the law. Tho sheriff from whom the liquor advocate had procured his figures was known to bo friendly to the Liquor party. He had gone to Delaware making speeches to prove the failure of No-license in PortThe lecturer then went on to speak of Kansas. In Kansas there were 105 counties, and of these thirty-five had no county gaol, forty-one had no paupers, and twenty-five had no poorhouscs. If they went through the State of Kansas in September they would find many of the gaols used as granaries. Mr Edmonds then went on to deal with the arguments used by the Liquor party. There was the great cry that their liberty would bo destroyed. They must remember that their liberty was hedged round by a protecting law, by which their individual liberty must sink in the common ,gobd. It was also claimed that the public-bouses were well conducted, but it was the No-license party that had made them so. The lecturer concluded his address by an appeal to his hearers to remove the one great blemish from this magnificent country. At the conclusion of his lectirre Mr Edmonds was accorded a vote of thanks, and on the- call-of the' chairman -'three cheers were.given for him.;. • CONCERT AT PORTOBELLoT A special concert under .the., auspiccs-jof the local No-license Committee .was,; held at the Portobello Hall.last evening,' land proved eminently successful. The platform had been decorated 'with -clematis, red and white hawthorn, and other flowers and greenery. Miss Ridley (pianoforte selection) and the Misses A and L. Ridley, White, Ward, M'Ewan, Stewart, and -~ Durham, and Messrs Yeoman, Foster, Gillanders, and Stokes contributed to tho entertainment of those present. Tho Chairman (Rev. E. C. Tennent) dealt with the Temperance conflict and the causes and incitements thereto; and the Rev. H.nstie gave a stirring address, assisted with diagrams and statistics as to the real situation in Maine and other American States. At the conclusion a. motion to the following effect was moved by Mr Moss, seconded by Mr Roy, and carried unanimously : " That this meeting protest against the t action taken by which the crew of the steamer Opawa have been placed upon the Chalmers electorate roll as one which was never intended by onr Legislature, and is ; calculated to defeat the wish of bona fide resident electors, and call for an amendment of the law, which apparently admits of such a contingency." 'God Save the King' was sung in conclusion.