PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

Otago Witness, 14 December 1893, Page 21

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA.

MR A. C. BEGG'S ACCOUNT.

At the Young Women's Christian Association rooms en Monday night Mr A. C. Begg, who has just returned from a trip to the Home country and America, gave a lecture, under the auspices of the Prohibition League, to a large audience, on his experiences in the prohibicory State of Maine. A couple of gent'emen who are connected with the liquor trade in the city were among the audience. Mr A. S. Adams occupied the chair.

Mr Begg, who was received with hearty applause, spoke in glowing terms of the success of the prohibition law. He spent most of his time in the State of Maine in Portland, a city with 60,000 inhabitants, and which, although the largest town in the State, is not the capital. Travelling in the train towards this rising city it was noticeable that all the villages had a thriving and pleasant look, everything was trim and nice, and he was informed by a fellow passenger that the settlers were a hardworking, industrious people, and that there was no such thing as the liquor traffic known in the country districts of the State. — (Applause.) On reaching Portland he proceeded with Mrs Begg to a hotel called Prebble House — a hotel which was, he thought, considerably better than any hotel here, and yet there was no strong drink Bold in it. — (Applause ) There were other hotels in the city, over 20 altogether, with accommodation for from 20 to 400 guests, and in none of them was liquor sold. He made iuquiries of the landlord as to the possibilities of getting some drink — (laughter) — but he was told that none could be sold there ; it wss too dangerous. If he cold any driok it meant a minimum fine of lOOdol and 60 days in the penitentiary — (renewed laughter ) — and the landlord was not prepared to risk it. Tbat was the state of affairs with regard to all the hotels, and nobody seemed to wish for the drink. With General Neal Dow, to whom he had a letter of introduction from their late respected friend Sir William Fox, he had a pleasant talk, in the course of which mention was made of the statements made from time to time of the failure of the prohibition law in Maine. General Neal Dow said that statements of that kind began to be circulated shortly after the passing of the prohibition law in 1851, and that they had been continued persistently, notwithstanding that they had been refuted on very many occasions. The general himself helped in the work of refutation by writing a pamphlet in 1872 in reply to ad verse statements made in the House of Commons and the House of Lords in England as to the work of the Maine prohibitory law, and among the testimonies he received as to the efficacy of the law were some from the Governor of the State ; W. P. Frye, M.C. for Maine, and ex- Attorney- general of the State ; Lot M. Morrill, a member of the Senate; J. G. Blame, who at the time he edded his testimony (1872) occupied the second position iv the Government of the United States ; and other Senators and representatives. When the prohibitory act was passed in Maine there were seven distilleries and two breweries in Portland, and cargoes of West India rum were continually being landed in the town ; but now, under the new state of things, there is not a single distillery in the whole State of Maine — (applause) — and not one puncheon of rum is imported ; and instead of prohibition damaging the trade of Maine, the town had grown up to be a great trading place. The report of the Board cf Trade did not by any means indicate a dead or decaying town. Wtiile he was in Portland curiously enough a Royal Commission, appointed by the Dominion Government, was sitting to inquire into tho working of the prohibitory law, and in the evidence given by the Rev. Dr Randall, a man nearly 90 years of age, he said he had been for nearly 55 years connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church, that before the prohibitory lav/ camo iuto force iv Maine many of the town?, and especially the seaport towns, were very drunken, that drunkenness was the prevailing vice, and that throughout the country districts rum was largely consumed, to the great prejudice of the people. But when the law Wfcß passed the country towns gradually became sober, and now, after a lapse of 4.3 years, it was seldom that drink was heard of in any part of the State. Ho was asked by a member of the commission if his church would admit to membership aryone known to be connected directly or indirectly with the liquor traffic, and he said no ; his church would not admit them — (applause) ; — and it would not admit to membership anyone who was known to use liquor in anything but a very moderate way indeed. After Iho prohibition law was passed, proceeded Mr Begg, a strong agitation was made against it. and es a result ib was repealed in 1855, but such an immense increase in drunkenness took place (hat in two years the act was again brought into force, and it had remained in force ever since. The people were so satisfied with it, indeed, that it was now parb of the Constitution of the State, and could not be repealed except by a vote of t vo-thirds of the people. — (Applause.) A member of the Legislature who also gave evidence before the commission said he knew it was utterly hopeless for any person or any body of persons to try to have the law repealed or tampered with — (Applause.) Before leaving Portland, Mr Begg one morning visited the vaults of the Town Hall with the sheriff, and there he saw some seizures of spirits. A large hole had been made iv the concrete floor, and down this cbanue), which communicated with tho common sewei', all the spirits that had been seized were poured. — (Laughter ) He saw in the vaults nve-tjsiiion c-i&ks of whisky, seized within the previous week en the borders of the Snate, which it was Intended t,o xiour down into the sewer that afternoon. To show how the law was enforced in Main, he would just read a local he came across in the Augusta Daily Journal: — "City M. # rshal Crawford received word Wednesday that a five-gallon keg and a two-gallon jug, both full of poor whisky, were at a certain notorious resort on the East Side, awaiting transportation to Windsor, where a horse trot was in progress. With a couple of officers the marshal went at once to the place, but the whisky waß Dot there, having been hastily sent to Windsor by a fast horse." What would be thought of a paragraph of that kind in the Otago Daily Times ? Windsor, he might explain, was across the border, and the whisky was being run after by three officers of the Government of Maine— (laughter) — bub when they came to the place where it wa3 said to be they found it had been sent a^ay on a fast horse. — (Laughter and applause ) A straw was sufficient to show how the current was running, and tbat occurrence showed that the officers were alive to their duties and did not allow the grass to grow under their feet. — (A Voice : "It wasn't Stringer that was on tbat horee, was it?"— Laughter.) Mr Begg also had a walk through Portland at midnight, and he was pleased to say he found everytuing quiet and orderly in all j arts of the town. Iv the vaults in the Town Hall he also &aw some curious devices that tho people iv Ibe lowest parts of the town had for gebHug liquor. He noticed soiiie coils of indiarubber tubing, and lie was fcold that it had communicated from a ca/jk of

