THE APPEAL OF THE BUSINESS MEN.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 279, 18 September 1918, Page 6

THE APPEAL OF THE BUSINESS MEN.

It was a notable gathering, that assemblage of two or three thousand in the Town Hall of Wellington hist Monday evening, the yth instant. For it was not simply the leading iepre sentatives, and the rank and file, of the great Temperance party such as usually greets the speakers at a large Temperance meeting; it was an audience representative of the business men that had met to hear one of the most prominent members of the business world, and one of the leading educationists, in the Dominion, put forward their views on the burning* question of the time. After the Mayor, who presided, had opened the proceedings, the first speaker was Mi Hunt, one of the original members of th: National Efficiency Hoard, and he be gan by outlining the origin, constitution, and work of that Hoard, with whose recommendations and policy the public already have been made fairly familiar. He pointed out that the money compensation was necessitated, as a matter fairness, by the existing legislation, which allowed 4} years’ continuance after the carrying of Pro hibition— the time compensation was being commuted for a money compensation.

It was a treat to follow Mr Hunt’s well-rcasoned-out argument on produ< tive power, on which the welfare and progress of a nation depended. Surplus productive power was used partly to raise the average standard of living, i.e., provide better houses, food and clothing, better education and recreation, partly to improve the fatilities for future production, i.e.. develop natural resources of the land, increase its productivity, provide better means of transport. Producing power w.is the result of accumulated surplus production in the past, not only material things, but also the trained ability of skilled workers. Surplus production per head of population, together with the average standard of living, were live measure of national efficiency; and those nations would lead that were economic.illy most efficient. Comparing United States and (lrr.it Britain with China and India, the former with high standard of living and high surplus production, therefore economically efficient, had rapidly raised their war power to the level of that of the Central Pow ers; the latter, with immense

population, but lacking economic lK>wer, had contributed comparative!) little to the war.

He then proceeded to show that drink reduced efficiency. Taking a man’s career from 20 years of age to 63, to take one sixpenny drink per day meant a loss of £1450, allowing interest at 5 per cent. The same '-ixpence per day saved till the age of 25 and then invested at 10 per a rate easily earned—wou'd produce £6750. Besides the loss of money, there was also the impairing of efficiency through alcohol, consequent reduction of earning power, even sup posing that the man never became a drunkard. All employers preferred non-drinkers to drinkers, for nothing undermined character like drink. Even a slight reduction in efficiency made all the difference between success and failure; and this statement the speaker proved by actual figures. It did not take much drink to cause failure in a business concern, whether through one man in a responsible position destroying by his drunken habits the* efficiency of the st.iff under him. or through a small proportion of the staff drinking to excess, while the remainder, and the head, were capable and efficient.

Capital accumulating at 5 per cent, doubled itself in 14 years, though, .is a matter of fact, surpluses did not increase so rapidly because the standard of living tended to rise at the same time, and quite rightly, for this was the very object of production. Therefore the standard of efficiency was continually being raised, and any nation that wished to lead must keep on advancing. Canada and the United States had thrown off the drink incubus, completely or to a great extent, and they were progressing by leaps and bounds. It would be impossible for New Zealand to keep up in the race hampered as she was b> loss of efficiency through drink.

Mr Hunt dealt next with the revenue question. The revenue from drink was approximately £ 1,100,000 per annum, interest and sinking fund on sum proposed as compensation w.is .£300,000. People asked, how could the country afford to lose this? It was absurd to argue that the county must go on drinking £5,000,000 per annum in order to provide £1,000.000, even without taking account of the loss of efficiency caused through consuming this liquor. The money, if not spent

on drink, would either be spent on other things or invested, and in either case would be liable to taxation —if invested, would come up for taxation, not once only, but every year. Quoting actual figures, Mr Hunt showed how the increased revenue obtained during the last four years - an increase from 12 millions odd to 20 millions odd—had nearly all been obtained from stamp and dea’h duties, railways, post and telegraph, land tax, and income tax. The bulk of it had been taken from the pockets of the wealthy. Men in charge of big business and financial concerns were supporting the movement tc abolish liquor, because they knew this would not mean increased taxation, but larger incomes for everybody, and therefore a large increase in the number of taxable incomes. The proposal made to the Trade by the Efficiency Board’s recommendation was a fair one, and the money required for it, even if it were five or six millions, would be a mere nothing to the country, for the saving in the cost of the drink, and in the inefficiency that was caused by drink -crime, lunacy, poverty, and distress, etc. would pay the whole thing twice over in the first year. The speaker appealed to those Prohibitionists who still felt unable to support the recommendation on account of their objection to compensation, not to do anything that might split the party, and perhaps defeat the one proposal that had a reasonable chance of being carried, whereby the whole Traffic could be immediately done away with. The Liquor Party’s new proposal for National Ownership was an attempt to split the votes, and prevent any issue at all being tarried. But nothing should be submitted to a referendum unless there was a large popular demand for it. If three issues were submitted for referendum, either there ought to be preferential voting, or there should be a second ballot in the event of no issue being carried. Mr Hunt cone lutled his telling and convincing address with stating his belief that the result of the present war would be s >u< han access of energy to the world that the progress made in the 20th century would be even greater than that of the iqth. The next speaker was Mr Milner, Principal of the Waitaki Bovs’ High School, who pointed out that the demand for prohibition of the Liquor

