THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 21 October 1914, Page 5

THE NO-LICENSE CAMPAIGN

MR BEDFORD'S ADDRESS.

- Mr H. D. Bedford, of Dunedin, addressed a largely attended meeting in the Opera House on Tuesday evening in the interests of the no-license cain- v paign. He delivered a most eloquent speech, and was accorded an attentive hearing. The Mayor (Mr H. K. Whit- - tington) presided. Mr Bedford said he had come that night to reason with the people on one of the great social questions of the hour. He was present to convince their intellects that prohibition was a good thing 'in the interests of the industry and commerce of the country. - He wished to make no appeals to their emotions, but to. strive ov means of argument and fact to convince them that the highest industrial and commercial interests of this country de- ' manded the carrying of national prohibition. It would be remembered that about two months ago the members of the liquor trade approached the Prime Minister by deputation and urged certain reasons ior the maintenance -of the liquor trade in this country. They endeavored to persuade the Primo Minister that the abolition of the trade would mean financial embarrassing t and industrial depression. And they urged these grounds in opposition to the claim that was made by the prohibition party for the reduction of ; the - majority required by law to carry this necessary reform. A fortnight ag» the national council of the liquor tradein this country issued a manifesto, and. m this manifesto they laid stress upon economic grounds for the retention of their business, and they urged upon the voters of this Dominion that the abolition of the trade would mean taking away the employment of labor, the diminution of the circulation of money- "^ in wages, and the loss of £1,000,000 in ' revenue to the State. He proposed to '* answer that manifesto and that contention of the liquor trade. JustV now we were all reading with eagerness the cablegrams announcing the news concerning the progress of the European war, and we were becoming adepts in strategy, and he thought we should '' laugh with incredulity if a messagewere to be flashed across the wires that General French had announced ta the Kaiser that he was prepared.-la meet the German army a, week hence - m any position that the German armyliked to take up; that he gave the army notice which wpuld enable them'to ser lect the best site upon which to wage, battle, to enable them to well entrench.themselves, to get their guns ready, and their army in position: and General French would say to the Kaiser: "When you are perfectly ready, when you have go r yourself in the most ad- ' vantageous position, when _you are ~' completely prepared, and have us at ' the greatest possible disadvantage, let '"" us know, and then we will go over ' and fight you." We should" think that * General French had gone mad; we should not believe it; yet that was -..- precisely what-we were prepared'to do in dealing with the liquor' trade -" in this country. The prohibition party >' was prepared 'to say to the brewera -" and publicans: "Where is it that you are strongest? Where is the ground - '- upon which you are invincible? Where is it that it is possible \o assail you -"" successfully? >Vhat are the argn- - ments that are invulnerable? Point '" them out, and we will come and fight you." The prohibition party asked the * liquor trade to select a battle ground' and to indicate what aspect of the *~\ question they were prepared to discuss with it, and the party would discuss it with the Trade. The Trade was say-- . ing to-day by its,silence, as well as .: by its utterances, llWe admit that the - influence of ■ our business is injurious upon the bodies,1 -minds and morals of the community; we admit that the : medical, profession is against it, and " that the business of the Trade contributes towards disease; we admit all " these evils, but the abolition of the liquor trade—the carrying of prohi--bition—means industrial depression, -~ unemployment of men and a tremendous loss of revenue, which would embarrass the Minister of Finance/ These were the points alone upon "which the Trade laid stress, and it was just there that he (Mr Bedford) Droposea" id do battle with the Trade that evening. (Applause.) As soon as that manifesto' - of which he had spoken was published ' - in the Otago Daily Times, about a fort- " night ago, he issued a challenge^ in the- "- same paper— not out of any spirit of ' -■bravado j but simply for the purpose of ' n elucidating the economic question. He- - said that he challenged the accuracy or every statement the Trade had made. "'" m its manifesto concerning the coo- -- nomic effect* of the Trade and prohibition, and he was prepared to prove " his case before any public audience. » Me said that he was prepared to de^ bate with any champion the Trade liked to put forward the assertion that the abolition of the Trade would mean increased material prosperity in this- - community right away; to prove that - ' the abolition of the Trade would mean increased employment of labor forth- - with; to prove tiat the abolition of - tiie Trade would mean increased money circulating in wages; ftiat the aboli- • tion of the Trade would mean the lessening of the burden of revenue upon. the taxpayers of this country. (Ap-- " plause.) When he published this