AMERICAN PROHIBITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19761, 12 April 1926, Page 9

AMERICAN PROHIBITION

MODIFICATION CAMPAIGN. SUPPORTED BY LABOUR LEADERS. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) WASHINGTON, April 9. (Received April 10, at 5.5 p.m.) Mr William Roberts, who was personally representing Mr William Green (president of the American Federation of Labour) testified before the Senate’s Probition inquiry. He said that the homes of the people were being turned into breweries and distilleries, turning out dangerous con'coctions which ' would ruin the health of those who drank them to any extent. America was drifting nearer and nearer to becoming a whisky-drinking nation under prohibition. Mr Andrew Furuseth (President of the International Seamen’s Union), who has followed the sea for 50 years, said he and other sailors wanted “clean wholesome beer of the kind my mother used to make.” Mr James O’Connely, a Labour leader, said that the old-fashioned saloon was still operating in New York with a free lunch. “You cannot regulate drinking or females smoking cigarettes any more than you can' fly.”—A. and N.Z. Cable. CANADA’S EXPERIENCE. FAILURE OF PROHIBITION. WASHINGTON, April 10. (Received April 11, at 11.5 p.m.) Sir William Sta vert, ex-chairman of the Quebec Liquor Commission, and Mr Frussal, president of the Manitoba Moderation League, testified before the Senate committee that prohibition had been tried in one Canadian province after another with such disastrous results that the resentment of the people had forced the repeal of the dry laws and the enactment of the Government distribution of liquor which had remedied the unspeakable conditions of the “dry” regime. Sfr William Stavert said that semi-pro-hibition had been tried in Quebec and even that had been found too drastic. He pointed out that under prohibition young people were corrupted, the psychopathic wards were filled owing to the vile stuff drunk, and crime increased. Mr John Sullivan, president of the New York State Federation of Labour, testified that the improvement in the higher standards of life and work and the greater reward tor services rendered were not due to the Volstead Law but in spite of it. Organised Labour had ever been engaged in promoting temperate drinking in that direction until the enactment of the Volstead Law. Millions of homes, in the majority of which liquor was never, seen, had now been turned into breweries, probably distilleries. Tbj “dry” witnesses will probably appear before the committee, beginning on Monday.—A. and N.Z. Cable.