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 00 c 
 
 THE PLEBISCITE: 
 
 HOW SHALL I VOTE? 
 
 M 
 
 AN APPEAL TO THE ELECTORS OF CANADA 
 
 ON THE PRESENT CRISIS IN THE 
 
 TEMPERANCE REFORM. 
 
 I » 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 » • • 
 
 I • 
 
 « » I 
 
 • •• 
 
 • • I » • 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. W. a. MacKay, B.A., D D., 
 
 Woodstock^ Ontario^ Canada. 
 
 J 
 
 " Help your fallen brother rise 
 VVliile the day.i are going by." 
 
 PRICE:— Five Cents per Copy; 50 Cents per Dozen ;*$2.50 
 per 100; $20.00 per z,ooa 
 
 ^:H 
 
 iUklm 
 
 wMiiMiiiHiHMiiliiiiil 
 
inn) 
 
 PRATT &WATKINS 
 
 14, 16. 18 JAMES ST. NCRTH 
 
 The Qreaf Department House of Hamilton 
 
 SOLICITS YOUR PATRONAGE IN 
 
 Mantles, 
 Millineryi 
 Fancy Goods 
 
 Clothing, 
 • Boots and Shoes, 
 
 China and Glassware, 
 
 •G:ejnt.s':.Furnis1iings 
 Car^et^; • ^ • - 
 House Furnishings 
 
 AND GENERAL DRY GOODS 
 
 PRAn & WATKINS' BUSINESS METHODS 
 
 Ist. Terms spot cash. No credit to rich or poor. 
 
 2nd. All goods marked in plain figures. No mystery about the 
 price. 
 
 3rd. No second price, no haggling. Prices the lowest at a word. 
 
 4th. No goods sent on approval. 
 
 5th. • Money refunded if goods are not satisfactory. 
 
 6th. Courteous attention to all customers insisted upon. 
 
 7th. Stores close every evening in the year at 6 p.m. No keep- 
 ing open late on Saturday night. 
 
 8th. Mail orders from any part of Canada will receive our prompt 
 attention. 
 
 PRATT & WATKINS 
 
 14, 16, fS James Street North 
 
 HamiKon, Ont. 
 
 r 
 
 iio^iq 
 
THE PLEBISCITE. 
 
 To the Work I TotheWorkll 
 
 ORGANIZE! AGITATE!! EDUCATE!!! 
 
 Here is the Ballot and the Qviestion asked you : 
 
 Are you in favor of the passing of an Act pro- 
 hibiting the importation, manufacture or 
 sale of spirits, wine, ale, beer, cider and all 
 other alcoholic liquors for use as beverage ? 
 
 A 
 
 "Cider in this ((uestion tneana alcoholic cider, not uufermented apple Juice." 
 — Hon, Sidney JfUher. 
 
 GOD'S clock has struck the hour of opportunity. Now 
 for Clod, and home, and native land. Let your act 
 of voting be an act of worship. We have done well 
 in previous campaigns. Look at the record : 
 
 On July 23rd, 1892, Manitoba gave prohibition a 
 
 maj6rky <^f ' . . \\\'. . .:\\^ . { .,' '. I \\ j*. V. .'. 12,522 
 
 On DecemUr I4;th, 1895, .f».K*lsh<nd; gaVftV^o- 
 
 hibition a majority of • • • • ; • 7,226 
 
 On January 1st, 1894, Ontario gave prohibition a 
 
 majority of 81,769 
 
 On March 15th, 1894, Nova Scotia gave prohibi- 
 tion a majority of 31,401 
 
 *^ _________ 
 
 Total majority so far for Prohibition 132,918 
 
 On April 7th, 1893, New Brunswick, by a unanimous 
 vote of her Legislature, asked the Dominion Parliament to 
 pass prohibition. 
 
 Never let it be said that the Prohibitionists of Canada 
 liave played a retreat. Let no consideration of blood 
 money, called revenue, chloroform your conscience. Every 
 cent spent for liquor is one less to be spent for boots, 
 clothes, food, furniture, books, pictures, music, and all the 
 other products of useful industry and art. On the question 
 of revenue alone we claim the vote of every clear-sighted, 
 level-headed citizen in the land. See the testimony of 
 Ljiurier, Foster and others on pages 14 to 16 of this 
 pamphlet. Now for the battle of the ballots. Forward ! 
 March !1 
 
This the Supreme Issue. 
 