no- * tice he said that if the Trade" could support by argument and fact its.;* views it should be prepared to do «b> before a public audience, and he asked. . and requested that it ssize the oppor- •-' tunity of establishing its position and *~ confounding the prohibitionists. Hecame to Hawera, as he had gone else- " where, seeking an opportunity of meeting any one whom the Trade chose to> " put up simply on the economic ques- ' tion. He would not introduce any moral considerations;"he would hot appeal to their emotions or harrow their souls with any horrible tfles of disaster, of evil, of discomfort, or cruelty which came into the homes.of people.. •He would argue the question any- ~ - where and at any time entirely upon, a cash basis. Now he wanted to prove* the proposition he had laid down. It was easy enough to make a statement;" it was easy for the Trade to say that " - embarrassment of the labor market would follow the abolition of its busi- "- ness. It was easy to say that just the contrary ..would take place, but his audience asked for proof, and this he-" would endeavor to give, and demonstrate the proposition he made by argu- . ment and fact. He was going to ptove^ firstly, that the abolition of this trade- -' would mean material prosperity to tha Country right away. (Applause.) In what did the wealth of a country con- .- sist? The wealth of this Dominion consisted in the multitude of the gocds - and commodities which its industries" ' produced; all that they ate and drank, \ the goods they had in their homes, the services rendered to them—these were the things which made them wealthyA country was not necessarily wealthy because" it had large, quantities 'of , money. They could not take a hahdful" of sovereigns and feed themselves upon ;- them, nor a bundle of notes and make •_ garments out of them." Money was- . only useful as a means of exchange for -.the things they ate and drank, and a--"' country might be very poor and yet". have an immense amount of money. Take the case of Europe toniay. Just- - before he left Dunedin he gave an ad^lM: dress at the 'University on the economic effects of the war, and explain— -

j^fid iMt;;; r hbiy-.;.'wiar;.'.-affected the wealth ofvthe country engaged. I^Kiad^vhis investigations led to the coni ■elusion that the reason why poverty and followed in the track of |;armies; was because, war arrested pro3<duction. In Europe to-d^iy . there was SfsSjmuch money as there was;before were as many spvefeyeigns and bank notes, and yet there |; was intense poverty. Little Belgium, viwith a series of calamities heaped upon v;iti:had perhaps as much money to-day ■ft /as it had -before the war, and yet they pall knew that the poverty there must v^/be intense. War had a calamitous ef}>fect : upon industry, because it meant I? thei withdrawal of multitudes of strong ] :;men from the paths of industry into J. paths of destruction, and hence poverty ■: : V-and:priyation"'.marked the countries en-7-gaged in war. The same 'effect' may xesult from drought. He read in the .■newspapers that a drought threatened v'fAustralia, but he was glad to learn •;'-.ithat.it had broken in time to. save probC'ably a large proportion of their crops. ;;■ ~Again and again Australia had been afrfected : and devastated by drought, '.which meant poverty and depression, ■-although the money was there jxist the : «ame. When a drought came and the farmer brought less grain and sheep to >;.the market what happened ? Having /less sheep and grain to sell, he had -less money to spend with other people. And the shops where he was in the 'habit, of marketing felt in a measure the poverty and depression, and were ■consequently unable to give the same z ;anjount of business to the wholesaler. : ■ Soj like the little ripple caused by a "stone in the lake with its waves spread- .> ing out and out to its uttermost circle, : was the whole industrial system af- : fected by the shortage-at that point where the fanner stood afflicted by the : ■'■:, v • • •■':- That is what caused poverty.and depression. Every time a man was hindered in the production of wealth the whole" community suffered; every time ■a man, assisted in the production of wealth,the whole community benefited. The time was coming when we should look upon unemployment as a disease of :',. the body politic, and so treat it in ■much the same way as we would treat .diseases of the body physical. Good statesmen; would arise to the recognij tion of this principle, and that'we cannot allow men to exist in the commun- : ityv.ho are'not exercising their industrial energies to produce that which is within the range of their capacities. (Applause.) What was he saying all ■\. this for ? He wished to impress upon the people that the only thing that Brakes'for the wealth of any country was production. There were two ways .■..•••.in which this production might be hindered. It was known that production ■;■ resulted from the combination, or the c^ men's energy with the Spo.wers,^ Take the case of a man'; owning a fine field—he could not .TOake that field yield produce apart : from the powers of the soil, yet that -field would not yield apart from the -energies ,of the man. When the two were united then we had increased ; wealth. Now, there were two ways in .which we could hinder that production s "Hby paralysis upon the forces of nature such as drought, or by the ravages of an advancing army. The production. ■of that field could be hindered by the > jiaralysis which descended upon the energies of the man; either would be detrimental to the prosperity of the country. Just as drought, and just as v.