Page 2 Advertisements Column 4

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 23, 13 December 1919, Page 2

WIDESPREAD SYSTEM OF SMUGGLING? But in any case this plea is no excuse for its inherent and rampant tyranny. In a recent publication regarded as authoritative by the No-license Party, these words occur: "I recollect on one occasion, in .conversation, one > of tho brewers said to a prohibitionist 'I hate the drunkard as much as you.' The prohibitionist replied: 'That remark defines the difference between us. You hate the drunkard: I hate the drunkard-maker.' " It is , this very externation in teaching which is sure to add to the list of the drunken. Nay, it destroys all morality.. This teaching would' .render morality impossible. Anarchy and lawlessness would be rampant. "I hate the drunk-ard-maker." In terms of logic, lie hates the hotel-keeper who sells wine, the barman who serves it, the commercial traveller, who represents wholesale houses which stock wine. A STEP FURTHER: He would hate the winegrower, the labourer in the vineyard, and the carter who carries the -wine, and so on. Tiff large drapery establishments certain persons practise shop-lifting. Prohibitionist teaching would exoiir crate them and ''lame the drapers, "I hate not the thief, but tho thiefmaker." Such" a doctrine would abolish the Ten Commandments. To shift the responsibility from the man who drinks to excess to other persons is to encourage sympathy with the drunken, and still more is this wrought by absolutely stopping the supplv, not only to the few lawless, but to the whole community. This remedy is fatal to morals. It is fatal to" set ur> a compulsory and ascetic total abstinence society for the people and to enforce its rules by a drastic criminal code. ■ A true educational development undoubtedly means that the whole of. -man's attributes, are to be brought into',true' harmony. Here lies the worth "of the individual, and .. , , ■ ' ! ' ' n "'' THE TRUE GREATNESS OF THE , ;I ft f , , IT . STATE, ~.*■ A ' mere negation' such as prohibition would 1 never'accomplish this; in fact, a i greater violation _of its principles can hardly be conceived. This National Prohibition craze is mainly the work of a handful of fanatics, while some'honest people, even some Catholics, owing to what they have suffered from drunken fathers or mothers, husbands, or wives, relatives or friends, put sentiment before reason and yield to the tempta-tion-'of resorting to a remedy worse than the disease. But let Catholics and all good Christians be timely warned. We know that there are in the ranks of the prohibitionists, though not, perhaps, amongst the present leaders of this country,

BITTER ENEMIES OP THE CATHOLIC" CHURCH and of the Mass. There is a ,reaJ,vdajH ger that these people would' 1 pfer 0$ •try 1 here, "as they have done in at least one-important State of America, ;to: rendei- the.;Holy /Sacrifice of the Mass .-impossible. Listen to what one of' their leaders' in the" United' State's has'said. Sidney Catts, Governor of the State of Florida, at the-annual convention of the Anti-Saloon League, held in. Washington as recently as December, 1917, made the following declaration: "Liquor may not be imported into the State of Florida (after I get through with the prohibition measure and after the Bill has been passed by the people) for any purpose whatsoever, and the man who needs liquor for his religion had better prepare to take his religion out of Florida." But I shall be told that wc run no such danger in New Zealand, as we have the assurance of the leaders of the No-license League, together with the Government, that satisfactory regulations will be made to allow wine to be procured for Sacramental purposes. I am not at all convinced that these regulations will be satisfactory. First of all, what are they? Nobody has seen them, and they are not to be made, I understand, until after the poll is taken. IS IT REASONABLE to ask Catholics to vote for National Prohibition on the strength of regulations not yet made, and about which we know nothing—whether they will be satisfactory or otherwise? But even though the present prohibition leaders and the present Government may be perfectly sincere in their avowed purpose to make regulations that will be entirely satisfactory, what guarantee have we that in a few years, once national prohibition is the law of the land, other prohibition leaders and another •Government—om the ground, say, tha„ tM exemptions are being.abuseci--may not insert an amendment in the Act doing away tvi'L'h all exemptions, oven for the Mass, or recasting the regulations in such fashion as to practically prevent the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice? We (have had too much experience of recent "rush" legislation on the part of our Parliament not to fear similar "rush" legislation in regard to Sacra',ment;il wine, especially. I repeat, as tlft No-license movement' numbers amongst its' most prominent advocates men who publicly denounce tJw Mass as "an un-Christian superstition," and make no secret of their determination if thev had tho power, to prevent its celebration in New Zealand. I consider, therefore, that I would be failing in my duty,did I not warn our people of THE DANGEROUS POSSIBILITIES that are before them. Is the great Catholic Church, in, this pretended free land, to depend for the exercise of n natural and divine right on any fallible and fallacious Government or sot of politicians? Such a thing is an insult, an outrage, and au indignity.