 Probably never before have we exercised the fran- 
 chise in more solemn circumstances. Our responsi- 
 bilities are grave. Our opportunities are great. The 
 situation is full of important and far-reaching results. 
 There is no question before the people of this Dominion 
 to-day that is comparable in importance with that of 
 the suppression ot" the drunkard-making business. 
 Questions of tariff reform and of national schools have 
 their importance, and may wisely be considered, but 
 they are secondary to the liquor problem. The drink 
 traffic is by far the greatest evil that affiicts our land, 
 financially, politically, socially, morally and religiously. 
 Its suppression is therefore the greatest of all the 
 issues before the Canadian people. Remove this evil. 
 and other questions may be left to be settled as they 
 come to the front for solution. Let the issues be 
 presented frequentl}^ aijd forcibly to ,the people, and 
 we may asaum« that tibe \nass* of v^ter^s-l-many of 
 whom are' at pr<Sscnt»indrfferefnt? — will side against the 
 • traffic: the people of Canada committing themselves, 
 after full deliberation, to the support of grog shops is 
 hardly conceivable. 
 
 A Call to Arms. 
 
 The forces are mustering for the conflict. With 
 the country more and more awakening to the evils of 
 the drink traffic ; with truth and right and Christian 
 womanhood, and God Himself on our side, we engage 
 in the conflict, taking as our watchword the words of 
 the late Emperor of Germany to his soldiers as they 
 started on the great Franco-German war: "Forward 
 in God's name without fear or fatigue." Reader, in 
 this great army, lighting for God and home and 
 native land, is there no place for you ? Pake heed 
 lest by holding aloof at such a time as this you incur 
 the awful guilt of Meroz : " Curse ye, Meroz, curse ye 
 bitterly, the inhabitants thereof, because they came 
 
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 not to the help of the Lord — to the help of the Lord 
 against the mighty." This is a conflict to which you 
 cannot be indifferent without guilt. The man who 
 stands aloof has his haads red with blood. I address 
 to you the words of Nehemiah : " In what place, 
 therefore, ye hear the sotind of the trumpet, resort ye 
 thither unto us : our God shall fight for us." 
 
 Rum, Rags, Wretchedness. 
 
 At a time like this we must keep constantly before 
 our own minds, and the minds of others, the awful 
 power and damnable character of this traffic More 
 than half a century ago that eminent Christian phil- 
 osopher, Thomas Dick, estimated that since intem- 
 perance dug the first grave, over seventeen thousand 
 millions had perished through strong drink. More 
 than three thousand four hundred times the popula- 
 tion of Canada, or s.eventeejri wo^ Ijls , Jil^^ , the one we 
 inhabit, danined by itum. , V/^ith intenaperance on the 
 increase, the record of the last fifty years would swell 
 the above figures immensely. There are $3,000,000,- 
 000 spent yearly on strong drink throughout the 
 world, wb'le only $12,000,000 are raised for the 
 spread of ihe Gospel. And for this vast outlay the 
 world has a standing army of 1,800,000 drunkards, 
 and 180,000 every year go down to a drunkard's 
 grave and a drunkard's eternity. What tongue can 
 utter or imagination conceive the immensity of the 
 destruction of bodies and souls represented by these 
 figures? He alone who hears the sighs and moans 
 and wailing of suffering humanity knows all. Would 
 that our people in their daily lives, and our voters at 
 the ballot-box were more impressed by these awful 
 facts. 
 
 "Darkest Africa." 
 
 Africa, with a population of 200,000,000, is waiting 
 for the Gospel, hut for every missionary that goes to 
 
the dark continent, there are sent from £nglan<1, 
 Germany and the United States, 70,000 gallons of 
 liquori Ethiopia stretches out her hands unto God, 
 hut these "Christian" nations, instead of makin<( 
 known to her the great salvation, sends her distilled 
 damnation at the rate of 8,000,000,000 gallons of rum 
 annually. And this rum is so vile that native painters 
 use it for turpentine. 
 
 Is there a Christian in Ontario with conscience so 
 dead, with heart so hard, with cheek so hrazen, as not 
 to blush with shame when he is told that in many 
 eastern ports the heathen regard "drunkard" and 
 •* Christian " as synonymous terms ? When they see a 
 native drunk they are accustomed to say, " he has left 
 our religion and gone to Jesus." ' .. . 
 
 "The wailing of widows," says a high authority, 
 "rends the air of India with curses against the British 
 Government for having introduced strong drink." 
 The same.is.thft.stMei af, things in the. Soji^hern Sea. 
 Reader, if yoif w.qukj ihcjVe, the jV-ofld eyan'gelized, help 
 by your ' vbifcfe,' Vdt6 'a'nd' esfample'to'oVerthrow the 
 demon of intemperance, — our reproach before the 
 heathen, and the blight of many a foreign mission 
 field. 
 
 , , "Darkest England." ; 
 
 Behold England — the land of the free, which boasts 
 that on its flag " the sun never sets," through a licensed 
 liquor traffic forging chains of drunkenness, riveting 
 them upon the people, and destroying the health and 
 happiness of millions of its subjects. God bless Gen. 
 Booth, and the great work in which he is engaged. 
 The J submerged class," by which he means the pau- 
 perized and degraded, numbers three millions, or one- 
 tenth of the whole population. " The drink diflBculty," 
 says Booth, *' lies at the root of all. Nine-tenths of 
 our poverty, squalor, vice and crime spring from this 
 poisonous tap-root." And yet, notwithstanding these 
 
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 7 
 
 4). 
 
 three millions of starving population, Encfland spent 
 in 1891, $101 per family on the drunkard's drink. 
 
