MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12421, 9 February 1901, Page 3

MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN.

TO THU EDITOR. Sir,—ln your issue of yesterday you chronicle no fewer than' four convictions for drunkenness at the Christchurch Court, and four for drunkenness and disorderly conduct at Lyttelton. As if this were not enough, you also, had to report three fearful tragedies, drink being the cause of each. At Auckland a Maori smashes his wife into the other world, both of them had been drinking during the day. Then at Dunedin floor Gibbs was stabbed to death, the result of a drinking orgie, and at Linwoodi the same liquid demon, contributes to. an attempted murder and suicide... Unfortunately this state of things is the rule and not the exception. The brewers and. the publicans are daily throwing into- history the darker shades of suffering, sorrow, and death. Wherever we go we find that the battle-ground is strewn with victims of the traffic we are fighting; the dead and the dying are covering the field in ghastliness that lacks even the picturesque. Our march is through - ruins, material, physical, mental, moral, and spiritual, "which our .enemy is leaving behind his. blood-stained' path. We move not .to the inspiring strains of some martial baud; our music is the drunkard s drivel, the mother’s piercing wail of despair and the heartrending cry of innocent and suffering children. And this field of tears, of groans and of death is constantly being strewn with fresh victims. Your pages every day bear witness to- the fact that the liquor traffic takes no rest and seeks no truce in pushing its diabolical .mission, first to degrade and then to destroy. Why, even on Saturday, when an Empire was mourning her beloved Queen, the publicans proved the depth of their sorrow by keeping tlidir poison-shops open when- all respectable .business ulabilsiiiiuents uere closed. On Friday Chris!church Will probably witness a most magnificient pageant. The Imperial troops, the defenders of our Empire, with their fine physique and military prowess, will parade, the strepts with measured tread to martial music. Their gorgeous uniforms audi glittering helmets flashiim in'the sunlight will at once' be the sirmal for cheering from thousands of

voices. ■ But may I. draw your attention to another procession which no city could billet, these who have gone down during the Queen’s reign, through the blighting, soul-destroving, and death-producing influence of the liquor traffic. Here they are —no bands with inspiring music to set their march, and no cheers to greet them from admiring crowd's. Here they are look at them. As a vanguard there are millions of drunkards, many realising their sad condition/and others hardened, with their foul oaths rending the air which the feathered songsters -seek to purify with their vocal praise. Then follow miles of women, with sad faces, crushed spirits, and hearts bereft of hope. Following these arc a mighty host of children, of stunted growth and blighted 1 prospects. ■ Behind iliese there comes a whole army of paupers, greater in. number than ever Xerxes put into the field. Following these, a long line of faces meets us, stamped with imbecile vacancy or demoniacal madness, tbe mental wreckage stranded upon the- reef; of the liquor traffic. . Now appear in sight millions of criminals of every dye, a burden, to themselves and a menace to society. And now, bringing up the rear, is a long black line of coffins, bearing the finished product of the liquor trade. It is only imagination that can review a procession of this sort, and' yet even imagination., potent as she is elsewhere, is powerless to. .picture the results of this vile traffic/much less to exaggerate them. And yet—Oh, the pity of it ! The tragedy of it!—the,Churches are to a large extent apathetic; individuals who. call themselves Christians are heartlessly indifferent; journalists, who ought to safeguard and promote the highest interests of humanity, for the most part are bolstering up a, traffic that curses -mankind as nothing else does; and, as yet, the masses are strangely unmoved. Some of us are agitating for the only logical and righteous, remedy—Prohibition, and are mocked by the objection that Prohibition, won’t prohibit, forgetting •that if the people feel right in regard to the question, they would see, as the dominant power in the community, 1 'that the liquor trade was prohibited. And then, as an alternative proposal, to-our’ own, we are urged to adopt -State control of the liquor‘traffic, unmindful of the fact that as the evil is in. the drink itself, State control of it will still- mean devil control of it. His Satanic Majesty does not care a bit who pushes his business. What he does fear, and with all the powers he can command is fighting against, is.the prohibition of it. Surely; it is time to ask, with the Psalmist, ” How long. shall the

wicked triumph ?” How long is. property, to be considered' before "manhood, and moral issues to be subordinated to economic? How long is the poor drunkard, in. bis weakness, to continue asking us to remove the temptations which he wishes, but is unable, 10. resist? How long is the distracted wife and broken-hearted mother, through the mists of her tears, to continue looking to us for the abolition, of her greatest foe; and how long is the “ cry of the children,” ragged, pinched, starving, and neglected, to pierce our ears with : all the pathos of helplessness? How long is this cruel and damning liquor traffic to be allowed to carry on its awful work? How. long is our vaunted democracy going to uphold the vilest monopoly that the world has ever seen, at the expense of trampling upon the weak and the helpless, and sacrificing all that life holds dear? With a heart at its fullest tension, the cry is continually wrung from us—“ How long, 0 Lord, how long?”—I am, etc. • C. PALK.