AMERICA AND LIQUOR

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14756, 21 September 1921, Page 2

AMERICA AND LIQUOR

LORD WORTHCLIFFE’S STATEMENTS COMBATED BY MR F. DANIELL. 1 PROHIBITION A GREAT SUCCESS. In view of f.ord Norlhcliffe’s cabled statement that illicit drinking was —rampant in the United Stales, and that '■prohibition is another word for subterfuge of a humiliating and demoralising nature,” a representative of the Waikato Times waited upon Mr F. C. Danic.ll, of Hamilton, who recently returned from a trip to America, to obtain his views on the matter. Not a Sound .judgment. “■Considerable prominence has been given to the views of Lord Northclille on the operation of prohibition in America, and particularly in the United States," said Mr Danicll, “Lord Northcliffe stayed in the States for a very brief period his every movement outdoors was shadowed try photographers and movie men, and he was the guest at all sorts of public and social functions of men who were for the most pari wealthy and who, under the old regime, would have thought it discourteous to omit liquor from the entertainment of a guest. It is scarcely to be wondered at that for so notable a guest, men opened their hoards, so that public opinion as expressed by the police force had a blind eye toward breaches of the law which were not too flagrant, but I very much doubt the soundness of a judgment formed on such a subject under such conditions. "For a very much longer period Ilian Lord Northoliffe, I was recently a member of a party that travelled some AhOO miles through the States, moving among all classes of people and looking with particular interest upon prohibition and its success nr otherwise. Wc discussed the subject with police constables, police sergeants, sailors, ferry boat men, town commissioners, road workers and contractors, engineers, farmers, merchants and fellow motorists, ■and believe these lo form a much more Impartial jury than that from which Lord Northcliffe obtained his verdict. Police Testimony. “It is of course, to he expected that in such a huge country there arc many who acquired a taste for liquor prior to tlie coming of prohibition who set up a store of it for themselves, these being chiefly men of means; but inasmuch as we were told in a number of places that the price of a botile of whisky was from 50 to 50 dollars, it was evidently something of a luxury. Conditions such ns these favour the "bootlegger,” and Uncle ram is having a busy time collecting these gentry, but he is very much in earnest over it. Upon the day in which we crossed the • Canadian border a suspected boot-lcg-geb was called on to halt fin broad daylight), and failing to do so. was shot, dying in the hospital shortly afterwards. “While waiting for a ferry-boat at ’Frisco and standing facing the long row of buildings which overlook the .water front, perhaps half a mile in length. I put the question to a friendly policeman, “How do you get on with prohibition?” In reply he pointed to this range of buildings, and stated the 1 in Mhe ‘wet’ days there were 180 saloons there, with the result that the sailors coming off the boat never got beyond this first street and the waterfront always had an animated appearance, but with the coming of prohibition the sailor on shore made his way up (flown and shared the good things oT life with other sections of the community, instead of passing over his money to the saloon-keepers and hangers-on for them to have the good time. ■ 90 Per Cent. Would Confirm It. “For anyone who has the lime and patience to do as we did, go and yarn with the labour foreman who wishes he could get a drop, but doesn’t want the open bar because it is bad for the other fellow, right up to the man directing Industries, who has a similar but more emphatic opinion, the mass of evidence in favour of prohibition is overwhelming, and to the passing visitor entirely justifies the opinion expressed in the motor camps, on Hie farm, and in the town by the American people themselves, that if a vote on the subject was taken to-morrow there would be a 00 per cent, vote in favour of prohibition. "We saw one drunken man in Mexico, «ut not one in the States we visited. “In Canada Government control does jot seem a happy solution of the problem, and there appears to he growing an irritated sense that the system must be mended or ended. “There is muc hmore evidence that I eo«ld give, but I have no wish to weary your readers, and merely desire in see that Lord Northcliffe’s statements do pot go unchallenged, and to point out tha reasons which would operate to prevent his forming a sound opinion on such a matter.”