TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

Evening Star, Issue 12101, 6 November 1908, Page 2

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

[Published l«y Arrangement.] J N A MAINE CITIZEN SPEAKS. INTERVIEWED IN DUNEDIN. At the request of the No-license party a gentleman, wWttill hereafter be referred to as Mr A. In, Ims consented to express for publication ibis views upon the effect of Prohibition, in the State from which he has come. Mr A. B,vtbeing in business, thinks it unwise and unnecessary that his name should be made . the shuttlecock of tho parties, hut was quite willing to state what he kijew iiv t hfl*p(tsenc© of a representative of this journal, and to speak the truth about Maine ns he saw it when he lived there. I Our representative vouches for the fact that I Mr A. B. is.a business man in this town, j and that ho makes the following statements 1 in answer to questions that were submitted to him:— y How long were you in Maine. Mr A. B.? Portland city about a year, and in ; the ; city of Bangor about eight month*. It is about seven years since I | left Maine, but so far as I know matters ! relating to Prohibition and its results have | not altered materially since I left there. In 1 fact, the Prohibitionists claim that things are boUer now than tltoy were then, and that the enforcement of the law is more , general now than in 1901.” . ' t A comparison. Can yon .make any comparison of the drmk evil in Portland and in Dunedin? “Yea. I feel that I can. Although when I first went to live in Portland 1 was \ just an ordinary citizen, without any partienlar bias or knowledge of the subject, I soon came to know a good deal about it. No one can live in Portland and not become fully acquainted with nil that is - going on in connection with Prohibition in ! Maine. The question is a very live ’ one, ! and the papers give it a great deal of attention.” j What does your experience suggest as a ■ fair comparison, then, between Portland and ; Dunedin as regards drinking and drunken- ! ness? ‘‘Just this, sir, that although I lived, as * I told you, both in Portland and Bangor, 1 never saw anything in either of these ; places in the way ot drunkenness to approach even distantly the Satuxday night j exhibitions in this town. Tiierc is very little public drunkenness of any kind. Both of these place?, too. are seaports crowded with a rough class of fishermen, lumbermen, and seafarers generally, and an- therefore much more likely to produce drunken yows unci debauchery' than Dunedin, which w_a ouiet place, with practically none of this class about. 1 instances of 'violent or 1 helpless di-unkonnes® are practically vn- ] h»wn in Maine. Those who illegally sell 1 liquor take good care that their customers do not get so far. and tho police take good care that persons drinking are arrested long before they reach that stage." THE FIGURES EXPLAINED. Do yon consider as is assorted, that f no difference in the number of arrests in Portland and Bangor, etc., as compared to Dunedin. is caused by the difference of tlm police standards of arrests? ‘•Certainly, I do so consider. From what I Irave scon here, your police allow badly drunken men to stagger along the street in score'', and never dream of interfering with them utile.--,; they become helpless or annoy the passers-by.' In Portland these men would he arrested before there had gone one hundred yards, and would be taken to the lock-up and kept there until sober. I do not believe that most of these ar? punished at all. But as a precautionary ! measure, and to keep tho streets clear of j drunkards, they are kept there until sober, and then let go again. They do not come before a court, and so are not put down ,-w ! ‘ convictions,’ but as ‘ arrests ’ —a very different thing.” -MILD INEBRIATES ARRESTED. These men, then, who were arrested >n Portland were not necessarily using obscene language or attracting attention, or oven causing an obstruction? “ No, certainly not. Tito fact that Prohibition has been in force in Maine for so long has set up a new standard, and even a mild form of drunkenness is considered on offence against the sobriety of tile place and tho harmony of the surroundings. I tell you, sir, that when you liave. as little public drunkenness about' in your town as there is in Portland you will be as strict to stop it at its inception, and remove such % degrading spectacle as a drunken man , from your streets before he can be wen bv tho decent people who are passing along them. When you lie come as color as Maine is you will ho able to do as they ; do, and arrest people because they have had a glass too much. You couldn't do it now, for yon would need a street of gaols to hold them on Saturday night.” LUDICROUS FLIGHT OF IMAGINATION. “The attempt to show that New Zealand would become more drunken if it followed the example of Maine is about the most ludicrous flight of imagination that I have , ever met with in my career, and I have met a few.” That is very interesting, sir; but are there any other points- in which Maine has the advantago over us? “ Speaking of the sobriety of tho people and tho evil results of drink, there are a great many other points' in which that State : leave New Zealand far behind. For instance, take the young men. Any system to be successful must enable the young men to grow up without contracting’ the drink habit. This is the crux of the problem. Anything that fails here fails all the time, , The great bulk of the young men of Maine > are growing up absolutely not knowing the taste of alcoholic liquor. This is so even in Bangor and Portland, which, as I said, ate seaports with a great many people 1 passing to and fro, and a great numy! stnmgeis and tourists continually visiting , tho place. If it is so there it is much more bo inland. There the drink problem is' practically non-existent. In fact, I might I state it as my conclusion, after fairly close observation, that tho degree of success of. Prohibition approximates closely to tho degree of difficulty found in obtaining supplies of liquor from outside. WOLFES SEEKING TO DEVOUR. “Therefore the seaports arc the least satisfactory from a Prohibition standpoint, but inland it is almost a complete success in every way. The movements of the political -machine often make for nullification of tho law in the larger cities, such as Portland, Lcwifitown. Bangor, and Rockland, etc. Yet even here the law must be classed as a long way in advance of that of any licensed place I ever saw. Such trouble as there is comes not from Prohibition, but from the licensed sellers of liquor, who stand all round the State. like wolves seeking to devour a lamb, and send innumerable circulars, reminders, and inducements to people to try to get them to buv and soil drink. They spend money like' water to 1 get a connection, and otfe'r every possible inducement to keep it. and then, having started some jieople buying liquor, these earn© brewers fill the whole world with lamentations ami grossly-exaggerated reports of the liquor trouble they themselves ■ have created. ’ i THE TROUBLE IS LICENSE OUTSIDE. If there were no licensed houses outside ot Maine, or if .Maine had tho power under the Federal law to prevent liquor entering the State at all, there would be no liquor trouble. All the trouble corncsfrorn the license's round alxmt, just the same as all the trouble in the New Zealand Nolicenso areas comer, from the licenced places in Dunedin ami elsewhere. Theonlv reliable source of supply is the licensed person, and with no reliable source of supply the sly grog business would quickly go to the dogs, and would not bo worth the trouble of entering into.” CAN RECOMMEND IT. From your experience in Portland you would be disposed to say to the citizens of this City that Prohibition was a good enough thing for them to try? _ “ Certainly I should. Tho first impression one gets when one goes to a city in Maine Ist enterprising, moral place. Public order in the streets is absolute. DrflnkefT brawls are unknown. There is nothing neon or heard to prevent the peaceful development of tho people to

