WHO ARE “THE TEMPERANCE PEOPLE”?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 4

WHO ARE “THE TEMPERANCE PEOPLE”?

We hear a lot these days about temperance meetings, temperance “rallies,” and so on. Who are the people behind all this? Are they really “temperance” people? Is it not a fact that they are rabid compulsionists? Why do they stand before the public in borrowed plume?? Is it to catch the unwary, or is it just pure hypocrisy ? Compulsory total abstinence is the negation of temperance. Temperance, meaning moderation in use, is far removed from attempted enforcement of total abstinence by fines and imprisonment. Temperance is a happy mean between extremes, and the avoidance of either extreme. It is the exercise of reason and intelligence. The public will not be misled by this camouflage, and will not allow the “ prohibs ” to assume a virtue which they do not possess. There is, of co'urse, a reason for the tactics referred to, and that reason is that prohibition is such a totally discredited cause that its advocates, who are unable to advance a single sound argument, are seeking to bolster up what is left of their cause by questionable methods. The result can only be. a still greater swing to Continuance, which has been amply demonstrated as ollering the only sure foun dation for true temperance.—Advt.