“CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE INJURED.”

Franklin Times, Volume XXV, Issue 130, 8 November 1935, Page 4

“CAUSE OF TEMPERANCE INJURED.”

A LESSON FOR NEW ZEALAND. 'One of the biggest factors in the overthrow of prohibition in America was the spirited revolt by intelligent American womanhood against a measure which daily became more and more discredited with the growth of the evils which it created, a measure which earned the title of “America’s biggest mistake.” What American women thought about prohibition is reflected in the remarks of Mrs Roosevelt Robinson, sister of President Roosevelt. She says: “I sincerely believe that the cause of temperance has been * injured by the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act. From reliable statistics and personal experience, I believe that lawlessness, increased drunkenness and crime/ have resulted from prohibition, and, being a believer in temperance, I am an advocate of reform measures in connection with prohibition. None of ttq“ advantages claimed for prohibition al-?, ters the fundamental mistake of having injected into the Constitution an amendment which, in my belief, has brought in its wake all I have mentioned above, as well as hypocrisy and bitter feeling. Law should severely punish intemperance and immoderation, but prohibition punishes the temperate and the moderate by depriving them of their liberty. History has proved that no law can be enforced in any country without the will behind if of a large majority of the people.”