their highest standard, and the whole sur-' roundings are prosperous and harmonious to a degree. NO PROFANITY. There is about Prohibition cities a total absence of tho smfells and signs of drink, tho guffaws and profanity which always coma from the doors of licensed houses wherever I have seen them. This ' absence in itself shows tho success of Nolioenso. FRANCES WILLARD BELIEVED IN rr. Finally, sir, I have a message to give to the women and to the clean people of this town, and I want to appeal to their commonsense and their reverence for the character of one of the noblest women that ever lived. I refer to Frances Willard. | This queen among women is tho only one | whose statue is placed in the Capitol of I Washington amongst the great leader® of 1 the American nation. Her life shines like •A star in our history, and every clean-living and Vnorablo American is proud that I 1 ranees Willard should have been, a product of American citizenship. A NOBLE WOMAN. “Frances Willard, sir, is one of those of ! whom it might well be said ‘That after | the Almighty had made her Ho threw away the mould.’ In all America it is universally conceded, perhaps only excepting Abraham Lincoln, that Frances Willard has done more to uplift the American nation, more to point us to high ideals, more to increase cur respect and reverence for women, more to show us the unworthiUC3 and degradation of destroying our national lives in the fleshpots qf bestial drink - 1 ing and intoxication than any man or any I other woman who has ever blessed our people. AN INSULT TO HER FAME. “Feeling like this, sir, as to Frances i W illartl. can you blame mo when I say that i my blood boils when I read that this person. who goes to Maine, should come away and practically say in so many words: j ‘Frances Willard, who is honored by the J whole American nation, spent her life in ; telling the American people falsehoods! j Frances Willard, the noble and the true, whose name is the very gem of purity, • wont about endeavoring to induce the American people to establish a state of de- ; bauchcry and dntnkennees.’ I FRANCES WILLARD KNEW. 1 “ A cs, sir. when I remember that Frances Willard went in and out of Maine just as you go in and out of your office, and knew it thoroughly in its failures and in its suci ceases—knew the exact results of the law, both good and bad—and yet went forth and spent her unselfish life, and visited every State, and, so far as she could, every j town in the whole of America, to inspire i tho women to rise up and slay the awful } curse of the licensed saloon and establish Prohibition—l scorn the rubbish talked by this person.”