THE PROHIBITION ISSUE

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12285, 3 November 1925, Page 4

THE PROHIBITION ISSUE

Experience is the best teacher. ■ The basis of this teacher is tact. Every man and woman is asked by. the advocates of prohibitmn to vote for that legislation. They naturally ask themselves what is the .verdict of experience on the subject. Experience has several years of familiarity with prohibition in the united States. Three years ago, when the occasion made it necessary, we appealed to this supreme teacher “experience.” The reply was prompt. It was that prohibition does not prohibit. At that time the United States—with about a hundred million people was debating this question vigorously, as it watched the course of the. prohibition law. And a large army of preventive workers was engaged in enforcing the law; and it had not nearly succeeded.

To-day the question comes up here again in practical form, and we see, after three years, that the expensive preventive army IS f ;f rg ?T t , ha "c? V f r ’ H 55 still unsuccessful. Also that the land of the United States is full of debate, the hundred and odd millions Pif° p - e arrayed “L two camps, fighting each other fiercely about the repressive policy. The experience of several years has proved that prohibi- ' tlon do , es not prohibit. The facts spread over many years ana many climates are the ground of this verdict of experience. Plainly they prove that the high humanitarian purpose of the infringement °*>R ersona * liberty is not attained. They prove*, in short, that the infringement of prohibition laws of individual liberty, in a matter by ar ® e y P°P ,dar > anc * in itself harmless, is not justified

The end bemg failure, the means stand discredited.- In other words, the big cheques so readily signed by the prohibitionists are by tbe great Bank of Human Nature. Incidentally this consideration ought of itself to settle the question y b^anTe The failure of prohibition to prohibit is thus accompanied by a demonstration of the quality of honest, patriotic citizenship in a vast concourse of people, amounting to very many millions. P Prohibition thus is shown to be the. thin end of a huge wedee which, if driven by the mallet of hard law, must burst up civilisaworkabfe C faws P undeviatin S cheerful obedience .to just and