LEADING TEMPERANCE REFORMERS CONDEMN PROHIBITION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16239, 24 November 1914, Page 3

LEADING TEMPERANCE REFORMERS CONDEMN PROHIBITION.

[Published by Arrangement.] i

Advocates of prohibition are prone to believe Uxu. tafcy are me only genuine temperance reiornters, but tnobe who seriously study tlie subject of liquor legislation &vx}ii couie to know that tne temperance authorities and social reiormeia in tne world (lo not believe that prohrbi tion is a. remedy tor drunkenness, isunierous instances might be cited in prooi of til is assertion. At the present time one case of a social reformer 01 the iugnesi standing may be referred to. Ur navelock Ills,, tne general editor of the Contemporary Science series of books, wno has a world-wide reputation, is a case in point. This writer has maae a wide stuuy ot social questions; he has a broad looK-out oil human affairs, and anything he has tu say on matters affecting the welfare of mankind is worthy of the attention of all thougntful men and women. Iwo years ago L>r Ellis published a weekly entitled " The Task of Social Hygiene," in which he points out t'nat '' alUiougti it has invariably been seen that all attempts to make men moral by law are doomed to disappointment, spasmodic attempts to do so are continually being made atresh." Among many instances of the kind in question, he cites the attempt to make men sober by Act of Parliament, and in this connection refers especially to the prohibitory laws in America which have that object in view. " In America," he says, " there is a tendency to deal with the .sale of alcohol totally opposed to that which prevails nearly everywhere in Europe. When in Europe a man abandons the use of alcohol, he makes no demand on his fellowmen to follow his example, o-r, if he does, he is usually content to employ moral suasion to gain this end. But in the United States, where there is no single national drink, a large number of people have abandoned the use of alcohol and have persuaded themselves that its use by other people is a vice, for it is not universally recognised that ' selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is ! asking other to live as we -wish to live.' '' Moreover, as in the United States, the 1 mediaeval confusion between vice and crime ■ still subsists among a section of the popu- [ lation, being a part of the national tnadi- ■ tion; it became easy to regard the drinking of alcohol as a crime and to make it ' punishable. Hence we have "prohibi- ' tion," which haa prevailed in various States of the Union, and is especially associated ( with Maine, where it was established in a crude form in 1846 and (except for a brief interval between 1856 and 1858) has i prevailed until to-day. The law has i never been effective. It f has been made more and more stringent; the wildest excesses of arbitrary administration have 1 been committed. Scandals have constantly 1 occurred; officials of iron will and deter - ' mination have perished in the faith that ' if only they put enough energy into the task tne law might, after all, be at last ; enforced. It was all in ivain. It has always been very easy in the cities of i Maine fot those to obtain alcohol who L wished to obtain it. Finally, in 1911, by » a direct referendum, the majority by I which the people in Maine are maintaining prohibition has been brought down to ' 700 in a total poll of 120,000, while all the large towns have voted for the repeal of prohibition by enormous majorities. The people of Maine are evidently becoming slowly conscious that it is worse than i useless to make laws which no human [ power can enforce. " The result of the ■ vote," wires Mr Arthur Sherwell, an Engi lish Social Reformer, not himself opposed 1 to temperance legislation, "from every point of view, and not least from the point 1 of view of temperance, is eminently unsatisfactory, and it unquestionably created 1 a position of gTeat difficulty and emfaarrassment for the authorities. A majority ; of 700 in a total poll of 120.000 is clearly i not a sufficient mandate for a drastic law which previous experience has conclusivelyshown cannot be enforced successfully in the urban districts of the State."

Successful enforcement of prohibition on a State basis would appear to be hopeless. The history of prohibition in Maine will for ever form an Eloquent proof of the mischief which comes from the ancient ecclesiastical failure bo distinguish between the sphere of morals and the sphere of law as peroetuated under the conditions of modern life.