 In the .same year Scotland spent $81 per family. 
 Poor, distracted Ireland paid $52 per family, or 
 $10,000,000 more for whisky than for rent, and Mr. 
 Justice Fitzgerald says that intemperance in Ireland 
 leads to nineteen-twentieths of the crime in the land. 
 Yet no one calls for the eviction of the liquor-selling 
 landlords, and no Home Rule Act is demanded to deal 
 with the evil. 
 
 The total drink bill for Great Britain and Ireland 
 is 1,209.000,000 gallons, at a cost of $705,000,000. 
 
 All these millions are worse than lost. The losing 
 of them by fire or flood would be small in comparison 
 with what it is now, when we take into account the 
 increase of cost to the state for paupers, criminals, 
 jails, poor-houses, asylums, penitentiaries and reforma- 
 tories. Stop this waste, and at once there will be an 
 increased consumption of all kinds of manufactured 
 goods. Asa result -of lon^ expter'ienfce/'fcha late Earl 
 of Shaftesbury cam^} to tl r fallowing Kjonelusion: "It 
 is impossible to relieve po»^erty until we get rid of the 
 curse of drink." Talk of poverty, wretchedness, 
 crime! The wonder is how the nation can live with 
 such a vulture tearing at its vitals. 
 
 German Beer. / , ^ 
 
 In Germany 10,000 persons die every year from the 
 delirium tremens, forty-six per cent, of the convicts in 
 the prisons are drunkards, and Von Moltke has lately 
 said that Germany has more to fear from beer than 
 from all the armies of France. 
 
 ' " Darkest America." 
 
 Crossing the Atlantic we find our own continent 
 fast following the older lands on the down jjrade. 
 In the United States, during: 1892, thev consumed 
 half a barrel per man of malt liquors. More than 
 
6 
 
 half a niillion of men are on<jag(»d in the drunkai-d- 
 making business, and more than seventy per cent, of 
 all the arrests are for drunkenness or for drink 
 offences. They have 250,000 drink shops, enough to 
 form a line from Chicago to New York, and in mak- 
 ing the drunkard's drink they destroyed in 1892, 
 more than 4,000,000,000 pounds of grain. This would 
 pave a street 1,000 miles long with loaves of bread, 
 or it would give one pound loaf of bread per day for 
 a year to more than 1 1,000,000 people. S900,000,000 
 a year spent on strong drink, and yet in that land 
 thousands upon thousands on the verge of starvation. 
 In a single year there were in the city of New 
 York ^,418 delirium tremens patients brought into 
 one hospital. Of these 1,950 were men, and 468 were 
 women, an average of nlllC women and thlrty-llve 
 men for every week during the year. If the record 
 of one hospital tells such a tale, what a revelation 
 would the combined records of all similar Ijospitals in 
 
 the land miiKi K *.:'!;: : ;' ' '; 1 '•' : • ' ;' ' : 
 'i«t»«»«»««»«'' •• '• •' • 
 
 Rum in Politics -Startling Facts. 
 
 Not least among the dangers of the traffic is its 
 tremendous and constiintly increasing political power. 
 Already it controls the niunicipal affairs of most of 
 the large cities, and openly boasts of its power. And 
 woe be to the man who, by fair deeds and respect for 
 the law and his oath of office, incites the enmity of 
 the traffic ! He is crushed without mercy, and a 
 more pliant figurehead set up in his place. Miss 
 Willard expresses the calm, sober judgment of many 
 of the most fr«r-seeing statesmen and philanthropists 
 of the United States when she says: "The experi- 
 ment of free government in our large towns and 
 cities is a failure loudly confessed." Rev. Dr. Josiah 
 Strong, in his book, " Our Country," is still more 
 emphatic. He says, p. 7<S : " The alternative, then, 
 seems simple, clear, certain, that civilization must 
 
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 destroy the liquor traffic, or be destroyed by it. " The 
 eminent Joseph Cook strongly holds the same view. 
 
 The force of these statements is in no way weak- 
 ened by the results of hij^h license, wherever trietl. 
 Ili^h liconse may, for a short time, lessen the number 
 of li(|uor sellers, but any amount of conclusive evidence 
 can be submitted to prove that it has never lessened 
 the quantity of li(|Uor consumed, or consequently, the 
 resulting evils. The reverse is true. High license 
 invariably gives compactness, power, and permanence 
 to the traffic, and thus increases drunkenness and 
 crime. The Philadelphia Evening Tdeyraph (October 
 20th, 1890), says: "It is one of the most notorious 
 facts of the day, known and frankly admitted by all 
 intelligent observers, and fully confirmed in every 
 particular by the wholesale liquor and beer men, that 
 there is not one drop less of their wares consumed 
 since the passage of the Brook's High License Act 
 than before." The wholesale liquor men are all advo- 
 cates of high license. They understand their own 
 interests, and their testimony is conclusive that high 
 license increases the consumption of liquor. 
 
