The Mena weekly star., 1919-12-25
LADY ASTOR GOES
 AFTER JOHN BOOZE
With Typical American Spunk She Speaks Her Mind Tho Politicians Fear to TaIk-Not Practical
 Politics"

London, Dec. 22-Though few British politicians have dared to speak out on the liquor question in these islands, Lady Astor, with typical American spunk, has made known her thoughts quite freely.
 50 long as drink is sold, says Lady Astor. "it should be our aim to let it do as little damage as possible, but We cannot expect men whose live lihood depends upon the successful expansion of their business not to push their wares. Though the stimulus and distribution of other commodities, it is wholly out of place in relation to alcohol.
 .'The people in each district, too, should have the opportunity of decid- ing, without the confusion and cross currents of general politics, whether the sale of drink is to continue. go further, and would give them the op- ton of deciding between public and priate ownership within their area.
 Advocates of such a policy, how ever. have to reckon not so much with the conservatism of the public, nor with the opposition of the more short sighted members of the trade" brac- ed by three years of unprecedented prosperity, as with the blind and as shall show, interruptions hostility of some of the leaders of the temper ance' societies
 "These organizations decline to re- cognize new factors, such, for in- stance, as the 1904 Licensing Act, which recognized the right to compen- sation where a licensed holder was disposessed without having nfringed the law Every student of realities knows that national prohibition is not practical politics in this country at this particular moment, when it is coupled with a determination to break up the trade without consideration or compensation.
 ''No one need marvel that the Brit ssh temperance movement has achiev- ed such significant results hitherto, and that today many of it's leaders are still out of albtouch with the spir- 1t of this era, winch is practical and progressive. The war has left behind 1t an impatience of talk and of the 0ut-of-date labels and battle cries of unsuccessful associations. whether political or social
 The war has made us hungry for results. It has also bequeathed to us . new chapter in liquor control Are the rank and file of the temperance movement content that their officials should continue to drone what they know to be an immediately imprac- ticable doctrine, and thwart every at tempt at achievable reform2
 My experience at Plymouth during the recent by-eiection is instructive. Because coupled together localt 0p- tion and State purchase l was turned down by the so~called temperance bodies, yet have been threatened at the beginning of the contest with the opposition of an independent candi- date because of my well-known de- sire for temperance reform.
 sT was not only accommodated by the United Kingdom Alliance and the Federation of Temperance or ganizations, but as 1 have shown in fhe local Plymouth papers. my replies were suppressed and inaccurately paraphrased while in one case my ad- yecacy of State purchase. because his political label pleased the official of a so-called temperance federation.
 Temperance, The connection with drink reform is indeed hard to see in all this Rather we may observe the characteristics procedure of the politi- cal eaucus-the use of the temperance machine is to insure that temperance votes shall be cast for a political par ty, whatever the temperance issue"