<ar .paralyses, for the time being/the energies and forces of nature, *o the Jiquor trade paralyses, to the trtent of its influence, the industrial energies of the human agent. There were in this country last year over 7000 Crst cftend.^^for drunkenness; he wanted to 'fortify the people s against misconception, and these were the figures given in the New Zealand Official Year Book. The figures were compiled by the Government. He did not think-that these were absolutely accurate, arid that this was the^total number of first "offenders for drunkenness, because octhere might get into these iigures the; names of men who had been .convicted of drunkenness in far distant . umes, and so their earlier convictions were not counted. It would be seen that during the past . three years no fewer than 21,000. individual men were convicted of drunkenness for the first time m omv courts. For every man who entered the Police Courts, and who were ten who drank excessively, and -who never figured in the Police Court xeoords; he would say at the very least :**:rfc r there were 60,000 excessive drinkers irf.tfc*3 Dominion— that was- a low computation. Ihere were 60,000 men who were held Jn the grip of alcohol, ■and men whose brains were being impaired by alcohol. There, were $0,000 jiuman productive agents whose power of producing wealth was immeasurably lessened by their intemperance. Since ne had become to be regarded as a pubiu? man, numbers of men had come to him for testimonials of character, and "\ .nearly every case men had asked ium to testify that they were men of eober^ habits. Why.?.. Because the uni*H5SJ experience of all men engaged In an? industry was that intemperance diminishes effieienev. " (Applause.) In--temp^iange les's6n§d ik& poWer and ef.feSt of'industry; that seemed to b^ the g&iieral experience. In tlier United States of America practically "all the1 railroad companies refused to employ any man who was not a total abstainer -and Carnegie employed, none who were not total abstainers. In the armies of JLurope to-day what was desired above all things was the efficient physical strength of the men. AYe have already Jiad the revelation in this war, that xlespite the power of big guns, that despite the wonderful inventions of science, despite the marvellous engines of destruction at the' command of the armies to-day, men counted as much as •ever they did. As he had said, notwithstanding the engines of destruction men came to hand.to hand fighting' • and the men who could endure long marches, the men who could endure great fatigues and reserve their strength, these were the men who were going;to win in the battles of to-day just as the men who had won in the' tattles of the past. It was- of import- . ance to have strong men in the field -and.at sea, and see what solicitude was expressed by the generals and admirals all .over the world concern ing drink and perfect physical efficiency. .The Czarof Eussia, not,long before tne war, issued a proclamation in ±avour of total abstinence in his army. The United States had abolished the canteen from the navy and from the f™y entirely. Lord Roberts, General White, and numerous others of Britain s. best men had again and again ■nrged total abstinence, and in the great *»oudan campaign the greatest soldier of modern times, Lord Kitchener— (applause)—in tnat. marvellous victory in the Soudan told them, in his report to the Government, that throughout that jcampaign no man was served ■ .with grog. He won that great triumph -on total abstinence . principles. And what did the cables from Europe to<lay say. Again and again tney were • intprmed that the Allies insisted upv!"°? :'.* ot*1 abstinence in the armies, " -until they were coming to be known as. .the: ifteetotal armies." Note the i >-difference >between them and the Ger- I :: -'mans.V.yThe': track of the German army i vwas littered with broken spirit and! «q«pr.bottles. They received yester- ! ■daysnewsof tne landing of the Can-1 adiah -troops in London and of their :going;int6 camp. The camp, said the ! 'cablegrams, was a teetotal camp. And :*Q; n© oould go on repeating instance

i after instance. And wljat did it ! mean?, In the present crisis, when I the highest efficiency and the greatest bouily strength were required' in the interests of the Empire, they had to banish alcohol from the men upon whom they depended to carry the banner to victory. (Applause.) They would remember the magnificent message which Lord Kitchener gave to every man who went forth to fight the battles in Europe. "Fear God and abstain from looting and liquor." Why of all things which men put into their mouth should liquor be the; only one thing of the whole range and compass they were advised to abstain from Lord Kitchener did not\ advise them not to smoke or drink tea; but the consumption of liquor was the one thing which he was afraid of, which he regarded as detrimental to the army of Britain. And that was the thing which in New Zealand was licensed by the State. Lord Kitchener had no interest in social reform as a soldier; his only interest just now was the physical, mental and moral condition of his men, and because of that interest he advised every soldier to abstain from liquor, which, oddly enough, he grouped with looting. If Lord Kitchener could find in alcohol such a deadly effect upon human efficiency, he (the speaker) had no need to emphasise the fact further. He was quite prepared to accept the opinion of one who, after long experience, knew what made for efficiency, fitted men for long marches, and equipped them with the highest efficiency in war. That was an opinion none dare challenge. (Applause.) During the 'Boer war Sir Frederick Treves, then physician to Queen Victoria, was commissioned by tne British Government to go to Africa and examine into the physical condition of the men. In his report to the Government he said he was with the relief column that went" to Lady smith.