 The traffic is a most powerful factor in the political 
 life of this Dominion. It controls the party machinery 
 from the ward meeting to the national convention. 
 Candidates for office cringe and cower in its presence, 
 and party leaders on both sides do it reverence. 
 
 The question is in place for every Canadian citizen : 
 Shall the liquor power, with its dire and deadly influ- 
 ence, be allowed to rule our country, and ruin every 
 influence for good ? Or shall it be utterly destroyed ? 
 
 Canada's Drink Bill. 
 
 ' The liquor bill for the Dominion, while smaller 
 than that of either Great Britain or the United 
 States, is large enough to cause anxiety in the minds 
 of all who have the material or moral prosperity of 
 our country at heart. The report of the "Royal 
 
Commission on the Liquor Traffic " j]jives the yearly 
 cost of liquors to consumers as $39,879,854. And the 
 report adds, " As more than one-half of this is paid 
 for spirits, to which it is well understood a large 
 addition of water is made before they are vended to 
 the public, the total amount paid is probably consid- 
 erably in excess of the sum just mentioned." The 
 amount is at least $40,000,000, or $8 per capita of tlie 
 population, while the direct and indirect loss reaches 
 to about $140,000,000. 
 
 Very few people realize the magnitude of this 
 awful waste. The purchasers of this liquor have 
 paid out their mone}^ and have to-day nothing to 
 represent their investment except perhaps, injured 
 health, defijraded character, and general physical and 
 moral deterioration and loss. Had the money been 
 spent in some other way, say, invested in improving 
 property, building homes, etc., they would have an 
 equivalent that to-day does not exist. In short, a 
 moment's thought will convince any careful inquirer 
 that our country is absolutely poorer to the extent of 
 every dollar spent in strong drink. And yet every 
 year the people of Canada spend nearly $8 per head 
 for every man, woman and child in the land, or $40 
 per family. 
 
 " Over- Production.'* 
 
 Just now throuo-hout Canada and the United States 
 we hear much about "over-production." Thousands 
 of men are out of employment. You ask the reason 
 why, and instantly we are told " it is over-production;" 
 and to prove the correctness of the reply, you are told 
 of storehouses crowded with goods which cannot be 
 sold. Nonsense, I say. Within a few hundred yards 
 of that storehouse are scores of families who are in 
 need of the goods, and would like to have them. But 
 they have not the means to buy. Why not ? Because 
 they have spent so much upon liquor that they cannot 
 
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 buy good furniture, good food, or good clothes. You 
 see it is not over-production, but under-consumption 
 caused by drinking, that is the real trouble. Last 
 year out of the pockets, for the most part, of the labor- 
 ing classes of this Dominion, more than $40,000,000 
 were directly taken for intoxicating liquors. Turn 
 these millions loose to-morrow on your unsold goods, 
 and at once there will be robes where there are now 
 rags, and plenty where there is now poverty. You 
 will see no more " over-production," but the inaugura- 
 tion of an era of prosperity such as will surpass the 
 visions of the most hopeful enthusiast. 
 
 Not over-production but under-consumption is the 
 principal cause of dull times and stagnation of busi- 
 ness. And this under-consumption exists largely 
 because of the waste in strong drink. 
 
 What Our Imports Represent. 
 
 According to the Dominion Trade and Navigation 
 Returns for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1895, 
 there was imported for home consumption during the 
 year, 1,523,858 gallons of liquors, valued at $1,333,- 
 479. That sum of money went out of the Dominion 
 never to return, and what value did the people get 
 back for it? The liquors were consumed and the 
 money was gone. In hard times like these the country 
 cannot afford to sustain any such dead loss. A pro- 
 hibition law would stop any such worse than needless 
 outflow of the people's hard warnings. The demoralizing 
 results of this consumption remain, however. These 
 can only be stopped by an effective prohibition law. 
 How much of our surplus productions went to pay 
 for this import liquor bill ? We all know that for 
 every dollar's worth we import, we must export some 
 equivalent value to pay for it. Take a few facts 
 gleaned from the same Government reports : During 
 the same year the farmers of Canada exported, in all, 
 14,085 horses, valued at $1,261,942, — not enough to 
 
10 
 
 pay the needless import liquor bill by quarter of a 
 million dollars. < 
 
 During the same year the entire exports of sheep 
 from Canada amounted to 180,387 head, valued at 
 $1,372,077, or quarter of a million short of our import 
 liquor bill. During the same year, as the result of a 
 great deal of Government encouragement and expen- 
 diture, 3,650,258 pounds of butter were exported — 
 equal to nearly 2,000 tons — valued at $697,476, or less 
 than six months' imports of liquors ! 
 
