THE FALLACY OF REDUCTION. Truth

NZ Truth, Issue 177, 7 November 1908, Page 4

THE FALLACY OF REDUCTION.

Truth

edly moral good iias been accomplished through these educational efforts. Rut, m spite of these efforts, ihe sale of alcohol beverages keut rapidly increasing. Fifty years ago America's annual consumption per head of alcohoik-. drinks

was about four gallons, while to-day it is over twenty.

Accompanying this is a map fallowing the various States which have, of late years, been converted to No-license, and those which show tendencies to vote that way. Regarding these latter, the jeport says: Tennessee and Kentucky are now almost white, and Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas*, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Ohio are moving strongly m that (Nolicense) direction. New Hampshire is nominally a Prohibition State, hut ah out half its territory . allows saloons. What a truly remarkable achievement these temperance people have put up to be sure. A wave of temperance reform, organisations brought into existence, physicians allying themselves with the socalled reformers and placing the movement upon a scientific basis. Seven States carry total Prohibition, two are almost Prohibition, and six are moving strongly m that direction, and one is I half Prohibition. And what has it all I amounted to ? Raising the consumption of alcoholic beverages from four gaffions per head to twenty gallons. That is that all temperance reform effected for the last fifty years has increased the drinking fourfold. Unless the people want to see a nation of drunkards, it is a wonder they don't turn it up and try some other method of effecting a reform as. a method that increases instead of decreases the evil it seeks to repress is sjurely a rotten method, and "its advocates must surely either ... be madmen ob most insincere m the , extreme. * ' •■'••■ •. _ . . Again the same article : — But Americans are awaking to the fact that alcohol degrades and makes brutal the ignorant whites m the Norlihem cities as truly as the ignorant blacks of the Southern ; accordingly the West and North are beginning to follow the ;example of the South In closing up their saloons, and prohibiting the sale of drink. This ■■ m part explains the national spread of. the Prohibition wave which has already made 55 per cent. I of the country with 33,000,000 inhabitants "dry territory." Americans have been forced to take' these steps. A most extraordinary statement this surely. Fifty-five per cent ; ever half of a territory carrying 33,000,000 inhabitants has 'oeen proclaimed "dry" and yet the consumption of liquor per head is greater than ever it wa>. This can only mean one thing, and that is that Prohiioitibn does not prohibit and Reduction does not reduce. If the aim of the Prohibition .party is to effect a temperance reform they must clearly adopt some | other method. Some real genuine means of saving the drunkard from himself. But |if all they want is to make a noise, gain notoriety, and a place m politics for their leaders, at the expense of making the drinker drink more than ever, and making him a criminal m obtaining* his drink, then this paper must congratulate them on the excellency of their campaign and the methods they have adopted. It cannot be expected that the Prohibitionist person will see the force of this argument— he doesn't want to— but it is to be hoped that the majority of the electors of. New Zealand will think this matter out, • rationally and calml /, before they go to the poll on Thursday week, and will show that they have no time for bigotry and coercion by voting against both Reduction and Nplicense. j Do not let the No-licsnse crank persuade! you that if you do rot believe m total Prohibition you should vote Reduction, hoping thereby to decrease the country's drmt bill. It -will do nothing of the sort The community w^ill drink just as much under Reduction as without it, and, if American statistics go for anything, more.

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1908

There are a large number of peopla, sensible people too, who seem to think that a reduction m the number of hoiels m a- cotninsunity means a Jessening of the, amount of liquor consumed by the inhabitants. When even sensible icopb believe this fallacy it is small Avonder that rrohibitionist statistics, as issued by the Prohibitionist leaders, are swallowed without comment by the Prohibi- ' tionist rabhle. The Prohibitionist party seem to think that if a man has to restrict his drinking to one hotel instead of say a dozen, he'll drink l>ss. Nothing could , Le mote absiird nor further from the mark. A man doesn't rush iiito every pub. he sees .and swellow a swanky. He goes into whichever pub. he fancies or which ever one happens to be handiest -when he fee's. that : a "drink is necessaiy. If a .man doesn't wear more clothes because of a multiplicity of drapers shops m a town why should. he drink more because there is a multiplicity of pubs? If a man. wants to get drunk can't he do it as effec dually m two pubs as m ten? Of course he can, and it is only because the Prohibition crowd are wilfully swivel-tyed qver the iuatler ihat ihay have the effrontery to claim Reduction as a means of decreasing drunkenness. As a . proof of this, take the West Coast of the South Island. The Coast has produced a very fair proportion of New Zealand's best and ablest men and women, and although the original Coasters were a rough lot— miners are mostly good drinkers and hard-doers generally— the Coast is 'one of the most sober communities m New Zealand, and is, at the game .time, better supplied with . pubs, th'ari any other part of the Dominion. So much, therefore, for the Pronibition oft-repeated ■ fallacy that Reduction reduces drinking m New Zealand. ,i * «= " But it is not only m New Zealand s that reduction of public , houses fails to minimise 'the drink evil. Statistics from America prove what a gigantic failure Reduction has been there. Such a failure,, m fact, that with seven total Prohibition States and about 16 : Reduction States, the American drink bill is to-day bii^ei: than ever it was. That is to say that m half of the States there is either no licensed hotels at all, or there has been a reduction m the numbers of laic years. Surely if Prohibition and Reduction mean anything at all, the drink bill of the States should have .been lessened .by at least one-third. Instead | of which it has been increase;]. To j prove this it is only necessary to 'quote j from the Prohibitionists' own ;«rp ; un:ents. I True iTiat Prohibition figures <"re seldom i correct, but if the figures cjiioted below | should prove wrong, this paper cannot be' taken to task inasmuch as the Prohibition journnl "The Sisiiis of the Tirars," gives them as authentic. Here is what a wriler m the a';:o\'ii-mentioned : journal has to sny on the subject of the progress of the temperance movement m ! America : — ' i A temperance war is sweeping over j America. For ye-irs the temperance i question has l.een advocated from the ' pulpit, the platform, and the press, i Various organisations have J.ecn L'rcught into existence, whoso purpose has been to make known the evils resulting from the use of alcohol, and to urge men and women to give up its use because : of its demoralising influence. Some responded to these earnest appeals, but the majority branded these agitators as alarmists. Physicians then threw the weight of their influence against its use, thus placing the temperance movei meut upon a scientific basis. TJndoubt- I