- The march was most arduous, tne temperature' was high, and the Boers were picking off cur men. It was a "difficult march and a long one, and man after man fell out of the ranks from fatigue. Sir Frederick went on to. say in his report that all through the march not a single "teetotaller" fell out from any other reason than a bullet wound. Not one total abstainer in that multitude of men dropped out from any other cause than a bullet! They might almost imagine a placard on the backs of those who fell out through fatigue: "This man drinkc alcohol." Could they wonder, therefore, that Kitchener insisted, upon total abstinence. Alcohol paralysed the forces' concentrated in the human body, and 60,000 at least were practically put out of industrial action because of the liquor business. "Let the whole army march in review before you," said Mr. Bedford. There was a tailor—a drunken man now, who certainly produced less clothes than before he was intemperate. There was the bootmaker and the fanner. The same remark applied to them. Their trades had a lessened production in wealth —not in the same way as a drought, by affecting the forces of nature, but by affecting the forces of vital powers of human aid. "It is impossible to spell out fully the detrimental influence of this trade upon the physical energies of the peot>le," declared Mr. Bedford.' In Asbburton. prior to the carrying of No-License, one might see over the bar of every public-house in town a list of names. There were some twenty-five prohibited persons. They were for the most part the wasters of Ashburton; men whose families were lnrgely supported by the charity of the communtiy. Since prohibition had been carried nearly all of these had been traced. • Four" were lost entirely; a few_ had left the district and gone into licensed areas; but of the seventeen who remained every one to-day was a' sober hard-working man. (Applause.) Every one of those seventeen men meant prosperity in trade to, Ashburton; those seventeen -| men while prohibited were no good to the grocer or to the butcher—they got meat, but they did not pay for it. It was the intemperate men that made the bad debts. But since Ashburton had voted No-License it meant increased custom to* the grocer and so forth. Every tradesman found increased custom. If seventeen men, who had* transformed as" the result of No-Licence, meant material additional prosperity to a town, what could not 60,000 Intemperate m6n v&~ I formed, 'do in distributing increased wealth dyer the Dominion. And the Trade said it contributed towards the material prosperity of the country! We flad never known a. man to work oetter because of what he got from i the liquor trade, and the trade did not point to one either. The trade would never say that the total abstainer was not as good a workman as I the man who drinks. The Trade was claiming to promote material prosperity in this country because they (the vendors of drink) caused drunkenness. In effect they said: If we have G3,CCO .d.runkards we contribute piaterially towarsjf the prosperity of "the country, and ii only we could all become drunkards tile material prosperity of the country would be accentuated beyond measure. (Laughter.) If we want to contribute to the Well-being of the country let us become hopelessly drunk." Alcohol lessened the production of wealth; it lessened the power of our people to promote prosperity, and in every way contributes to weakness in a community. He was going to prove that the Trade industrially affected the distribution of wealth, and in these days we were largely engaged in wrestling with''the'-problems of distribution. All classes had something to say upon this problem of distribution. We were going to see that every man got as much as he produced, that every man got the full amount of the wealth he earned for the community. He was going to show that the abolitiion of -fhe Trade would partly solve this question, and that j it would make a more equal distribution of the wealth that was produced. For his authority he would again go to the Government. The Minister for Customs, in a sneech in the House last year,, stated that the liquor trade, j or part of it,-had £477,000 invested in the business, and that it made a not profit, after paying expenses of £250,000 a year. This meant that'the brewers were making over 50 per cent, regularly year after year. He did not know of any other industry in this Dominion, with the same amount of capita] invested, that was making such a. profit. There may be industries that during certani periods had the opportunity of making