 The total exports of the rich and fertile Province 
 of Manitoba that year were valued at $1,611,003. 
 Take out the needless import liquor bills of the same 
 time and but little remains ! 
 
 The total exports of that beautiful agricultural 
 Province of Prince Edward Island for that year were 
 valued at $1,039,493, or not within half a million of 
 enough to pay our export liquor bills. 
 
 Can Canadians expect great prosperity and pro- 
 gress and go on legalizing a traffic that thus con- 
 sumes all its surplus export of horses, or of sheep, or 
 of butter, or the entire surplus of all the exports of 
 such fertile Provinces as Manitoba or Prince Edward 
 Island? * ^ 
 
 The Losses of Years. 
 
 Here are some significant figures from the last 
 Dominion Statistical Year Book, an official publica- 
 tion prepared without any view to the Temperance 
 question. From 1874 to 1894, inclusive, the follow- 
 ing quantities of liquors were imported from foreign 
 countries and consumed during that period : . • 
 
 Spirits and wines valued at $26,079,997 
 
 Ale, beer and porter 3,321,038 , 
 
 Cider 87,708 
 
 Malt for brewing 347,522 
 
 129,836,265 ; 
 
tf 
 
 This vast sum went out of Canada, and all the 
 liquors thus purchased were consumed from year to 
 year, leaving nothing to show in the end except the 
 moral and physical wrecks resulting therefrom. 
 
 That enormous sum represented five million dollars 
 more than the entire assessed value of all the real 
 estate, personal property and taxable income of the 
 city of Hamilton, the third largest and most wealthy 
 city in the Dominion of Canada, and millions of dol- 
 lars more than the average assessed wealth of one of 
 the counties of the Province of Ontario. 
 
 Besides all that, during the same time the average 
 annual importation of com from the United States 
 for distillation alone and consumption in Canada 
 averaged over half a million dollars per year, or ten 
 millions in that time. Add these, sums together, and 
 Canada has sent out since 1847, at least forty million 
 dollars for what has been worse than worthless to its 
 people. Is there any wonder we have to complain of 
 hard times when a traffic so prolific of wicked and 
 wilful waste has been all the time sanctioned and pro- 
 tected by law ? Independent of all moral and social 
 considerations, there are substantial economic reasons 
 why a prohibition law should be enacted. 
 
 Canada's Criminals. 
 
 The Dominion Government's report of " Criminal 
 Statistics of the Dominion of Canada," for 1893, is 
 characteristic of those of other years. The then Min- 
 ister of Justice reported that the total number of con- 
 victions for all causes during the year was 35,653. 
 Of these no less than 11,670, or more than one-third of 
 the whole, were for drunkenness alone. It is a well- 
 known fact that of the other crimes, such as assaults, 
 breaches of the peace, cruelty to animals, neglecting 
 to support families, vagrancy, and similar crimes, 
 drunkenness was the producing cause of the crime. 
 Sir Oliver Mowat's estimate of " three-fourths of all " 
 
12 
 
 was well borne out by these hard facts, published 
 without any regard whatever to this question. 
 
 Drunkards Imprisoned. u 
 
 Here are the number of commitments for drunken- 
 ness by provinces for tliat year (181)3): 
 
 Ontario 3,787 
 
 Quebec 3,778 *' 
 
 New Brunswick 1,366 
 
 Nova Scotia 938 ' < 
 
 Manitoba 692 
 
 British Columbia 725 
 
 Prince Edward Island 233 " " 
 
 North- West Territories 252 < . 
 
 Total 11,070 j 
 
 Look at the facts of the two Provinces of British 
 Columbia and Prince Edward Island. The former had 
 the largest number of liquor licenses in proportion to 
 its population of any province. Its commitments 
 for drunkenness during tlie year average one for each 
 135 of its population. The latter, on the other hand, 
 had the fewest legalized liquor shops and its average 
 was but one to each 425, though it is surrounded by 
 water and much exposed to illicit sales on every hand. 
 In each province the proportion of " drunks " was in 
 proportion to the drinking facilities supplied. The 
 plain logical inference is: Cut off the authority to 
 manufacture, import and sell, and you also cut off the 
 awful crop of the worst of all human tragedies — 
 ruined souls and bodies of men because of the drink 
 traffic. 
 
 During the last ten years there have been in this 
 Dominion no less than 121,956 convictions for the 
 offeiKie of drunkenness alone, and tens of thousands 
 for other offences caused by drink. Every year 3,000 
 of our population go down to a drunkard's grave, and 
 
 f 
 
 ^k 
 
19 
 
 r. 
 
