Evening star., 1924-09-21
ONTARIO TO SETTLE
CANADA DRY ISSUE
Contending Forces Look to
This Province as Turning
Point in Struggle.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dspatch TO The star.
TORONTO. September 20.-On Octo-
ber % the Province of Ontario is to
vote on the prohibition issue. The
date will mark for the present gene
ration the turning point in Canada of
the unending fight between wet and
dry forces. If the vets win prohi-
bition may be described as dead
throughout the Dominion and the dry
forces may pack their banners away
in moth balls. They will not need
them again for a long time.
II the drys win they will be en-
couraged to redouble their efforts to
make Canada a dry nation. If they
hold the banner Province Of Ontario
they will endeavor to win back Man
itoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British
Columbia. recently lost and will even
make an assault on the citadel OF
| wetness in Quebec.
For them victory will not be COM
plete until there is enacted Federal
law, covering Quebec as well as the
other provinces, which will prohibit
not only the sale but also manufac-
| ture and importation. After that
there will only be the ocean coast
lines and the stills to watch-assum-
ing that south OF ~ Is dry
The question which the Ontario
government is asking the electorate
to vote on make a straight issue be-
tween prohibition as at present in
operation under the name Of the On
tario temperance act and a sale OF
beer and spirits by government dis
penSaries.
Vote on Short Ballot.
Only two questions are to be asked.
They read as follows:
Are you in favor OF the continu-
ance of the Ontario temperance
actT'
Are you in favor Of the sale as a
| beverage Of beer and spirituous
liquor in sealed packages under gov
ernment control?"
Thus no possibility is raised of a
return to any system of licensed
premises, even for the sale Of beer
and wines. Nowhere Is 1t to be made
possible to buy alcoholic beverages
by the glass. Sealed packages" alone
will be obtainable and government
control according to an explanatory
statement by the premier means di-
rect sale by the government, and not
any modified license system such as
has been put into operation in Quebec
and British Columbia.
Both vets and drys, generally
speaking, accept the questions as rea-
sonable and fair. Extreme drys COM
plain that any vote at all Is to be
taken. they regarded the issue as per-
manently closed. and the professional
vets hoped for some chance to restore
the licensed barrooms, IL only for
beer and wine, under a system OF
local option. Moderates, however. be-
lieve the questions will provide a fair
and desirable test of the present state
OF public opinion.
Ontario has now had eight years of
prohibition. During most of that time
the act has been enforced by sympa-
thetic administrations. 1t has been
as near perfect as the legislative
powers of the Province will permit
and succeeding governments have ex-
hibited considerable zeal in its en-
forcement
Vets Are Heartened.
Prohibition has therefore had a fair
trial over substantial period of
years. The electorate should be in a
position to judge whether it has been
a success. worth continuing.
Vets argue that government sale
would wipe out all illegal liquor
traffic in Ontario, whether it. origi-
mates in smuggled imports or in home
brew devices or in the scores of bar
rooms which now sell hard beer" by
the glass.
The domestic bootlegging Industry
would. they believe, be wiped out,
impure concoctions would vanish and
the law would be restored to its
proper pinnacle.
Revenue possibilities are stressed
Even drys estimate that system of
Government sale under the monopo-
listic conditions will yield the prov
ince Ave or six million dollars profit a
year. thus solving all immediate
financial and taxation problems OF the
provincial government. This argu-
ment may be much more potent now
than it was in pre-war debt days.
The bootleggers, who II Is said in
many prohibition fights vote on the
dry side, will, it is predicted, vote wet
in Ontario, because the big profits in
their industry are not made at home
but in the vast market of 11o, ,00o. 900
persons south of the boundary. What
the Canadian bootlegger wants is not
a market-he has that-but an easy
source Of supply. He will, therefore,
favor any change in the law here
which will make his supplies more
accessible.
A great accession of strength to the
dry forces came in wartime from
Much of that support will stick.
There will be much testimony from
employers, heads of large corpora
tions. manufacturers, merchants.
banks and so on that prohibition has
made labor much more reliable, that
savings accounts have built new
homes and that there has developed
vastly increased new purchasing
capacity for articles much more use
full than strong drink.
- -o------