No Government Control

White Ribbon, Volume 48, Issue 4, 18 May 1942, Page 7

No Government Control

Robt. Macpherson, Vancouver Police Commissioner, says:—

“There is no control about it. You can buy all you want. Go to a Government liquor office, and you can buy one hundred dollars’ worth or more. It’s not Government Control, but Government Sale. There is a lot of drunkenness. 'I he social evil is bad. I would not advise tlic adoption of Government Control as we have it iji British Columbia. The city is wide open.” Geo. A. Paine, of U S.A., writes from Quebec'“For two weeks 1 have bad an opportunity to study the Canadian system ol Government control of the liquor business, and I want to say that it is worse than the old system of the open saloon. The Province of Quebec is dripping wet,

drunkenness is rampant, and all the vices of an open-wide liquor business are seen on every hand. Bootlegging, blind tigers, and dens of vice are the effects of this system. Hotels sell wine and beer openly, and there are thousands of licensed beer saloons. Drinking in homes as a result of buying by the bottle, and drinking by ycung boys and girls is on the increase all the time. Not for years have I seen so much drunkenness or the visible effects of a rtim-cnrsed jcople as I have seen over here. God pity America if it should ever adopt the Canadian system of liquor control. Prostitution and every conceivable evil connected with intemperance is on the increase in this Province particularly, bootlegging and the speak-easy, and the blind tiger tlirivt under the system,