 ITR* 
 
 a drunkard's eternity. But who can tabulate the 
 blighted hopes, the broken hearts, the wretched 
 homes that lie behind these tignrt'S ? It is upon such 
 carnage that the licjuor traffic feeds and fattens. All 
 this time the politicians promise, and the churches 
 resolve and the people permit, and the carnage goes 
 on, and angels weep, and demons laugh, and perdition 
 yawns, and souls go down. How long, O Lord, how 
 long! _ , 
 
 ' Not a Difficult Matter. 
 
 We are sometimes told that because the Dunkin 
 and Scott Acts did not, within a year or two, stop all 
 sales, that no prohibition law can succeed. These 
 Acts only prohibited selling, while manufacturing and 
 importing went on as before. A threefold law, such 
 as is now proposed, strikes deadly blows at manufac- 
 turing and importing as well. These will cut off tht? 
 seller's supplies, and the selling and drinking will 
 surely stop in that case. It is easy to stop the manu- 
 facture. It cannot be done in a comer, or in ^ome 
 cellar or back yard. There are now only seven 
 distilleries in all Canada and these are all in Ontario ; 
 the rest have all been closed already. It is easy to 
 stop importations, too, by our present customs 
 machinery, which already prohibits the imports of 
 obscene and seditious literature, and many other 
 things, including even oleomargarine. Give us such 
 a threefold law, as is now being proposed, with a 
 Government at the back of it to enforce it, and success 
 is assured as never before. Let this law, faithfully 
 enforced, be accompanied with temperance education 
 in our Public schools, suitable instruction in our 
 Sabbath-schools, a faithful ministry, and a free press; 
 and under God, intemperance will be reduced to a 
 minimum, homes will be made happy, hearts will be 
 made glad, and the whole land will rejoice. . ^ 
 
14 
 
 Blood Money. 
 
 "What about the revenue?" we are asked. Our 
 Government derives a revenue of $7,1^^1.'^57 from 
 this traffic, and how will this be replaced in case the 
 traffic is prohibited ? Speaking generally, we reply 
 that health, happiness and good morals are of more 
 'value to a people than gold. The awful harvest of 
 poverty, crime, disease and death revealed to us by 
 official statistics, is too great a price even for millions 
 of revenue. In the words of Hon. W. E. Gladstone, 
 " A question of revenue must never stand in the way 
 of moral reform." " Give me," says the same great 
 statesman, " a sober people, not wasting their earnings, 
 and I will easily raise the revenue." Surely a sober 
 people will be as able to pay their taxes as a drinking 
 people. 
 
 There would be no loss to the national treasury 
 from the passing of a prohibition law. The millions 
 that are now wasted, and worse than wasted on strong 
 drink, would go into different branches of legitimate 
 and useful trade; and thus the customs would be 
 greatly increased, and the exchequer more than com- 
 pensated for the loss of the liquor revenue. The 
 money now wasted in strong drink would then be 
 invested in dry goods, shoes, furniture, food, etc., thus 
 yielding a revenue to the Government. Sir Stafford 
 Northcote, ex- Chancellor of the British Exchequer, 
 says, " If the revenue diminishes from increased habits 
 of temperance, the amount of wealth such a change 
 would bring to the nation would utterly throw into 
 the shade the amount of revenue that is now derived 
 from the spirit duty." This is no untried theory, it 
 has been demonstrated in the history of Ireland. 
 Sullivan, the historian, tells us that during the great 
 temperance movement in that country, conducted by 
 the famous Father Matthew, between the years 1839 
 and 1845, " The whiskey trade was for the tinie anni- 
 
 V* 
 
 
13 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 hilated, but," continues he, " traders rejoiced to find 
 how vast was the increase in popular expenditure in 
 articles of food or clothinj^, or or home and personal 
 comfort." In 1838 the Irish revenue from distilled 
 liquors was £1,434,573. In 1841 that revenue had 
 fallen to £804,720. But the frenoral revenue from 
 customs increased from £1,091,515 in 1838 to £2 030,- 
 159 in 1^41 ; and by 1845 this revenue had become 
 £2,126,149. These fifijures are authoritative, and were 
 quoted on May 7th, 1894, in our House of Commons 
 by T. B. Flint, M.P. What took place in Ireland 
 would take place in Canada under Prohibition — an 
 increase of revenue. 
 
 Testimony of Some of Our Leading 
 
 Statesmen. 
 
 While the opponents of prohibition tell us that the 
 prohibition of the liquor traffic would increase our 
 taxation, our Finance Ministers since Confederation, 
 and others who are the best informed of our public 
 men, have no fear of that kind. . 
 
 5IR WILFRID LAURIER, Premier of our Do- 
 minion, said in Parliament, during the debate on the 
 Plebiscite, on May 3rd, 1898 : 
 
 *'It has been stated that if we were to pass a prohibitory 
 liquor law there must be additional taxation. I do not think 
 the phrase is an apt one. There should not be additional taxa- 
 tion, because taxation has always to be governed by the jieces- 
 sities of the revenue, but there must be a displacement of 
 taxation. The Minister of Revenue will have to provide other 
 sources of revenue." 
 
