PROHIBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1922, Page 5

PROHIBITION.

* RESULTS IN AMERICA. ADDRESS AT NEW PLYMOUTH. An address on the working of prohibition in America was given at the Empire Theatre, New Plymouth, last night by the Rev. R. B. S. Hammond, of Sydney, who has recently been over practically every State in the United States, crossing the country in four ways in the course of his inquiries on the effect of prohibition. Mr. C. E. Bellringer presided over a fair attendance.

Speaking first of his experience in the State of Washington, of which Seattle is the chief town, the home of those splendid virile lumbermen, Mr Hammond said prohibition had been carried in 1914, the men only voting, by a majority of 18,000, whilst two years later the majority was 215,000. A gaol had been turned into a 60-acre park, hotel establishments without bars fiad become more profitable than fonnerly. all bedroom accommodation being filled, whilst 2000 out of 10,000 employees of one huge shipbuilding yard in. Seattle owned motor-cars with which to* travel to and from work. Whilst in the prohibition city of Denver, in Colorado, the speaker visited 40 premises previously used as saloons, but now converted into business places and employing from two to eleven times as many hands as before. This State of Colorado, which had carried prohibition in spite of a majority against in Denver itself, ihcreased its 1914 majority of 11,571 to 85,000 in 1916. The chief of police at Detroit had informed the speaker that it was practically an impossibility to import whisky into the city, either by rail, motor or other means. In Detroit (Michigan), the home of the automobile, Mr. Hammond searched this city with a population of one million, going into all likely places during the five hours between 7 p.m. and midnight without locating a single “drunk.” In this State the prohibition majority had been increased in two years from 58,000 to 206,000. Mr. Hammond next went to Kansas, State that had carried prohibition by a majority of 8000 in 1881, and had retained it ever since, the last time by a majority of 405,000. In this State there were few illiterates and fewer physical rejects during the war than in any other State in the union. Every other family owned a motor-car, and 62 per cent, of the families owned their own homes. Other States were visited by the speaker. In Alabama a Judge of the Supreme Court declared that prohibition was as easily enforced as any other law. while it was the largest contributing single factor to law, order and justice. The speaker concluded with an eloquent appeal for a splendid effort to be made to secure prohibition for New Zealand at the December polls. A number of questions were asked and answered, a hearty vote of thanks being accorded the speaker at the conclusion. A collection was taken up for the “victory” fund.