LIQUOR AND LABOUR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 49, 12 October 1911, Page 5

LIQUOR AND LABOUR.

A MILWAUKEE PROFESSOR'S VIEWS.

AN INTERJECTOR EJECTED

At the Town Hall last night Professor W. T. Mills, of Milwaukee University, U.S.A., delivered an address entitled “Alcoholic Degeneracy and the Industrial Republic.” Ihe Mayor (Mr J. Masters) presided, v-- Professor Mills said that, it was only because alcohol had been in the world so long that it had been toleiai.ed. Distillation was only about eight hundred years old. It was discovered in the course of the preparation of ordinary food. . At this point a man in the audience made an interruption. The Professor was proceeding, when the man interrupted again, and the Professor said he would not resume his remarks until the man loft the hall. . The man said he would allow the Professor to proceed, but the Professor would not do so. ,Tho Mayor then sent for a constable and warned the interrupter that he could go out. of his own accord or go in company with the constable when he arrived. The interrupter kept his seat. After a short interval the chairman again warned the man._ He said ho would not only have him ejected but would further have him_ prosccut“You have come here,’ 'he said, to interrupt the meeting.” i • “I have not, sir,” said the. man. “I have my own views on the question, but I have not come here to interrupt the meeting.” After a considerable wait in silence the man said he was prepared to hear whiit the speaker had to say. As his previous remarks had been taken exception to he would not interrupt amain; but he hoped the lecturer would call for questions and when that time came he would ask a large number cf questions very rapidly. x The Professor declined this further invitation to speak, and another long space of silence followed. ; The Professor at last rose to speak again, but he had said only a few words when his interrupter said. “Hear, hear.” This interruption was repeated, and the Professor, said that if the remark was repeated, again he would put the man out himself. . The interrupter repeated the offensive remark and the Professor (who is a very small man sprang down into the hall in business-like fashion. Before he could reach the man, however, a\ number of the audience (in the absence of a policeman) pushed the offender out into the night air. Thereafter quiet reigned. Professor Mills, picking up the thread of his discourse, said that for a long time alcohol had been thought to be a food, but it had been found that it was not a food. Then it was claimed for alcohol that it was a stimulant, but accurate tests had shown 1 that it was not even that. . A machine which was capable of taking a mathematical record of the strengtu of a blow showed that the blow was less strong with the use of alcohol. Alcohol gave no added power even temporarily. People frequently reported that they worked harder with less effort kwhen they used alcohol, but this was only because alcohol was an anaesthetic and deadened the sensibility. 1 The fact was that a man under* the influence of alcohol w r as not aware of the effort he was expending, but. the expenditure of effort went on just the same. It was a fallacy to say that the use of alcohol helped one to enjoy life. When a man was under the influence of alcohol he no doubt laughed at a great many things, but his laughter was caused more by the deadening effect of the liquor on his brain than by any great wit in the thing laughed at. The actual fact was that the joy of life could only be increased by increasing the sensibility, and it could never be increased by the use of an anaesthetic. It w r as often said that the taking of alcohol was purely personal matter; but ho (the speaker) held that it was a matter which concerned the whole community. Alcohol had once been regarded as a medicine, but it was nothing of the kind. As regards' the digestion it could be regarded as nothing better than an antiseptic. It was guaranteed to kill anything it came into contact with, and it could be regarded as a germicide; but in the 1 operation of killing the germs it might also kill the man. Disease was the result of congestion or infection, and in neither case was alcohol of any use. If a man under the influence of liquor were killed by accident and his head were opened it would be found that the brain would burn with a blue flame. Alcohol thickened and stupefied the brain; and he did not know of anybody who had enough brains to be able to spare any to be thickened. The use of alcohol was the most potent cause of idiocy in children. Some men could use alcohol and feel no effect, but when alcohol Was used by people of highly strung nature the. results were fatal. It had always been thought that the sale of alcohol added to the commercial wealth of a country; but if the sale of alcohol was just an ordinary business, why was it necessary to have other laws to govern the sale of liquor than the sale of other commodities. What ho was contending was - that all men should have an equal opportunity in life. In New Zealand there were three great problems—land monopoly, industrial and commercial monopoly and education. In America one-fourth of the earnings of the workers was paid for ground rents. During the past year in Now Zealand the unimproved value of land had been increased by eight million pounds, but the advantage accruing from the efforts of the whole of • the people had been absorbed by the landlords. In, all parts of the world the most bountiful lands were cultivated by the poorest people. America had broken away from Great Britain in order to have a bettor opportunity, but they had managed to reproduce in America all the worst conditions of England and perhaps had gone a step or two better—or worse. He had ' heard that Taranaki was the richest part of New Zealand, but the history of the world would have to be turned

