PROHIBITION COLUMN

Evening Star, Issue 19517, 26 March 1927, Page 17

PROHIBITION COLUMN

[Published by Arrangement with the United Temperance Reform Council.] The man who votes for license ought to bo willing that his son should die a drunkard. The open liquor shop, which his vote' helps to establish, he knows will ensnare the feet of somebody’s boy; why should it not be, in the eternal law of fitness, his own child? —Louisa S. Rounds. BOOTLEGGING IN MANITOBA. Winnipeg is in the province of Manitoba, which was induced to vote for alleged State Control of liquor in order to get rid of bootleggers. In October last a cafe proprietor, who had been fined SOOdol on a liquor diargej appealed, with the result that the judge raised the fine to l,ooodol, or in default six months in gaol. The reason for raising the fine was that the accused had several times previously been convicted on a similar charge. On tho _ same day a magistrate imposed a fine of l,ooodol and costs on the Manitoba Refinery Company for the illegal sale of forty cases of whisky. NOW AND THEN. American agricultural and manufactured products a few years ago were transported on short hauls by wagons with teams and teamsters, when if a teamster happened to get top-heavy with alcohol he could throw the tines over the dashboard and depend upon tho mules to avoid collision or the ditch. That cannot be done with a modern auto truck. America within two decades has become automobilised. There are 500,000 miles of surfaced highways in America to-day, and the present, investment of tho people in automobiles and surfaced highways is already greater than the total investment in all the railroads and railroad equipment of tho nation which has been developing for a century. The United States has 6 per cent, of the population of the world, yet of tho 23,500,000 automobiles of the world 20,000,000 are in America. Consider one moment whnt th© oft! beverage alcohol system of yesterday would mean to-day with 20,000,000 automobile drivers. “ Beverage alcohol belongs to a slower and a lower civilisation.” LOW LIFE. Henry Ford, advocating the employment of the army and navy to enforce Prohibition, said at a Dearborn dinner: “ Alcohol is a poison. It's a spiritual poison especially. How it lowers os I An Englishman in my employ told me of a scene ho once witnessed in a London pawnshop. " A boy came in, slammed down n frying pan, and said: ' Tbrup-penco on tho pan, mister.’ “ The pawnbroker picked up the pan to examine it, but ho dropped it in a hurry.

“‘Why,’ he said, ‘it’s hot, you young rascal!’

“ ‘ Of course it’s hot,’ said the hoy. * Muwer’s just fried tho sausage in ft, and she’s waitin’ for tho thnip-penco to get the beer.’ ” WHERE EVERY PARMER. OWNS A CAR. Agricultural States like lowa, the Dakotas, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Oregon, as shown by the Bureau of _ Agricultural Economics, have approximately one passqugor automobile per family, while the industrial States of New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have only one car per two families. Prohibition may not bo the sole factor in this contrast, but the stricter observance of the Eighteenth Amendment by the farmer has helped his buying power. ACCOMMODATION. T At the sitting of the Palmerston North Licensing Committee on December 7, an application was made for a license for new premises to be erected in lieu of the Clarendon Hotel. The magistrate (Air J. L. Stout, S.M.) pointed out that the bedrooms were .too small and the plans unsuitable. It was argued on behalf of the licensee that, “in these days of motor cars, people did not stay in town as they used to.” Mr Stout immediately replied: “Is not that an argument for cutting out the license altogether? We do not want drinking places.” Certainly, when the licensees begin to tell us that tho statutory bedroom accommodation is not needed, tho case for security of tenure in the sale of liquor on accommodation grounds gives wav absolutely. In this case the license was not granted, and the matter is to be brought forward again. NO BEST WITH ALCOHOL. When Dr Lorenz, a noted European surgeon, was being entertained at a banquet he was noticed to turn l.is wine glass upside down as soon os he sat down to table. “ Why, doctor, no wine?” said someone near him. “No thank you, - ’ was his answer. “I am a surgeon. Men, women, and children trust me with their lives. I must keep myself at my best, or be untrue to those who trust mo.” A splendid reason why every employee should not take strong drink. Alcohol clouds the judgment, d-Us tho wit, makes the grasp fumbling, tho muscles and touch sluggish and uncertain. It prevents the man doing his best, “To put alcohol in the human brain is like putting sand in the bearings of an engine,” said Edison. PROHIBITION RECORD. Prohibition has augmented savings. It has increased many fold the consumption of goods and' products of all sorts. What formerly went to the saloon now supports the automobile industry, the cinema industry, the radio industry, small shops and great_ stores. The purchasing power of America has been increased substantially, and hence the productive processes have been correspondingly speeded up. Look at tho situation way. Instruments of precision, complicated machinery, cannot be entrusted to befuddled men. Drivers with clouded minds cannot be trusted with motor cars and trucks. Mr Ford could not afford to nay a week’s wages for five days’ work to men drinking either much or little alcohol. Artisans who spent a major portion of their earnings every week for. drink would not be owning 220,000 shares in Philadelphia Rapid Transit. Tho underworld of New York and Chicago wants drink. Groups of sporting men and old-time rounders want dunk. Quite a minority, summed up, want drink. Some self-indulgent rich men want drink. But tho women and children den’t want to see drink’s return. Neither do the artisans and laborers who have been emancipated from a curse, and who are now getting something woitn while out of life. Neither really do the realtors, tho merchants, the employers. the farmers.—‘ Minneapolis Journal.’

NEW YORK’S RECORD FOR VIOLENT DEATHS. Dr Charles Norris, chief medical examiner for New York, reports that in the past year there were 5,581 deaths from violence in the great city. The analysis shows that the largest single toll of human life, 1,272, was due to motor mishaps. Hard drinking, not credited to accidents, killed 585 persons, or less than half the number due to autos. Score one, therefore, for Prohibition 1 There were 365 homicides, of which 248 were due to gunplay. The weary of life number 994. —‘ Outlook.’