a similar profit, but competition would come in and bringdown the profit. From enquiries he found that generally in other industries the net profit rarely exceeded 10 rcer cent., that was to say on capital invested. Assuming, however, that 10 per ecnt. to be a reasonable md' proper rate' of profit for every other i 1 mtr^ to be makl"n K. t:h'S would give the Trade the advantage of making five tunes as. much profit as it ought to on ordinary commercial principles. Knowing the difficulty, many had in understanding the inwardness of the 50 ncr cent profit, he would deal briefly with private monopolies..Private monopolies always meant that the monopolist got more wealth from the community than he contributed to it; he made a number of people work for mm without pay or return. To express it pictorially, let them imagine a great market in the form of a great bazaar and in this bazaar stalls for

the> sale of particular products—boots clothes, grain, butter and so on He wanted to demonstrate what really took^place m the production and distribution of the wealth in this countiy. Standing at the door of the bazaar was a man who took- the goods brought T to him and put them in their place. Imagine a bootmaker coming along with the product of his year'l work and saying to the man at the door, "here are my boots. I cannot live pn boots. I want other thingsbread meat, clothes, etc." "That is all right/ replies the man. "I assess the value of your boots at £200, allowing a certain value for wages, purchase or material, machinery, etc." The £200 worth of boots are then placed in a stall, and the bootmaker with his ZW sovereigns proceeds to lay out £10 on meat, £10 on clothes, £10 on grocSoffi an(L SO / orth< He takes fei 4?™°n h bi va «<™s products, but left £200 worth of boots, go that the community i s just as rich as it was before. He had not lessened the amount of wealth in the market. That was a just- distribution. Next the brewer comes along with his kegs of beer The man at the door, estimating the labor and capital expended in manufacture, and valuing it on the same basis as he valued the hoots, fixes the^price at -£1000. "That is not right,, protests the brewer. "You are treating me the same as you treated lu4. bo°tmakei'- You must not do Sv X£ m& mono T Polist; lam protected by the State; I have a lot of concessions and privileges which the bootmmer ppuld never aspire to. You allovfC^ Uim a P r<?fit <?n_& 10 per cent basis; i ';**«...wlowed to take"so per cent, so that you Pa 7 m 8 £$QQ9 instead of £1000." jul* 3™*-h W§ £5000 he goes into the marked £*" euming his beer was perfectly wholesome, that it satisfied some real human need, he had put £1000 worth of products into the market, but by reason *»&? mon pPoly was able to take £5000 worth out. "Believe me," said the speaker, "he does not take out; a keg of beer; most of the brewers boast that they are total abstainers.; ihey keep their beer away from their °™ wives and .Children." He takes Out a motor car and the best of everv K ■ thing to the value of £5000 for- the £1000 worth of. beer he put in." That is monopolistic distribution. Consequently some of us are paying for more than we take out, otherwise the brewer could not take out more than he put in. That is the position. (Applause.^ He was opposed to a monoply of any • i -l 6 °°rdiallv detested the principle by which one gained a monopoly of wealth, directly or indirectly. (Ap- : plause.) He would like to take a body ' c w, ork, ing men and farmers to some of the brewers' establishments in this country; he had never been invited to a brewer's house—(laughter)— and here he would show the'working people some five beautiful pictures. He would say to Mr Brewer, who makes 50 per cent profit, "10 per cent is a reasonable profit, so we will take four of the pictures—you are entitled to one—to give to these working people for distribution amongst other men." He would take his party to another house belonging to Mr-Brewer, where there were nve beautiful carpets, and take I tour of the carpets so that they could be sold to.obtain linoleums for those people who had no covering on their floors at all.- And co he could go on m • this way showing how absolutely necessary it was that there should be a disgorgemeht-of four-fifths of the wealth that the trade made every year It did not belong to the trade, but to the community which has en3°yed less wealth because the trade had .the marvellous power of drawing more to it than it was entitled to. (Applause.) The making o f a 50 per cent profit by the trade meant that we were getting less in our homes, and ?-xi •, Was SettinS more than it was entitled to. The trade said that it* was entitled to all it had because of the capital invested. But that capital was being replaced every two years, and there was the large profit of 50 percent. If we destroyed that capital to-morrow we should only be taking tor the community an infinitesimal traction, of the wealth that had been wrongfully abstracted from the community year after year. The trade said by abolishing the liquor business '' we were going to interfere with the labor market, but the trade was only endeavoring to mislead the people, xhe trade did not give employment to labor. It took away employment from ! labor every day. Because of the existj ence of. the trade there was less em--1 ployraent; the liquor trade shut all