PROHIBITION FALLACIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6647, 20 November 1899, Page 1

PROHIBITION FALLACIES.

♦ (Published by arrangement.** DEMORALISING EFFECTS. Messrs Rowntree and Sherwell, in an appendix to their work, "The Temperance Problem and Social Reform," draw attention to the demoralising effects of prohibition, and give the following evidence in proof:— The Hon Charles F. Libby, a former mayor of the city (Portland, Maine), and an ex-President of the, State Senate, who incurred great odium during his term of office by his efforts to enforce the law, in confirming the evidence of his successor, said: — "It is a matter of history that our sheriffs and police force become corrupted." The Right Rev James A. Healy, Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland, in giving similar evidence, said : — "I shall finish all I have to say in this matter by this statement : The intention of those who made such a law I- am not going to question ; but it corrupts every set of officers that has anything to do with it. It is a fruitful; source of perjury to all witnesses who are called upon to testify in these cases ; a.nd, it degrades the idea of law to the poor people, who say that it is only law to them, and that it is not law to the richer classfes. They therefore fight it and evade it in every way." , He added: — " This prohibitory law corrupts the officials from high to low. Every sheriff and official connected with it whom I have known has \ submitted to bribery in some way ; and every officer I have ever heard of who was in the force for any length of time accepted bribes. I know that the men selling liquor were levied on for bribes ; they had to pay so much a week, or so much a month, and that went into the corruption fund."