New-York tribune., 1920-04-18

mean? I really wish I were an ora
tor. | would like to tell YOU.
(Cheers.) have as good a sense
of humor as any honorable member,
hut when | think of the ruin, desc
latlon and misery that drink brings
into the homes Of men and women
find it a little difficult to think of it.
1 was recently in constituency.
Coming from one of the poorer
parts of the town | stopped outside
public house and saw child
waiting for its mother. Presently
she rolled out of the public house.
The child went forward, but it soon
retired. The oaths and curses of
the woman and the shrieks of the
child were not easily forgotten.
81 am thinking of the freedom of
the children. | am not so tremen-
dously excited by what is called the
freedom of the men. The men will
get their freedom. l do not
want to rob them of anything
that is good. | Only want to ask
the House to think about those
things. 1t is a most terrible thing
to talk about the freedom of the
subject. Men know, women know,
thousands of us who work in slums,
III prisons and in hospitals know,
where John Barleycorn leads them
it is not to Paradise-it promised
them heaven and gave them hell
tCheers) ] ask the House TO think
Of these things When freedom is
talked of think of the children.
Every man for himself is a thor
oughly materalistic doctrine There
is a doctrine of going out and look
ing for the lost sheep. and I think
somehow that is better spirit to
act in than to be always clamoring
for the freedom of the subject.
Not Prejudiced ''Pussyfoots"
Eve talk about the Liquor Con-
troll Board that was set up for ma
tional efficiency and not for tenn
perance. And it did pretty we'll.
The War Office and the Admiralty
both commended the Liquor Control
Board for having attained what it
set out for No one can call the
War Office or the Admiralty pussy
foots.' There are several among
them, but you can hardly look upon
them as a body of prejudieed pussy
foots.' Laughter and cheers.) In
December, 1916, the Liquor Control
Board unanimously reported that
they had enormously increased eff
cheney by the regulations which the
honorable member wants to sweep
away. But the Liquor Control Board
said more. We are always talking
about national efficiency and econ
omy. want to see if you are in
earnest or whether it is camoufiage
(Laughter) The Liquor Control
Board said the state could not get
the maximum of efficiency so long
as the drink trade was in private
hands. (Hear, hear.) Why did they
say so? You cannot reconcile the
interests Of the state with the in
terests of the trade If you did
there would never have been any IL
censing laws nor any drink ques
ton. Why cannot you reconcile
them? Because it is to the inter
ests of the trade to sell as much of
their goods as possible, and no one
can say that is to the interest of the
state do not blame the trade. but
you must see that the interest of
the trade is absolutely opposed to
the interest of the state.
Prohibition Not Wanted
II have spent five years with
workingmen, and in hospitals with
workingmen, where there were none
other than workingmen, and l admit
that they and that the country are
not ripe for, and indeed as yet do
not want, prohibition. l know that,
and / am not pleading for prohibi-
tion--I am far too intelligent for
that. (Laughter and cheers.) But I