GREATEST AND BEST

Evening Star, Issue 17226, 16 December 1919, Page 10

GREATEST AND BEST

ALL GREAT MEN DENOUNCE PRomsmoN. " The Church of God has never declared the moderate use of alcohol to be a sin " —The Rev. Canon West. D.D. Speaking at Hinds, in the Ashburton No-hcensc electorate, Rev. Mr Rogers denounced drunkenness in vigorous terms, "and urged all to shun the temptation which he believed was greater in a district where there were no licensed houses." Rev. Mr Rogers. "I dislike Prohibition intensely. Prohibition is tantamount to moral weakness. I believe a nation of Prohibitionists would be a nation of hypocrites. There is hope for drunkards—many have been redeemed ; but never yet have I known a hypocrite, sneak, or liar changed into a decent man." —The Rev. J. F. Milbank, rector of St. Paul's, Wellington, Kansas, where Dr Sheldon came from. " Prohigition makes hypocrites and leads, to the manufacture of illicit whisky, re-' placing good material with bad, and simultaneously robbing the Government of legitimate taxation."—Cardinal Gibbons.

The hotelkeeper has as legitimate a. right to sell alcoholic, liquors as I have to preach the Gospel."—Bishop Johnson. " Too much denunciation against dramsellers and dram-drinkers is indulged in." —Abraham Lincoln, on February 22, 1842. at Springfield. The great President was at one time a ret-ailer of alcoholic beverages, and in 1840 voted against a proposal in the Legislature of Illinois " that a liquor license could be refused if a majority of the voters in the town district or ward protested." On January 13, 1841, he voted again to the same effect. " How can I, who have drunk good wine and bitter beer all my life, in a comfortable room and among my friends, coolly stand up and advise hard-working fellowcreatures to take the pledge?"—Glad-' stone. " 4 n 7khi n K in the nature of compulsory prohibition of drinking is absolutely impossible, and it only leads to drinking in worse forms than under the old: system. I have seen Prohibition at work in the United States."—Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain. "It is not in the power of Parliament by an Act of Parliament to change the habits of the people. ... It would fail absolutely and become a dead letter." —Right Hon. John Bright. "We ought not to subordinate the privileges of the sober man to the reformation of the drunkard."—Sir M. White Kidley. "The Prohibition law in the United States is a gross and ludicrous imposture."—Justin M'Carthy. " Prohibition—so monstrous a principle is far more dangerous than any single interference with liberty ; there is no violation of liberty which it would not justify."—John Sti/art Mill. " Seek not to enforce upon your brother by legislative enactment the virtue that he can possess only by the dictates of his own conscience and the energy of his will."—John Quincy Adams. When all these great men are against Prohibition we are quite safe for Continuance to-morrow.