Y’s Column.

White Ribbon, Volume 27, Issue 313, 18 July 1921, Page 14

Y’s Column.

OXFORD. May 2. Miss N. Waterman presided. A good attendance. Letters of congratulation to two of our members. Miss Gundry and Miss Rossiter, on the occasion of their marriage. Decided to ask Miss Watkins to give a lecture on Home Nursing. During evening a very intereating letter was read from our “Y” Superintendent. Mrs Young. After the business, the girls cut out garments to be made up for Nurse Maude's distribution .among the poor. Meeting ended with soeial cup of tea. May 23. Enjoyable soeial evening. Funds raised, £5. Since last meeting we last one of our members, Miss V. Clark, and our deepest sympathy goes out to her parents. „ INVERCARGILL. June 8. Good attendance. Mrs Young. Y Superintendent, went over several of the different branches of work which she thought our Union should do. The President spoke of White Ribbon Day, and we were all urged to get more subscribers for it. NELSON. June 24. We had an encouraging meeting. Miss Sutherland presided, and one new member was initiated. We have drawn up a good syllabus for the coming months. We spent the evening planning future work. This year the "Y" Branch will go ahead in Nelson.

My Dear Y Girls, — We are so glad to have you with us in our great fight against the Liquor Trade. Your zeal and devotion inspire us to hope great things in the coming campaign. That you may be the better (‘quipped for the strife, armed at every point, we propose to give you some facts about the world-wide work and a few salient features in the history of our movement. The great Republic of the IT.S.A. has outlawed King Alcohol, and anybody who imports, exports, manufactures, buys, or sells any liquor containing the half of one per cent, of alcohol is a lawbreaker and a criminal. Tt is not overstating the case to say that the eyes of the world are upon America, watching the result of such drastic legislation. A great deal that is untrue is being circulated as to the evils of prohibition and what a failure It is proving. 1 want, our girls to keep this fact in mind, that prohibition has passed beyond the experimental stage in USA., and that whatever outsiders may think, the people on the spot have been so satisfied with the results of prohibition that they

have gone on enlarging the area of dry territory, until the whole Republic is so dry that a comic paper gives a new definition of an optimist, “A Scotchman who takes a corkscrew to America.” The little State of Maine was the first to make the experiment ever sixty years ago, and in our youthful days we remember the amount of ink expended in telling the public what a failure prohibition was in Maine. But the people in Maine did not think it a failure, and other States were so satisfied that one by one they followed Maine’s example and became "dry.” That you may the better appreciate how this has been achieved, we want you to know a little of the American form of Government. L.S.A. is a Federal Republic. It consists of 48 States, each having Its own Governor and Houses of Legislature, and making its own laws for internal government. Then over all are the Federal Houses of Parliament, with the President at their head, and they deal with affairs concerning the whole Republic. When States began to go "dry” they had two kinds of prohibition—Prohibition by Statute, and Constitutional Prohibition. wh ch meant prohibition was put in the Cor«ditution of the State, and could not be altered without a vote of the people. Maine had Constitutional Prohibition, but in 1911 the Liquor party got sufficient members into the State Parliament to carry a resolution that "Prohibition be re-submitted to the people." Then a great fight commenced. led by our own Lilian M. Stevens. Had the Liquor party carried re-submission, it would have meant, not the granting of licenses, but that then the people would have to vote as to whether they would have saloons back again. I w r ant you clearly to understand this point, because many temperance people voted for re-submission, as they thought the people should have a vote on the question if they wished it, but these same people would never have voted to open the saloons. Now. mark this, my dear girls, the people of Maine were so satisfied with their prohibition law that they would not even carry a vote to resubmit it to the people. State after State went "dry,” and now came the fight for National Prohibition. The Federal Congress and Senate, by large majorities, passed the Bth Amendment to the Constitution, for bidding the manufacture, sale, importa-

tion. or exportation of alcohol. After passing the Congress and Senate, it had to be sent down for the States to ratify. Before it could become part of the Constitution it had to be ratified by .'l6 States. They were given seven years in which to ratify it. Now, mark this, .16 States ratified it in 13 months, and in all 45 out of the 18 States ratified the amendment. Some of the States which were “dry” ratified the amendment unanimously in both Houses of Parliament, and many got a unanimous vote in one House. Does this look as if the people on the spot thought prohibition a failure? And don’t you think the people who are living on the spot can form a better judgment than chance travellers just passing through? But the people passed yet another judgment upon it. They had two candidates for President this year, one of them. Mr Harding, said quite clearly that if elected he would see that the prohibition amendment was strictly en forced, and he won oy a majority running into millions. Next month I hope to tell you about the Volstead Act for the enforcement of

prohibition, and some results of Prohibition. If there is any information you wuid, just send a question along to our Editor, and we’ll open a Query column. It is our desire to make the "White Ribbon” Y column a real help to our Y girls, and we can only do that if you send a’ong and tell us the points you want cleared up.