New-York tribune., 1920-06-13
U. S. Drys Put
Up Hot Fight
In Scotland
''Foreign INVADERS Charge
Denied by Prohibition
Chief; Says No Funds
Come From This Country
Will Vote in November
Scotch ''Respectability''
Makes War Vary From
That i'm Other Islands
By Arthur E.. Mann

By Arthur E. Mann
LONDON, June 11-American prohi-
btonists are battling for the cause"
in Scotland.
In November and December, Scot
land, for the first time since the new
law was passed, will vote, by parishes,
on the question of closing up the sa-
looms, or "public- houses" as they are
called in the British Isles. Already,
under the rights of landowners, 232
parishes out Of the total Of Alb in
Scotland are saloonless desert. Most
of these present dry areas, however,
, are in suburban and country districts,
and it is in the cities and towns that
the prohibition campaign is being most
fiercely fought.
No Funds from America
The dry fight is being engineered
by the National Citizens Council,
strategical amalgamation of the dozen
or so Scotch temperance societies,
whose leaders are using number of
American Anti-Saloon league and
some New Zealand prohibitionists in
their efforts to convince "Scotty" of
the blessings of prohibition. Col. Kyle,
who is in charge of the propaganda
work, has continually to face the liquor
interests's charge that the campaign is
the work of foreign inaders, and he
replies:
eve are getting no money from
America for our campaign. We in
vited certain American speakers to
come over and explain what has hap
pened there, and we pay their expenses
The New Zealand speakers are in like
case, and their evidence is particular
~ interesting because nearly half of
the electoral areas in that dominion
have gone mo license.'"
Drys Effectively Organized
The prohibition crowd has developed
a. very effective campaign organiza-
ton. In almost every voting area
wherever poll is needed--a local COM
mittee has been formed Public meet
ings are being held, literature is being
distributed, and even the movies are
being modified to picture the perils
of drink
But the propaganda of the liquor
trade also is booming. central
| Anti-Prohibition Campaign Council of
all the liquor interests has been
formed, with eighty federated associ-
ations throughout the country and
with system of election committees,
women's committees and election
agents. Every public-house and every
licensed grocers store has been
turned into a center for the distribu-
tion of literature. Handbills and mani
festoes are left at every house Piles
stand next to the cloves dish on every
bar. Posters are stuck on all the
sign boards and the inside and outside
of public-houses form picture gal
leries showing true-born Britons
bravely defending their natural rights
against wicked American prohibition
lists.
Denounced as Class Legislation
II. Earnshaw, chief of the anti-pro-
hibition propagandists, says prohibi-
tion is class legislation of the worst
kind.
"In any district where mo license
| resolution is carried the only man
who will not be able to get liquor is
the working man." he declares. "The
If the whole of Scotland voted mo
license tomorrow the man with suf-
hcient money to buy from the whole
saler would get what he wanted. The
more the intolerant attitude of the
American Anti-Saloon League speakers
becomes known, the greater will be
the revulsion of feeling against it. We
are not out to defend the drunkard,
our worst enemy, but are appealing
TO the people of Scotland to defend
their individual rights"
vi
pective prohibition is considerably
different in Scotland than in England,
Wales or Ireland. In the three last
named areas the public house has some
social recognition as a kind of poor
mans club" But Scotch "respecta
bility" takes a much less lenient view
Of the saloon. What in an English viii
lage is as natural as church going, is
viewed in the Scottish countryside as
a step toward the Pit
Different Drinking Customs
This difference is largely the result
of different drinking customs The
popularity of whisky and police strict
ness in Scotland have resulted, very
often, in making the Scotch pub"
merely drinking shop, with no com
fort and no exchange of social ameni-
ties; nothing but q long bar at which
men stand and drink quickly.
Again, the attitude of certain Scotch
political parties indicates quicker pros
pect for prohibition in North Britain
than in the rest of the United King
dom. While labor opinion in England
is mostly in favor of government pur-
chase Of the liquor business, in Scot
land majorities of the Independent
Labor party (the Socialist Party) and
the Scottish Trade Unions Congress
have urged their members to vote mo
license"