Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-01-01
NANCY STARTS
AFTER BOOZE
IN ENGLAND
Lady Astor Speaks Her Mind
Though Old Politicians
Fear to Talk.
OUT FOR PROHIBITION

LONDON, Jan. Though few Brit
ish 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.
80 long as drink is Sold" says Lady
Astor, sit should be our aim to let IL
do as little damage as possible, but We
can not expect men whose livelihood de-
ponds upon the successful expansion OF
their business not to push their wares.
Though the stimulus of private gain be
in the production and distribution OF
other mmodities, 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. l go further
and would give them the option of de-
Gliding between public and private own
ership within their area.
MUST RECKON
WITH PUBLIC.
advocates of such a policy, however,
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 braced by three
years Of unprecedented prosperity, as
with the blind and, as I shall show, I'M
scrupulous hostility Of some of the lead
ers of the~'temperance' societies.
"These organizations decline to rec
ognize new factors, such, for instance
as the 1904 Licensing Act, which rec
ogniZed the right to compensation where
a licensed holder was dispossessed with
out having infringed the law Every stu
dent Of realities knows that national
probition is not practical politics. In
this country at this moment, particu
larry when 1t is coupled with a determi-
nation to break up the trade without
consideration or compensation.
"No one need marvel that the British
temperance movement has achieved such
insignificant results hitherto, and that
today many of its leaders are still out o.
all touch with the spirit of this era
which is practical and progressive The
war has left behind It an impotence Of
talk and of the out-of date labels and
battle cries of unsuccessful associations,
whether political or social.
MADE HUNGRY
FOR RESULTS.
1.-The war has made us hungry for re-
Sults. u mas also DeQuehtBeu TO- US u
new chapter in liquor control. Are the
rank and file of the temperance move
fnent content that their officials should
continue to drone what they know to be
an Immediately impracticable doctrine
and thwart every attempt at achievable
reform?
my experience at Plymouth during the
recent by-election Is instructive. Be
cause I coupled together local option and
state purchase / was turned down by the
sO-called temperance bodies, yet l have
been threatened at the beginning OF the
contest with the opposition of an indie
pendent candidate because Of my we'll
known desire for temperance reform.
81 was not only communicated by the
the United Kigdom alliance and the Fed
Grafton of Temperance organizations. but,
as have shown In the local Plymouth
papers, my replies were suppressed and
inaceurately paraphrased. while In one
case my opponent was supported in spite
of his advocacy 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 char
acteristic procedure of the political eau
cns-the use OF the temperance machine to
insure that Temperance votes shall be cast
for political party, whatever the tenn
perance issue"