beer, which had been hid under the ground, to a dark cellar, into which people went to obtain a drink of the beer. He would be very glad to see drink bo difficult to get at as that in Dunedin. — (Hear, hear.) The Government of Maine had what was called a dispensary — a shop where a certain amount of spirits was sold. They were sold in limited quantities to those who brought doctors' orders, and made a declaration that the liquor was for medicinal use only. That was the only way in which drink could be obtained there. People were also allowed to import from outside the State and these were allowed to pass the customs provided the claimants made a declaration and satisfied the authorities that the drink was entirely for their own use and that of their families. He was told, however, that fully one-half of the quantities brought in this way were seized by the municipal authorities as being contraband. In a large town like (Portland drink could not altogether be excluded, for the many sailors who frequented it would go to no end of trouble to get it, but the universal testimony, he was glad to say, was that there was less drinking in Portland than there was thieving in any of the other cities. They could never expect, he thought, to absolutely prohibit the drink. The object of the law was to prohibit it as much as possible, and to punish any breach of the law. There were laws also against stealing and fraud, but they did not absolutely prevent those offences. — (Hear, hear.) The State of lowa was also prohibitive, and he was told by peraons who had been in it — he was not in it himself — that as soon as the train entered that State the revenue officers boarded it and scaled up the bar, and notice was given that no more drink could be sold until the train entered the State of Illinois.— (Applause.) The speaker concluded his address by reading a lengthy extract from the pen of the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, who spoke in very high terms of praise of the good results of prohibition in America, and the success with which the law was worked wherever it was in force.

In answer to questions, Mr Begg said the farmers in Maine did not grow barley. As to the charges in the hotels, he eaid that in the first-class hotels in Maine the charge was from 12s to 16s a day, and in the second-class hotels from 6s to Bs. Comparing those prices with those of the hotels in Chicago, which all sold drink, except the temperance hotels, the rates were much cheaper. In Chicago the rates ruled about £1 a day in the first-clars hotels, and in the second-c'ass hotels bhey were about 12s. In Montreal the charge in a first-class hotel was 18s a day, which was higher than the highest rates in Portland. It would be seen, then, that the temperance hotels were not so expensive as those iv which liquor was sold.

On the motion of Mr F. Graham, seconded by Mrs Trainor, a hearty vote of thanks was accorded Mr Begg for his interesting and important address.

Daring the cours3 of the lecture a portrait of General Neal Dow, who is now in his ninetieth year, was handed round the room and viewed with a very great amount of interest. The veteran temperance worker's birthday will be celebrated in March next, and Mr Begg understands that the Women's Christian Temperance Union of America are going to issue an invitation to every temperance organisation in the world to take part in a grand celebration of his ninetieth anniversary, so that he may see that the temperance workers throughout the English speaking world are bound together in their admiration of him and his noble work. — (Applause.)