PROHIBITION.

Evening Star, Issue 15478, 28 April 1914, Page 1

PROHIBITION.

TO THE EDITOB. & r ) —“ W.H.W.” says I must not rely 100 much upon Professor Salmond, who says “ Prohibition is only fit for children and savages.” Now, Professor Salmond Knows more about this question than W.H.W.and I would rather have a broad and liberal mind like the professor's than be possessed of the narrow outlook of _ the most eminent Prohibitionist. “W.H.W.” says the American railroad managers are enforcing Prohibition among their employees, under penalty of dismissal. Another railway company are reported by “W.H.W.” to have said: “We will discriminate between the man who drinks and the man who does not. We recognise the right of every man to do as he hkes, but we have also the right to employ whom we will.” All this Is quite right and proper. If men who enjoy a glass of beer with their dinners and take a toddy at night are in the employ of these companies, they have to choose between their custom and their employment. Ihe rules of service must be obeyed. But State Prohibition is different. The Prohibitionists imagine they' are the " bosses ” of this Dominion, and think they have right and power to take away the physical enjoyment of the men and women who take beer with their dinner* and a whisky between times. Mark the djfference between the Prohibitionists of New Zealand and the bosses of the railways who won’t employ men who drink. The railway bosses say': “We recognise the right of every man to do as he likes." The Prohibitionists say: “We do not recognise the right of every man to do as he likes. We are going to compel him to do as we do, and that, too, by force of numbers.” And the average man or woman with a true sense of rights and freedom says: “ You will do nothing oi the kind.” It is this failure to recognise the right of every man -to do as he like* that makes Prohibition a tyranny, and it is to preserve this right that every light thinking person should wage war agamsl the tyranny of Prohibition. —I am, etc., Dexteh. April 28.