Evening star., 1928-11-18
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Continued from Third Page.)
league) on other nations but when
the representatives of America got back
to America the League of Nations was
Indignantly repudiated by the Ameri-
cans
This speech was included in the pub
ishad report of the board meeting. What
had 1t to do with strictly business
gathering?
America Is Abused.
Abuse of America since she went dry
has indeed become one OF the chief
items in the stock in trade of paid wet
speakers When Britain seemed about
to become involved in war with the
Turks at Chanak they also were utilized
crudely to point the moral Of teetotal-
ism. 1.-THE Turks are brutal, immoral,
ignorant and poor" announced one
widely circulated anti prohibition
pamphlet. Recently they foully slaugh-
tered 100000 Armenian Christians.
The Turks are teetotalers."
Lord AStor does his best to counteract
it, He saw something of the liquor in
terests selfish concentration on the
preservation of its market and profits
when he was on Lloyd Georges liquor
control board during the war, and he
never got over it. Every week he at
tacks the liquor interest in special
column of his paper the Sunday OBJ
server. He will travel from Lands End
to John o. Groats to say bitter word
about a brewer.
The vets regard him as their chief
enemy. And although some of the more
moderate temperance leaders think he
makes too narrow an appeal to win
popular support, there is no doubt that
this Anglo American peer who sits in
the House of Lords and has wife in
the House of Commons, is persona
.grata with the royal family and owns
a great newspaper. has done the vets
as much harm by his persistence as by
his exposures of their camoufaged &C
tivitieS.
Medical Profession Wet.
While the church generally is for
local option or state control and the
Wesleyans, like the Scottish Labor
party, are out and out dry, the medical
profession is mainly wet, with the cele-
brated Sir Alfred Fripp, the Kings
surgeon, and Lord Dawson of Penn, the
Kings physician, open champions of
beer
Legislation on drink" Lord Dawson
pronounced the other day, unless 1t
carries the assent of the people, defeats
its own object. Legislation has done
far less to promote temperance than
education and suasion."
In the opinion of the moderates Lord
Dawson represents, the goal of temper
anee is best reached by education and
by encouraging those saloons which
provide food and soft drinks and where
no commission is paid on the amount OF
alcoholic liquor sold.
There is already one spot in the
kingdom where such a system Is being
worked. with the state in direct con-
trol This is Carlisle, where the state
went into the liquor business in an ex-
perimental way in the early war days,
when that northern area was great
munitions center and output as being
held up while thousands of imported
workers boozed their wages away and
came to work with a hangover.
The experiment cost the state $4,-
100000 That sum has since been re-
paid Redundant licenses have been
killed. saloons reconstructed, food coun-
ters added, and the state-run liquor
business there is financially sound. The
| liquor interest naturally dislikes 1t and
! spends lot of time and money trying
to persuade the government and the
public that it is dead failure.
Truth Hard to Get At.
The truth about Carlisle Is difficult to
| get at. Reports are contradictory. AL
though the sale of booze may not be
advertised or published in the area, the
figure of arrests for drunkenness stands
as high as that of the rowdiest seaport
more than II in 1000-which is twice
as high as commitments for drunken
ness in the big industrial centers. Ana
/ the government of the day says the
experiment has not gone far enough
to justify an extension.
| But the government. of the day Is
/ dying, and the Parliament that assem-
bles after the 1929 election is likely to
be profoundly different from this one,
which has been evading the drink issue
will have to yield ground to one sloe
or the other. Also 100000 additional
women vote for the first time at the
next election
| The latter fact worries the vets
badly. They Strenuously but valnIy
opposed BaldWin's decision to steal La
boris thunder v giving women the vote
at the age OF 81 on the same terms as
men, They have actively opposed
woman candidates of all parties at the
parliamentary elections.
| The vets do not allow the nation 10
forget that any scheme of state pur-
chase would cost at least $2,5OO, ,OOO,0 ,0OO
and might heap fresh burden on the
most heavily taxed people on earth
They are always hammering away to
drive in the idea, that local option is
the thin end of the prohibition wedge.
But they know they have to do some
thing. They know that teetotalism is
increasing-two government commits
sions, presided over by great business
magnates without dry sympathies. have
put the number at 100000, against
| 100000 in 1913
| They know that If Parliament once
appoints strong royal commission tc
investigate. the resultant report VIII
disclose such state of things in the
slum areas the brewers best markets
and. industrial districts that public
opinion will be strongly influenced In
favor of state purchase or local option
| Either of these measures will mean the
end of the era of fat profits and Of the
1. l.. .sAL. L. lnI kAn