THE TRUTH ABOUT PROHIBTION

NZ Truth, Issue 327, 30 September 1911, Page 1

THE TRUTH ABOUT PROHIBTION

JMAip, THE HOME OF THE CRANK. A Lesson for New Zealand. , NO-LICENSE v. LABOR. The New South Wales Worker and the Prohib. Traitor.

: It is, of course., natural that the Prohibition party, m. New Zealand : -should 'seek to discredit, the statement 'made (that after many /years of the Prohibition yoke, the State of Maine " cad decided, by /a Ismail majority, to -go back to the days of License and Regulation. If^We accept the Prohibition view of the latest position m Maine, what do we find; ? We find, according to the Prohibition party, .that what the people of the State, m question have decided is that Prohibition shall not be part of the Constitution of the State,;and that the question i of License or No-license has yet to be. decided. The decision of the people of .Maine, that Prohibition shall •not be part of the Constitution, which the Prohibitionists of this Dominion Say is what the people of Maine have decided, is, still according to the •Prohibitionist, a retrograde step, Which is a: polite way of saying that the people of Maine have .been >o impudent as to cast; off' the Puritanic tharldom which Prohibition casts on any .community foolish enough to go 1 m, for what is '.nothing, else ' >iit a dangerous experiment. .' .'■"'■■ ..Taking' the view which the Prohibitionists have taken upon the latest events m Mame, what; ought the people of New Zealand to deduce from the-assertion that ; it; is "a retrograde, step" '? "■" The' people \of New Zealand ought to conclude that Prohibition .stands, for all that is illiberal, unjust and dangerous. : It means that once Prohibition is foisted on a community, it must never be repealed, and that to repeal it, as it is claimed has been done m Maine, is a step akin to anarchy. It means that Prohibition is Illogical, that it is. tyrannical, .that 1 ; it Is brutal force, that no matter how strong a minority maybe, "its wishes and its fight foi- freedom must be practically bludgeoned. ' What will fee the condition of this countryshould it be , so foolish as to carry National Prohibition.? "Will not the Prohibitionist. ;if he has; a "brutal 1 ' .ma.jority at the back of him, I jpaeayor to make Prohibition part, of the Constitution of v>kew Zealand ? And will he not ref sist every effort^ as he has done m Maine, to have. the illiberal Constitution amended ? ■. ' ..'• ' • '. ' ■-.■'.- -, We have at various times heard what purported to be the. history of the Prohibitibn movement, and up till a few days ago it was always held that Maine was the home of Prohibition. So it was, but not m the sense that .the- Prohibitionist conveys, or seeks to convey. The student of history -. knows where the Prohibitionist originated. He originated m the » reign of' the ill-fated. Stuarts. It was the . original Prohibitionlsta. who ' murdered the King of England and then ruled England with a rod of iron. It was in # those Puritanic.; days, the 'historian ;tells us, that, the Puritan was most dangerous after a day's prayer, and that then the Prohibitionist movement set m. And how, r i3id they prohibit m those; days ? The /drunkard had his' ears cut off, he was

ducked m a horse pond,, he was .sub- ' jected: to nameless indignities more m keeping 1 -with savages jthan a civilised nation. The v student of history knows further' that witH the Restoration "to Monarchy there was not only licen-; tiousness, but the Puritan was : banned. In fact, for nearly a century the Puritans had made it so hot 'for men and women, of liberal views that an exodus had taken place to America, the States of New England, and it was to these self-same States V that.the Puritans of Eugland then turned their attention. Maine was originally one of the New England • States -of America, and ever since it has been known as one . of the States ...of America where what is ' known as "blue laws" are m operation till this day. The early New Englanders . were made • to feel the savage power • of the --Puritan. Main© has . seen men, women, and children flogged and put in;the stocks and ducked m horse ponds, it has seen the insane whipped because they were insane. It has seen the drunkard subjected to nametess brutalities, and" m those days .such treatment was regarded- as prohibition. Maine is certainly "the - Home of . Prohibition." It ' has known it m many shaptes for two centuries. It ,iS no wonder it has cast it off, . ■ ■.. . '.- * ■-. '_■• • ■'•' ■•■,-.■■' .-■" ■■ • : -' '■ ••-• '■ • After all . New.VZealand hasn't 'much to' worry ' about whether Maine -has ."rebelled' 1 or not; Let's '-.'get nearer home. When the last New ,' South Wales elections were '■ held';"-' on "what, side did the: ' Prohibitionists -range ? "Who arc the Prohib. agitators on the side of and espousing the , Cause of Labor ? Let every, working man and every . working woman ■ know, if they do not already know, that the Prohibitionists were opposed to Labor. They fought Labor'tootli and nail. They were allied to the ;" Leg' .iron" Ministry that set '•■"out .to gaol the striking miners of Newcastle, and which aimed to . crush. : men by starving their wives- ..and children. It was the Prohibitionist party that was on the side of "Fat," and it -was because the Prohibitionist was on the side of "Fat" that the people of New South Wales turned the "Leg-iron" Ministry out of office. On what side m New Zealand is the Prohibitionist ?■ Why is the Prohibitionist trying to fool women m this country? It is . the s'etirie game as was played m New South Wales. The Prohibitionists pretended to. be humanitarians, but secretly they were m conspiracy with the rich' man as . against the poor. The Prohibitionists of .New . Zealand went across to New South Wales to fight the battle, and to keep '.the >■ strikers, m gaol, and told the women that drink was the cause of then; husbands being .m gaol. They, told the women of New, South. Wales that under 'Prohibition , everything .would -be as prosperous as it is m New 'Zealand,, they painted the ' most' beautiful pictures of prosperity and. plenty, but in v face of 'it all the Prohibition 1 , fanatics . were wiped ant, / 'and "the ' "Cause"_ ', .' of .

