The Liquor Situation in Canada

THE LIQUOR SITUATION IN CANADA By Frank C. Steele The provinces of the Dominion of Canada, by the mandate of the people, are wet. The populous province of Ontario was the last to go into the wet column and its new liquor control legislation will be put into effect in time to enable the government to fatten its treasury this Summer at the expense of the American tourist, who finds plenty "north of the border" to quench his thirst. As a neighbor to Uncle Sam, that good-natured young fellow, Johnny Canuck, is hospitable enough, particularly when it comes to the "brimming cup." Government vendors' stores, which retail the "hard stuff," and beer parlors — the old-fashioned bar in a new guise — are convenient and carry a complete stock. "This is what we should have in the States," one often hears Americans say, referring to the system of government control. "You Canadians have the right system. You have eliminated the bootlegger and placed the profits that he was making in your government coffers to be used for public improvements. Yes, this1 is the only way to handle the liquor business. Prohibition in the States is a failure." Now, that view is not shared by all American students of the liquor situation in the Canadian provinces. There are those who take an entirely opposite attitude and thousands of Canadians agree with them. For one may confidently say that the adoption of the 1 8th amendment by the United States congress is the greatest moral and economic reform that has taken place in any country since Abraham Lincoln signed his emancipation proclamation. It has enhanced the general prosperity of the United States to a degree that amazes Canadian and other foreign observers of the trend of business in the Republic. Arthur J. Balfour says that Great Britain is at a 20 per cent disadvantage in world trade with the United States on account of prohibition. Canada is likewise placed at a marked disadvantage in international trade, not to mention the moral and social handicaps created by her reversion to the "open saloon" days. Opponents of prohibition will argue that the bootlegger is the first-born of a dry regime. ' Is he? One need not look far to find that the type of man that turned bootlegger during prohibition is a type that we have had always, one who has no respect for law and order of any sort. This "weed" did not spring from the soil of prohibition during the dry period in Canada. Far from it. This is indicated in the fact that the invocation of sweeping government con- trol legislation has not put the bootlegger out of business. He still thrives although the saloon interests and so-called moderationists will scout such a claim.

THE LIQUOR SITUATION IN CANADA 707 What are the facts? Take the province of Alberta, for example: There are more than a thousand drunkards interdicted in that province and of that number more than 600 were not holders of government liquor permits. The question is, Where did they get their liquor? The answer is plain. The bootlegger was at their elbow to take care of their wants. Quebec has had government control for several years now. Turn- ing from Alberta, a western province, to Quebec, what are the con- ditions? The Montreal Star, in summarizing the situation, has this to say: "Boisterous drinking and licentiousness are common. Drunk- enness among women has increased fifty-three per cent." Jumping west again, this time to British Columbia, liquor board detectives estimate the number of bootleggers in Vancouver alone at 7000, and Mayor Webb of Winnepeg, after a tour of the prairies and the coast province made the remark that, "the liquor situation is a thousand times worse than under prohibition." The Vancouver Sun, at first an outspoken moderationist organ, said not long ago: "Public opinion is unanimous, British Columbia moderation is a failure, eco- nomically, socially and morally." Recently an Australian, Miss Graccio S. Houlder, made a study of conditions in the United States. Her opinion was that "prohibition does prohibit, and a thousand times better than I ever expected to find it, according to wet propaganda in Australia and New Zealand." Here is the view of an unprejudiced witness of conditions as they are. It has been widely quoted in Canada, for in Canada as in the Antipodes, the liquor interests have been loud and lavish in painting the "horrible truth" about the American liquor situation. Government control is not a solution to the age-old problem. Thoughtful Canadians have learned that much. While it may swell the treasuries of the provinces somewhat, it impoverishes in countless other ways the economic and social structure of the commonwealth. It is a cunning camouflage. Canadian prohibition leaders believe the wet wave will break in the next few years, that the swing of the pendulum will soon change. Drink is inherently wrong, contrary to nature and to the mind and will of God, and with ithis knowledge ever before them the dry forces are not dismayed by the strength of number rolled up by the "wrecking crew" of the organized Canadian brewers and distillers. Prohibitionists are quietly repairing their broken ranks and clearing their decks for the fight ahead. They feel they are on solid ground, for as an English public man, Sir Ernest Benny, said re- cently: "Prohibition is primarily an efficiency scheme, it gives more production and no argument would appeal more strongly to American workers, than that. Prohibition, in my judgment, is, therefore, an assured success from an American point of view, and there is little risk of a change in policy. It is without question the most serious industrial force in the world today." Lethbridge, Canada. i