 HON. QEO. E. FOSTER, ex-Minister of Finance, 
 
 said on the same occasion: 
 
 "I am ready to vote for prohibition and to pay my share of 
 whatever taxes are necessary, direct or indirect, in order to 
 make up the revenue, and my belief is strong that if you can 
 make prohibition effective it would be a great saving to the 
 people, there would be greater prosperity in the end and 
 greater revenue would come." < 
 
 JU 
 
IG 
 
 On another occasion Mr. Foster said : , . 
 
 **The improvemont in the general welfare and well-being of 
 our community would be so great that the receipts in all other 
 branche8 of our revenue would be increased correspondingly, 
 and there would pi'actically, after the first year or so, not bo 
 any diminution whatever in our revenue from our taxpayers." 
 
 Going back a little in our history, we have this 
 testimony from SIR A. T. GALT: 
 
 "After having a good deal to do with the question of 
 revenue, and the raising of taxation, I am quite prepared to 
 assert that the Finance Minister who should succeed by pro- 
 hibiting the traffic in intoxicating liquors, in restoring the 
 ^ millions now lost to the people of this country, directly and 
 indirectly through the traffic, would have no difficulty whatever 
 in raising the sum of money which appears in the first instance 
 to be lost to the revenue. There can be no doubt whatever 
 about it. " 
 
 SIR L. TILLEY gives equally strong testimony as 
 to the financial gain of prohibition. He says : 
 
 *'We get five or six million dollars a year from the liquor 
 traffic, but it costs us twenty millions to collect it." 
 
 T. B. FLINT, in his place in Parliament, on June 
 
 17th, 1895, advocating the enactment of a prohibitory 
 liquor law, said : " The results of this legislation will 
 be the same as they have been everywhere else, a 
 decrease in crime, an increase in the savings of the 
 people, a decrease in the disorders of the community, 
 and an increase in opportunities for development of 
 the country in all its varied interests. The revenue 
 consideration would, in a very short time, pass out of 
 sight in face of the great prosperity that must inevit- 
 ably follow the striking off of an annual waste of 
 some $40,000,000." 
 
 I trust the above testimonies from the very highest 
 
 ' authorities will be sufficient to meet the objection 
 
 arising from a fancied loss in revenue. Prohibition 
 
 is good for the individual, good for the home, and 
 
 good for our great Dominion from ocean to ocean. / 
 
 «? 
 
 '^ 
 
 ^ 
 
K^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 yi 
 
 17 
 
 Who Is Responsible? 
 
 Upon whom does the responsibility for this waste- 
 ful and ruinous traffic rest ? Not upon liquor sellers 
 solely, nor upon our lc;(iaIatora, hut upon the people 
 who, by their indifference or their votes, le<^alize the 
 traffic. Tlie Christian people of Canada can stop this 
 scourge, and sweep it away whenever they please. 
 The simple and shameful fact must be confessed that 
 the liquor traffic continues and flourishes in Canada 
 to-day, simply and only because those who deplore 
 and denounce it in words do not have the ^race and 
 common-sense to carry their convictions with them 
 to the ballot-box and vote as they talk and pray. 
 Bar-rooms will never be closed so long as Presby- 
 terians, Methodists, Baptists and Episcopalians vote 
 the same ticket as distillers, brewers, tavern-keepers 
 and bunnners. 
 
 Is it Right? ; ,'. 
 
 I am oppressed with the thought that so many 
 Christian people in this enlightened country seem to 
 feel so slightly the awful guilt of permitting such a 
 traffic, yea, by their silence or their votes, becoming 
 partners in it. I appeal to the conscience of all who 
 have the love of humanity or the fear of God before 
 them. 
 
 Is it right to permit, foster, and encourage a traffic 
 that is acknowledged to have not one redeeming 
 quality, but exists as a blighting, damning curse on 
 everything that is pure, holy and virtuous in society ? 
 
 Is it right to license a man to sell liquor and then 
 exclude him from church membership for doing that 
 which you licensed him to do ? I am assuming of 
 course that no church would admit a rumseller into 
 its membership. 
 
 Is it right to pass resolutions in Assemblies, Synods 
 and Conferences denouncing the liquor traffic as a sin 
 
n 
 
 18 
 
 af^jiinst God and a crime against humanity, and then 
 turn round and vote for the continuance of the traffic, 
 or refuse to vote ascainst it ? 
 
 Is it right to pray to God to remove a certain evil, 
 and then turn around and vote to build it up, 
 strengthen and perpetuate it ? 
 
 Is it right to pray, " Hallowed be thy name," and 
 then vote to license that place where, above every 
 other place, God's name is profaned ? 
 
 Is it right to pray, " Thy Kingdom come," and then 
 vote to license a traffic that is " contrary to the Word 
 of God," and the chief hindrance to the progress of 
 the Gospel at home and abroad ? 
 
