AN M.H.R ON HIS TRAVELS

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 60

AN M.H.R ON HIS TRAVELS

PROHIBITION IN MAINE.

LABOUR IN AMERICA. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, June 13. Mr H. D. Bedford, M.H.R., returned today by the Sonoma from a trip to England, which has occupied five months. In a conversation with an interviewer, 1 Mr Bedford said That he had passed through Maine, and looked into the administration of the prohibition laws there. He found things in a very peculiar condition. In Portland he personally discovered no less than 35 sly grog-shops, which transacted their business pretty openly, whereas, at Louiston, the utmost rigour of the law wps observed. "In Maine," he said, " prohibition has become a political issue. The reason for the enforcement or non-enforc&men't of the law is due entirely to the influence exercised over the administrators by the brewers' party. The- sheriffs are all elected by ballot for short periods, and they are moro or less amenable to corruption by tho brewers." "My own investigation shovis me," said Mr "Bedford, "that bribery is extremely rife, and sheriffs will go into office poor and come out wealthy men. I believe myself that the people themselves desire that the law r-hould be carried out, but the corruption that riddles America distorts the will of the people-. There is no fair comparison to bo made between Maine and New Zealand — the conditions arc so different. Here, at least, <here is not the same vile corruption as in America. It is the old, old etoiy of bribery and corruption in America: that you get anything you liko for money. It is in strong contrast with England, where public bodies are purely administered, from the municipal coiincil to the highest; court of the realm. The labour problem is extremely acute, and tho labour unions are very violent. Just before I left 'Frisco the men had taken a dead man out of his coffin because the box was not union made. There was a tramway strike in progress in 'iJYisco also. It's a particularly lively piaco. Tho emploj-ers interested checkmated the union by employing 503 non-unionists, housing the-ai in the earhouses, and laying in a plentiful F,upply of arms and ammunition. This frightened the strikers, and it was likely that th^y would capitulate. The labour unions' influence is carried into everything, and it is heinous to wear or use anything nofc having fcho union mark on it. It is a common thing to ccc in a street a man walking up and clown in front of a shop catling out that the occupant is an unfair dealer. They establish a boycott of many place*, and they rule wherever they can with an iron hand. The struggle between labour and capital has led to a state of ehaoi — pure anarchy, — but the most virulent hatred the unionists have is for the non-unionist. Mr Bedford thinks there is no legislation in America -\\ hieh is in advance of ours. In Canada he noted that there was arising a considerable agitation amongst a section of the manufacturers and the prfv-s for a rescinding of the privileges granted to England md her colonies, on the ground that it was doing the local industries harm without any couutcr-balancing benefit to the country.