Prohibition received a death, blow m New South Wales. If the people of New. South Wales believed that Prohibition was a good, thing m New Zealand, would they, have igi noreti ,the , statements , made ? Would I they have voted for Continuance if they believed that New Zealand was a Paradise ? And we know the re-' suit. What was th^ secret ? It was found that Prohibition was a hollow '■■■ sham, a .fraud), a • share, a confidence game ;, that it was trickery and [that those advocating it were tricksters. , It was seen that m New Zealand • men and women were made hypocrites m spite of themselves. More than that, the Prohibitionists by allying themselves to the enemies of 'Labor were exposing their handi, and this fact is where it concerns ' the working man and the working , , woman of 2?ew Zealand. If m New South Wales the Prohibitionist was 1 'found to be secretly conspiring to' dish and damn Labor, what guarantees have the workers of New. Zealand that the Prohibitionist', 'most' of whom were m New South Wales, are net secretly caballing to ■damn labor's cause' m this country. .You- hear it said that the reason Prohibition went under m New South- Wales was because the Liquor ■ Party spent money hand over fist. , That is the excuse, that is' the lie' that the Prohibitionist, spread to cover up his own deceit and duplicity. The fact is the Prohibitionist was found out m time -to be the secret enemy of the working man, | and that is ' why , to-day. : m New South Wales a Labor Party is m Power, and the Prohibitionist -mo vei xnentv out m the cold. Just as • the 1 Cause of Labor is spreading throughout the world, just as the working man holds out his hand m sympathy to his working brother across the sea, so do the wives of the workers hold out their hands to the workers' wives across 1 the seas, and the wife of the worker m. New Zealand ought to know that it was the wives of .the workers ..of , New South Wales against whom the Prohibitionists : : conspired, and -it was those women, who helped to put the Prohibitionists t o rout. When, we come to a calm consideration of 'the Prohibition movement what must; we think ? We must admit that the first Prohibitionists of the English-speaking world sought to prohibit 'by th'e use of the , lash, the stocks and, the ducking pond. It the stocks ; and , the ' ducking- pond. ,11 was a movement conceived m a bigoted age, and it has come down. the ;ages altered almost out, of recognition. Force", and brutality have failed. It has endeavored „ to sneak m unobserved disguised as a great boon to mankind, and now it is seeking -to pass muster i with all the majesty of law. What will it become if it should be invested with a sceptre. Remember the story of Maine !

What piffle- -j;he- Prohibiti-pnists.'are responsible for! . Got this from a country ..paper : on a hired agitator m. the : anti-beer brigade ranks : '!pn one occasion m Wellington 'he so delighted , his hearers v that "one, of them next day is reported to have said : 'Can't \ye ! pawn our boots or something, and get him back again?' " Yes, they; ought, to have .pawned their sox— if they were clean. - • A judge m the States introduced a startling innovation m his Court whilst' sitting m divorce. He invited • three society women to. sit with him, and; give him the /benefit of their advice as experts m the working of the female mind. The experiment proved a great success, as the . w,pman. m the case refuted the charge, to . the satisfaction of the female ' judges. , "Critic'"' commends this preT cedent to our judges, as no one but. a woman can possibly do justice to the subtle working of a woman's mind. . . • '■ . • ' » . The delegates to. the Medical Congress appear to have a very poor opinion of the intelligence of the public w:icu they want them to believe that" tale about the. love of the doctor for the poor man -who cannot afford to pay high fees. Of course, there is no reason ■ why . a doctor should attend a sick man who cannot pay. The butch e r and the grocer are not ostracised because they refuse "'tick" to bad marks. But then, neither does the butcher or the grocer drop crocodile tears over the bad mark. A; doctor who heals (or. kills) the sick for money is -m exactly the sa:no posini-.'n, ..ii;<n-£-.ily, as the Duxcher wlio kills bullocks tor money; neither better nor. worse. He gets puid better, certainly, but , that has nothing to do with the ease. " „- ' .....-...•■'..■ . ■ •■■■• ■, - -