WHO SAYS SO?

White Ribbon, Volume 28, Issue 328, 18 October 1922, Page 1

WHO SAYS SO?

Tins is a pertinent question, and should be asked just now. So many wild statements are Ilyina about that it is as well to make sure of the authorship of every story before we give ereilenco to it. Kven the cables must be taken with the customary grain of alt. In the tirst place, the cable man is out to .send news. When a murder is committed, it is news, and is cabled out. Hut that millions do not commit murder is not news, and so the cable never mentions it. So the fact that u comparatively few people are breaking the Prohibition law- is cabled to us as news, but we get no cable about the millions of law abiding citizens who keep the dry law-. Then again, the tables give part of the truth. I'or in--tance, it wins t abled and widely report'd that during Christmas week nine lU.lth.s had occurred in New y ork from wood-alcohol poisoning. That wus very sad. but the far sadder fact, that before Prohibition came into foix-e. there was an average death-rate in I S A. of IS per week caused by alcohol poisoning, was never mentioned in cables. Then there is deliberate misrepresentation. and occasionally these folk prove too much. Pat said. “Sure. Mike, there’s more whisky di unk in America now than before it went dry. and Mikt replied, "Kight you are, F»t. and not only that; just see the people that keep away because they can't get it ” Then Pat’s native wit asserted itself. and leaning over, be said in a whisjer, “Say, Mike, one of us has lied" Now for misstatements, the following au hard to beat, and should he studied by all.

In “Cheerio,’’ the* organ published by the National Council of the Licensed Trade in New Zealand, the same carelessness in handling facts is observed, making one conclude that the Editor has qualified as an honorary member of the “Ananias” Club. For instance, in the August issue we read: “In Kansas, claimed by Prohibitionists as the dryest State of all. the Governor of Kansas stater! that he did not doubt but that saloons were running wide open in Kansas Vity.” Now, how do open saloons in Kansas City affect the dryness of Kansas State. Kansas City is NOT in the State of Kansas, but in Missouri. Kansas State has lieen dry for nearly H) years. Kansas City, in the State of Missouri, did not go.dry until National Prohibition came in force in 1920. in another page is a heading, “Dry Kansas Again.” and then they- proceed to give facts from Kansas City. Nobody speaks of Kansas City as very dry. Dry Kansas is the State. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Far and wide the liquor iwirty are spreading the lie that Abraham Lincoln spoke against Prohibition. Challenged to prove the authenticity of this Anti-Prohibition declaration, a prominent wet leader said it w*as made in the Illinois legislature in 1*39. The Assistant State Librarian ol Illinois writes that there is no record of the quotation. “Prohibition will work great injury' in any of the newspapers or published speeches of Abraham Lincoln. Now*, after 34 years, the truth has come to light, and Sam W. Small signed an affidavit before a notary on .Tune fi. 1922. H<* affirms that Colonel John R. Goodwin, who hnd been director of

the antUProhibition forces, in a cam paign in Georgia in IHS7, himself devised the circular, and composed the W’ords attributed to Lincoln. It was done to win the negro vote, which was the wets’ only hope of success. Will White Ribboners, whenever they hour this slander upon the fame of Lincoln, please refute it, and give the true facts. It was written and put in circulation by the campaign manager of the wets, in order to gain the negro vote in a Local Option fight in Atlanta. Georgia, 1887. A copy of the affidavit is filed in the office of our own N.Z. Alliance in Wellington. But still the “same old lie.” exposed scores of times, is circulated by “the trade. Here is another which is deliberately false: -The wets reported that Mr H. Lipson-Hancock had said, “Drug stores in America are selling sweets charged with alcohol, doing tremendous damage to young people.” Mr Lip. 4 on-Han-ioc.k has denied ever making .mob a statement, and adds. “1 think Prohibition results satisfactory, and this is generally accepted by the majority of the people there. When reading statements of this kind, always ask. ”W*ho says so ” The wets are circulating figures showing increase in crime under Prohibition in P S A., hut the Government figures show that gaols are being closed and Police Courts emptied, and surely they are the ones who know.