CHANGED HIS VIEWS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 1009, 8 July 1909, Page 21

CHANGED HIS VIEWS.

In East Orange, N.J. (U.S.A.), there is a man by the name of Thomas R. Creede (says “Bonforts”). He is president of the Playground Commission in that city. Mr. Creede for a number of years has been a staunch prohibitionist, but now he has.changed his views. He is in the South investigating conditions there, and in a few brief weeks he has seen enough to convince him that high license and strict regulation is decidedly better than so-called prohibition. Mr. Creede, in writing from Mobile, Ala., states that under State-wide prohibition liquor and beer are sold openly by saloons that formerly paid in license fees 100,000 dollars yearly, that went to schools of the city. The same saloons now pay no revenue whatever. It is impossible, Mr. Creede states, to convict the saloon-keeper, as no jury can be found in the city that will bring in a verdict of guilty. Mr. Creede is in no way interested in the wine and spirit trade, and a few weeks ago he was an enthusiastic prohibitionist. His opinion of the inefficacy of prohibition is based upon personal observation of the conditions existing in so-called prohibition territory. He is convinced evidently that prohibition is not practicable, and is honest enough to say so.