back if the people of the province did not become the poorest. If the province was the richest in the colony he was sure that the children of the present farmers would rise early, work hard, and go to bed late. Where land was rich the monopolist was sure to acquite it. He had been told that New Zealand was a country without monopolies; but he asserted that every article in use in New Zealand was the subject of a monopoly. He further asserted that the best method of enabling monopolies to operate was, as had been done in Now Zealand, to fill the press with the cry that there were no monopolies in the Dominion. As to equality of opportunity. he desired that all children should have equal education and should bo given the opportunity to work without asking leave of anybody. What, lie asked, was the relation between alcohol and the industrial republic? The whisky trust was one of the oldest in America. It was said that New Zealand’s annual drink bill was five million pounds, but really

there was no money paid for the actual drink—what was paid was a coinmission to tiie drink trust. In any other business what was made in one year was usually invested in the same business, but the same did not apply to tiie drink business, the money made in which was invested in other businesses. In the prohibition fight at Rhode Island a manifesto was issued by a priest advising his people to vote against prohibition. . they were surprised, but on investigation it was found that the priest was a shareholder in a brewery company. Much had been said about the position in Maine. A great point was made by a section of the press of the fact that certain States of America had repealed prohibition; but be drew attention to the fact that at the time the Northern Union was at war with the Southern Confederacy, and that while fighting rebellion in the South Abraham Lincoln had to compromise with the northern liquor people, who pressed him—Lincoln had to fight a rebellion in the south and a wnisky rebellion in the north. The vote against prohibition in Maine bad been carried by twenty votes, but that did not mean that the saloons would return. A New Zealand resident had said there was no corruption in New Zealand, but there was. The provision for a three-fifths majority was really ballot-box-stuffing, and while politics in America were corrupt the American people had never been so corrupt as to make ballot-box-stuffing ‘ legal.” The British Labour Party thoroughly recognised the danger to the workers from liquor, and the men representing Labour in the House of Commons were called on to take a pledge of. total abstinence. In several European countries the Labour movement had started from temperance lodges. Tixo only international conference wiiich had declared against the liquor traffic was the Soma iff t Conference, which represented nine millions of voters. In Milwaukee tiie Socialists had gained control of the city, but they had to fight for their position step by step against the whole force of the liquor trade. As sure as the days passed there was going to be a Labour Party in power in New Zealand. There was no illegal sale of liquor in any electorate in New Zealand which had voted No-Li-cense which was not connived at by the Government in power. The only way to stop the sale of liquor was to secure control of the Government machine. He had investigated affairs at Invercargill, and had found that since No-License had been carried tbs price of land had gone up. This was a natural result, while monopolies existed —when one monopoly was wiped out the rest raised their prices. When .the Labour Party joined the Temperance Party, as they would, there was every hope of carrying prohibition. A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Professor Mills, on the motion of Mr. C. D. Sole, seconded by Mr. Smith. In returning thanks Professor Mills said ho at present desired to see a 'big Dominion organisation to work for No-License. And if they got an organisation which could carry NoLicense that organisation could do anything at all which had the approval of the commonscnsc of the people. ■