PROHIBITION

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6596, 7 May 1925, Page 3

PROHIBITION

LECTURE BY MR C. H. POOLE Mr C. H. Poole, who has been lecturing in the United States of America on the resources and pleasure resorts of New Zealand, is now giving the people of the Dominion the benefit of his observations while in America in relation to the working of prohibition. Last night Mr Poole lectured before a large audience: in the Parish Hall, Te Aroha, and for over two hours he held the closest attention of all present as he placed before them facts showing the wonderful progress that has been made industrially by the Americans under prohibition. Mr Poole is a fluent and fascinating speaker with a rare gift of humour and with a fund of stories and incidents which he uses with great aptitude to illustrate and drive home his points. During his stay in the United States he had delivered, he said, 1000 addressen in 25 djjgferent States. His audiences had averaged 1000 and, had sometimes numbered 10,000. Everywhere he was received with the same uniform courtesy. Of the American people 50 millions were British or of British origin, and some of the people were more English than we are. In all his travels he did not say a word about prohibition. The American people had settled that for themselves. Prohibition had now been thrr.ched into the constitution of the United States making it illegal for liquor to be sold or consumed in that country. This was done by the consent of 46 out of 48 States. For four years he had been meeting the people of America under normal conditions and he could say that on his return he had seen in this country more drunken, unemployable, disgusting, filthy men than he had seen during the whole of his four years in America. Mr Poole, in speaking of the results of prohibition, said that anything which developed industrial contentment reduced the danger from those who were at enmity with the State. Some astounding figures were given showing the prosperity of the steel industry in America, which, Mr Poole contended, was based on the higher spending power of the people as a .result of prohibition. Workers who formerly crowded into the cities were able to purchase homes in the country and drive to and from their work in their own automobiles. Prohibition was not a joy-killer and he stood there as an advocate of a policy that was going to bring to this country the same prosperity and the same domestic happiness as they had in the United States. As an evidence of the prosperity of the workers he stated that he had seen in America a 22story building which was one of 15 banks that had been erected by the locomotive engineers. In New Zealand they had been trying to legislate to improve the conditions of the worker, but what we were trying to do by legislation America had solved with prohibition. Plasterers in Philadelphia were getting as high as 22 dollars a day, equivalent to £25 a week. Was that not a horrible thing to charge up against prohibition. He had seen negroes who were getting 20 dollars a day for throwing bricks on to a landing. They worked 14 hours a day, but who would not do that for 20, dollars ? So difficult was it to obtain skilled artisans for all the buildings in progress that bank clerks were induced to leave jobs so that they might be trained as artisans. The American house was very complete and required the use of a quantity of steel, and it was this and the number of homes that were being built that was partly responsible for the great activity in the steel industry. There were 15 million motor cars in America and 7 out of 8 cars in the world were in the United States. It was quite usual for working men to own cars, and some of these cars were of costly make. This might indicate extravagance, but it also indicated great spending power. Even the hobos or tramps had cars in America. In the manufacture of the hundreds of thousands of cars used vast quantities of steel were used, and this also added to the prosperity of the steel industry. In America they had daylight saving and a working man, after his day’s work was over, had six hours of dayligh before going to bed. This enabled him to have a home and garden in the country, and many had what were called chicken ranches and bee farms, which they worked as side lines. He had seen one incubator capable of hatching 40,000 eggs. Mr Poole dealt ably with the benefits that farmers derive from Prohibition. The first man to benefit was the man who was producing the necessary things of life, such as wheat, milk and butter. As a result of prohibition taxation had been

reduced in America. The speaker dealt in a most 'interesting way with many phases of the prohibition question, and said that the great purchasing power of the people was shown by the fact that 96 per cent, of what the country produced was consumed by its own people. He spoke of the great increase in milk consumption, which had reduced disease, the complete educational institutions and the reverence the American people had for their religious teachers, which he contrasted with the contempt expressed by the word wowser in this country. When a sum of 10-, 000 dollars was offered for the best man in America it went not to a doctor or scientist but to a preacher. At the conclusion Mr Poole was acrorded a hearty vote of thanks by acclamation.