GIVING THE FLAG A SQUARE DEAL.

White Ribbon, Volume 29, Issue 343, 18 January 1924, Page 10

GIVING THE FLAG A SQUARE DEAL.

(Extracts from an address by l>r. Mary Armor at I'.S.A. National Convention) Some one has said that Christianity is both a proclamation and a protest. It has two distinct objectives, to dethrone the wrong;, and to enthrone the right. YVe have dethroned the liquor truffle; it has gone, and gone forever. The next work that lies before us is to enthrone I 'rohibition.

“In the first place, if the Prohibition la\% is broken, or repealed, or degraded, or made fun of, the flag is not given a

square deal. I have recently been 11,000 miles from my homeland, and 1 realised as never before how much the honour of my flag meant. When I saw posted up on (the hoardings and printed in leaflets, pamphlets aiui the news papers statements that the old flag of the I’nitod States of America, that had never bowed her head or been defeated, had met its match in the bootleggers, every drop of my blood was stirred in righteous indignation. If Americans who jest lightly at Prohibition could have seen what 1 saw and heal’d tin things that wore said about America, they would never again ridicule the law. You feel differently about the flag when you are a.vay from home. New Zea land was confidently counting upon the I’nited States to help It win a great victory, and it was beaten by those who were willing to take the ‘glow' out of Old Glory, to make the New Zealanders belie* o tha» Old Glory had been defeated the* law violators. At the first meeting 1 attended in New Zealand. I heani some most remarkable things

41)n>\it America that women were given suffrage before we got Prohibition, ami that now women have seen their mistake an 1 are trying to undo their work. The wets had hired the hall and the speaker, but the drys had pre-empted two-thirds of the seats in the hall, and they had a hilarious time. it was confusion worse confounded. As I sat in the gallery with Mrs Rachel Don, I’resident of the New Zealand W.C.T.P., 1 said to her. ‘lf the drys treat the wet speakers like that, what will the wets do to me when I pet up to speak?’ and she gave me the comforting answer, Treat you worse.’ Although I hav? been in State and nation-wide campaigns for years, T had never spoken to a disorderly audience, and 1 began to pray

rcr what 1 might have to meet. 1 wan jt afraid, except that I feared I could a think in such confusion. The wet eaker did not have to think!!! He t d his speech typewritten. The lx>rd lowered my prayer. 1 never <ii<l teak to a disorderly audience in New wlaiul. They always asked questions the end of the address, but they were >t disorderly. One of the questions ost frequently asked was, ‘ls it true lat you cannot enforce the rrohibition ,\v?‘ This question was asked not y enemies, but by friends. I had mt one reply to make. I knew these *ople were British to the bust man, id. Yankee fashion, 1 answered their jestion with another question, ‘Did ju ever hear of that old flag of ours irrendering? She has never surren- ► red, and she isn’t going to be hauled twn because the bootleggers have laid leir hands on the halyards/

■ "Let me tell you a secret. We are en Lrcing that law a great deal more to |i«> satisfaction. of the drys than to tin* jnnsfaction of the wets. An<l when was asked, ‘Do you believe that the •rohibition amendment will stay in the lon.stitution?’ I replied in the words of hat immortal song of John G. Dailey’s, 3y the royal act of Congress backed by States in strong array; by the Court's lupreme decision, signed and sealed in ‘pal way; by Jehovah’s ultimatum, rhich the people MITSTT obey. It is 1 the Constitution, and ITS THHKK, *HKRE TO STAY.’ In America to-day pr every one man who is disloyal, there ire 100.000 whose motto is.- Hats Off [» the Flaft.’ "Tile treatment of Prohibition by the iw violators is not giving the flag a qua re deal, and it’s not giving Deniocic> a square deal. When a man brags [Unit ‘my bootlegger,’ when he purchases liquor illegally, he is not giving emocracy a square deal. What is denocraey? Democracy is majority rule, fovernment of the people, by the people wd for the people. We have shouted Dr democracy, we have prayed for de nocracy, we have worked for demoeRoy, and multitudes of brave boys iave given their last full measure of evotion on the battlefields in the name f democracy. 1 say that if this greatest democracy on earth cannot enforce s own reasonable and righteous laws, kritten into its Constitution by the rent(>st majority of any amendment iver written, then this Government is

a failure, democracy is a lie, and every boy who sleeps in Flanders field has died in vain.

“You have to visit a wet land in order to really appreciate a dry land. 1 have recently returned from the dryest wet country in the world. New Zealand is said to have the nicest people selling liquor; they claim to have the best regulations; you cannot sell liquor after six o’clock in the evening, nor Indore nine o'clock in the morning, but 1 will give you ir.v word of honour that from my obocrvation the dryest wet country on earth is infinitely wetter than the wettest dry spot on the globe. I came buck from New Zealand thoroughly convinced that I‘rohibition at its worst is better than lacen.se at its best. One of the New Zealanders who hail l>een to the United States, remarked fervently, ‘lf Prohibition in America is a failure, then, O Lord, give as that kind of a failure in New Zealand.’ A New Zealander said to me. ‘I love my glass, but I love my country better than my glass, and I heard so many contrary reports about Prohibition in America that I determined to go over and investigate. I went everywhere, to the big wet cities, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia; I went into the smokers, into the small and the large resturants, the efaeap and the big hotels; 1 went into the slums; 1 never put myself into the hands of the drys or of the wets, and after spending two months in America, I am convinced that I‘rohibition is ninety-five per cent, successful in the United States.' And that from a man who loves his glass. You are apt to compare Prohibition in your community with what you want it to be. You must stop that. You have forgotten the pit from which you were digged. You must compare the pre sent situation with what ti was Indore the Hquor traffic was outlawed.

“Every now and then we 'hear of rocking-chair Christians who sit still, and complain. They say. ‘I thought when we pot Prohibition, we could quit.’ Well, 1 am not a quitter, and I have very little patience with the quitters. 1 want to tell you that this is a battle for the church militant. Did you ever hear of any great movement that did not have to be fought for? Itcmember that the open Bible, the free church, the sovereign state, the unfettered press, the right to think and to speak, all were won by battle and blood-

shed. Would to (lod 1 had the power to sound a blast that would tail every soldier of Jesus Christ from the blast and the West, from the .North and the South to come <mt to fight in 1924, not only for America, hut for all the world.”