PROHIBITION FALLACIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6597, 22 September 1899, Page 1

PROHIBITION FALLACIES.

(Published by arrangement.) DRINK AND CRIME. Touching on therelaiion between drink and crime, Fanshawe, in his admirable work on "Liquor Legislation in tho United States and Canada," has a note which throws a flood of light on ti.e methods employed by temperance workers to justify their wild statements. Fanshawe says: — The proportion of crime tyi drink is often stated by ardent prohibitionists, with more emphasis than accuracy, to be nine-tenths of the whole. Those of a more cautious temperamen b admit this estimate to be exaggerated, and recognise the difficulty of ascertaining the true position. One specially conversant with the criminal statistics of the State in which he holds office, and by no means hostile to the principle of prohibition, has told me that many wild statements of this kind go uncontradicted, because anyone who demurs to or refutes them is set down as an enemy to temperance : that he himself receives letters, which he does not care to answer fully and openly, asking him to confirm such allegations out of his official knowledge. But he ' has no. doubt that crime in general is very much less the effect of drink than many people suppose.' A tempei-ance lady goes and delivers a sympathetic address to the prisoners in gaol, dwelling on the evils of drink and its awful consequence in turning good, respectable men into criminals. Then she calls upon those who are brought to their present unfortunate condition by this cause to hold up their hands. Nearly everyone holds up his hand. Therefore nins-tenths of the crime is the result of drink. There is, as T have frequently been told by persons of prison exparience, a strong tendency among convicts to " put it on the . drink." A man determines to commit a crime ; he fortifies himself with a dram ; he is caught, and he says he was brought to it by drink. As a matter of fact., a large class of criminals could not carry on their profession if they were drinkers. Liquor has enough to answer for without any need for exaggeration." The criminal is generally both a coward and a sneak; and he finds it much easier to attribute his downfall to drink than to i his own moral deficiency and lack of selfcontrol. The criminal is cunning, too, and knows full well the advantage of pleading that " but for the drink this would never have happened." The weaknesses of human nature are never more apparent than in the criminal ; and the temptation to blame anything rather than oneself is too strong to be resisted, particularly when advantage is to be gained by it. In Maine, the chaplain of the State Penitentiary, in his report for 1892. stated that 46 per cent of the prisoners were, according to their own statements, teetotallers. THE REV G. M. AULLIGAN. The above, who is minister of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Toronto, in giving evidence before the Royal Commission on the Liquor Traffic, said:— ," lf you pass legislation treating as a crime a thing that is not a rrime, if you cannot carry the conscience or the moral sentiment of the community with you, you will beget an •irreverence for the law all round." 1988