The White Ribbon: FOR GOD AND HOME AND HUMANITY. Monday, August 16, 1897. Lady Henry Somerset on Prohibition.

White Ribbon, Volume 3, Issue 26, 1 August 1897, Page 7

The White Ribbon: FOR GOD AND HOME AND HUMANITY. Monday, August 16, 1897. Lady Henry Somerset on Prohibition.

Much interest has been created by the evidence of Lady Henry Somerset before the recent Royal Commission in England. According to the Westminster Gazette , she is said to have justified teetotalism because of the assistance the example gave to others. She did not advocate Prohibition “ If we have a Lir field and no favour, the trade died, well and good ; she had too much respect for the liberty of the subject to wish for coercion." The supporters of the Liquor Traffic have been exulting in some of our daily papers over the fact that Lady Henry does not advocate Prohibition, and some of the friends of Temperance have been correspondingly pained to find that so prominent a temperance worker had apparently changed her views. We venture to say that there has been a misunderstanding of terms, and that if Lady Henry knew that what we call “ Prohibition " is really Local Option, she would be one of its staunchest advocates. Our public houses are only kept open by the direct vote of the people, and we are absolutely satisfied that were a similar law in operation in England, Lady Henry would be one of the first to urge the people to vote “ No License." We have always thought it a mistake to call our “ Local Option, “ Prohibition,” and we believe that this mistaken title has roused much ueedless

opposition. Lady Henry is opposed to coercion, and there are thousands of people in the colony who will sym. pathise with her in this There is a repellant sound about 44 Prohibition ” that is ominously like coercion, and unfortunately many people do not distinguish between the mere name and the thing itself.