Traffic had become world-wide, supported by thinking men everywhere on the grounds of humanity and efficiency. It was no longer extremists or fanatics that were asking for it, but the movement had been placed on a new footing by receiving the support of the commercial community. Nor was it any longer insular or local, for every country in the world was dealing with the matter, and that b> drastic measures. He had come to the conclusion, from reading the writ ings of Sir F. Smith, that the consumption of alcohol was largely a matter of fashion. Sir F. Smith had recently visited North America as a representative of .the British Govern merit, to present to the people there the ideas of Knglanu about the war. The article he wrote while travelling revealed an interesting change of opinion. At first amazed, even to the extent of indulging in sarcasm, by the absence of liquor in important social functions, he found that Prohibition was a permanent part of the social life of the people, and before long he became himself a convert to the principle. Mr Milivr gave an interesting resume of the struggle against liquor in the United Kingdom in the early part of the war. Spite of the pleadings of the Shipbuilders’ Federation, spite of the representations of Ford Jellicoe, of the Director of Transport, and the Director of Munitions, spite of the example of the King, every effort to sweep away the drink evil failed, and Mr Floyd George had to content himself with certain restrictive measures because the Traffic was so strongly entrenched, numbering amongst its proprietary supporters clergymen, titled persons, members of Parliament, and a large majority of the Balfour Ministrv. Referring to the instruction “1 the young, the speaker strongly advocated Scientific Temperance education in the schools, when the plastic nvnds of the young can be so easily mould cd. The strong public sentiment in America on the liquor question was

the result of the systematic temperance instruction given in the schools there for the last thirty years or more. In 1905, 15,000 medical men of Britain, among them all the leaders of the profession, had asked that hygiene and temperance, especially the dangers of moderate drinking, should be taught in the schools. But again the political influence of the brewers was too strong, and nothing war. done. Here in New Zealand the Minister of Education (Mr Hanan) had asked the Education Boards to see that proper temperance instruction was given in the schools. But nothing was done, nor ever would be until public opinion insisted on the teachers being trained in the subject, and the inspectors being directed to report on it as on the other subjects of the rurricu lum. T he Liquor Control Board in England set up a committee of nine cxIH'rts to report on the effects of alcohol. They were eminent medical men, absolutely unbiassed, and their report show :d that the claim of alcohol to any value as food was quite unfounded, that the benefit of the carbohydrates in alcohol was more than compensated by the evil effects on the nervous system. The amount of alcohol that could be assimilated by the human body in 24 hours was only about as much as was contained in one pint of beer. Alcohol did not assist, but greatly reduced muscular power. It was not .» tonic, but on the c ontrary, a narcotic, a paralyser, to be classified with drugs like opium and chloral, and the* evil effects were produced not merely by its excessive use, but by minute doses, as proved by a series of investigations. Deterioration in the quality of the work done was invariably the result. Referring to the Imperial aspect of the- question, Mr Milner said that though Britain claimed to be fighting for freedom and democracy, in one respect she had failed lamentably in her treatment of the native races, vi?.. in her liquor trade with them. Alike in India, Africa, New' Zealand, she had

sent her accursed liquor to be the ruin, of the natives it was her duty to protect. This was a blot on Britain's Imperial escutcheon. In New Zealand now huge fortunes were being made out of the liquor traffic. Whisky was pouring into the count!y, and much of it, costing 2s 6d .1 gallon at Leith, w.is being retailed in New Zealand at 72s a gallon. It was time people woke up to the facts, and destroyed the Trade before it had fastened any more firmly its hold on the Government and Parliament of the country. It was a grand thing that the business men of the Dominion were associating themselves with the fight. He trusted that the time was near when the people should have the opportunity of striking such a blow at the Traffic as would remove it for ever from our midst, and so the generation to come should have a better c&ance of happiness and advancement than was possible to those who had gone before. Votes of thanks were passed to the speakers, and the proceedings terminated.