"HOW PROHIBITION WORKS."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11398, 15 April 1899, Page 2

"HOW PROHIBITION WORKS."

TO THE EDITOR. ' . Sir, —It is a very favourite device of thosu who are.opposed to proliifaitiou to point us to America, and try and convince us of the utter failure of the Maine liquor law. Newspapersas a general rule publish these anti-prohibi-^ tion sentiments under attractive headings, so' as to catcli the public eye, and turn the laugh against the temperance reformer. On taking up your issue of Saturday almost the first thing which attracted my. attention was the following words, "How Prohibition Works"; and then followed a long quotation from the Rev. David Macrae, in the Glasgow Herald (daily), embracing a period of from 30 years back almost ivp to the present day. and Showing from his' experience the extent to which prohibitory laws depended upon public feeling and public conviction, and concluding with (what he calls) a.glaring illustration from Maine of the complete failure of prohibition in. that Slate.' Now, tins air looks very fea- ■ siblc on the face of it, and is, of course, de : voured with immense gusto by opponents ol the veto. But there are two sides to every question, as we can-always find if we only take' the trouble to use our brains; . . .

In the Foreign Office Democratic and Consular Report. No. 480, .September, 1898, Mr Vice-consul Keating says:—"From the .inquiries I have made of many competent authorities, I gather that the condition of the Mairie farmer has been steadily improving in every way during the last 40 years, and the neat, progressive, and thriving farms now existing throughout the State stands as.proofs of this statement." ' ■ ■

Mr Keating honestly, acknowledges that the Maine liquor law is not as rigidly enforced in the cities as it should be, but that throughout the rural districts the. law has had a ■wonderfully good effect, and that the general opinion seems to bo that a great, deal .of the progress and prosperity in the several districts is due to the Maine liquor law. The late lamented General Dow, '•" a letter written only two years ago, says: ~"As to your inquiry as to the standing of prohibition in Maine, a very short answer will cover the ground. At our last State election tho Democratic party put this into its platform— that if elected, it would overthrow prohibition and re-establish license ; that the old nun times should bo restored to bless the people. They took especial care to spread tho news all over the State. Our Senate contains over 31 members, our House of Representatives 151. When the vote was taken it was found that the rum party had not even one senator, and only five representatives. Nothing can be clearer than that as to the standing of prohibition in Maine."

With your permission, I would just ask your readers to glance at the following

figures:— .Maine lias a population of 660,000, with 53,400,000d0l in hor sayings banks. Ohio has a population of 3.670,000, and 34,000,000d0l in her savings banks. Maine is a comparatively barren region. Ohio is a most fertile one. Maine has prohibition. Ohio has license.

Does this look as if prohibition ices not prohibit?

But really, after all, it seems absurd for us to go .wandering over the world for news, when upon this little island of our own wo have ample proofs.of the prosperity ant! happiness derived from even partial prohibition. In Ihe Cliithii the convictions for rimnkennnss for the four and a-half years under no-lice>)Fe have been eight, compared with the convictions for the four and a-half years previous under license, which were 170. There is no irettinjr over those figure?, while in addition to this, every rifrhl-lhinking, conscientious man and woman in the Clutha district will tell you of the vast improvement which hni lalcen place in the general condition of i.ln people.—l am, etc., X Jlats.