 Is it right to pray, " Lead us not into temptation," 
 and then legalize temptation of the worst form ? 
 
 Is it right to preach justice and charity, and then 
 license a traffic that breaks hearts, desolates homes, 
 and fills the land with poverty, misery and crime ? 
 
 There can be but one answer to these questions. 
 To license wrong-doing is wrong. We must not frame 
 mischief by a law (Ps. 94 : 20). The tree that brings 
 forth evil fruit is to be, not protected, trimmed and 
 beautified, but cut down and cast into the fire (Matt. 
 7 : 19). Vice is not to be taxed but suppressed. 
 
 
 ' Jerusalem Troubled. 
 
 I think of the blessed Lord revisiting the earth. 
 He enters the bar-room. He sees and hears what is 
 going on. He calls for its authority to damn souls. 
 He is shown the license. He reads its words and 
 places responsibility on the right shoulders. Out He 
 goes, whip in hand, and takes a bee-line for the 
 church. He finds it crowded, the usual Sunday work 
 in full blast. His presence produces consternation in 
 the crowd, but He starts in on them from pulpit to 
 
 «-:ip 
 
 T 
 
 4- 
 
*"* w 
 
 t 
 
 - 
 
 19 
 
 door with His whip in hand, and before His righteous 
 indig^iation aleepa every license-voting defiler of His 
 temple, fruni preacher to sexton, is whipped into 
 repentance or out into the street. • • , 
 
 Go Forward. 
 
 But the prospect is brightening. The Church is 
 awakening to see and feel the guilt of complicity 
 with this traffic in human blood. The idea of Chris- 
 tian citizenship is better understood. One of the chief 
 difficulties we meet in seeking to advance temperance 
 reform is the " yarty spirit." Multitudes of men are 
 as servile to their political party as an old horse to 
 his driver, whose " gee " or " haw " is sufficient to 
 direct his course. If we would prove ourselves 
 worthy of our privileges, we must shake ourselves 
 entirely free from the shackles of partyism, and vote 
 for Gotl and Homo and Native Land. We must see 
 that good and able men are chosen for all represen- 
 tative positions. I refer especially to the position of 
 school trustees, town and county councillors, and 
 members of Parliament. In these places of trust and 
 responsibility we must have men who are real men ; 
 men who will dare to do right irrespective of party ; 
 men who have principles and are prepared to stand 
 by them ; men who have conscience and are prepared 
 to follow its dictates. 
 
 Over every ballot-box in the Dominion, in gilt 
 letters, should be written when this plebiscite is being 
 taken, the words, " Who will rise up for me against 
 evildoers ? Or who will stand up for me against the 
 workers of iniquity ? " (Psalm 94 : 1 6). To THE work ! 
 To THE WORK ! The God of the universe is with us. 
 Right is might. " If the Lord be for us, who can be 
 against us ? " " For the Son of Man is not come to 
 destroy men's lives, but to save them." 
 
 .OT.iW}' 
 
 • V 
 
jiiwi I OHMH 
 
 opinion 
 
 7< 
 
 ^k.^l*#I 
 
 ^ . . 7^<^ 
 
 IT IS not so much a question with us 
 ■^ to-day in well-to-do homes the kind 
 of company we keep, as the tone and ciiaracter ^ 
 of wliat we read that determines the sort of 
 men and women we are to be. A newspaper or 
 magazine may, by an oblique reference to a 
 question of morality or principle, implant an im- 
 pression that years of teaching cannot erase. 
 Fortunately the newspaper press of Canada, 
 with few exceptions, rings clear, and none nKjre 
 so than THE WESTMINSTER, {he cleanest, 
 freshest, and strongest family paper published 
 in the Dominion." 
 
 TiiK VVkstminstkr ia an ideal paper for the homo, §) 
 piiMiwhed in Toronto 52 times a year. vSuhMiription ^ 
 ])rice .^2.00 a year in a»lva)u;e. 
 
 (S) 
 
 NUGGETS OF GOLD. 
 
 A COLLECTION OF 
 
 ROUSING BATTLE SONGS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 TEMPERANCE CAMPAIGN 
 
 Single Copies, 25c. each. Postpaid. 
 Per Dozen, 92.60; Per Hundred, $17.00. Carriage Extra. 
 
 Nearly all of the songs arc of Mr. Whyte's own composition, 
 and are here published for the first time. They hav^e been tried 
 from the platform, and received with enthusiasm. Tlie one song, 
 "He Could Drink or Leave it Alone," is itself worth the price of 
 the book. Temperance lodges and other organizations sliould at 
 once get a supply of books. Note the great reduction in price on 
 quantities. ••■ ; ' ' " 
 
 WILLIAM BRIGGS 
 
 PUBLISHER 
 
 29 33 RICHMOND ST. WEST, TORONTO. 
 
I am going to the nearest 
 store that keeps 
 
 BABY'S 
 OWN 
 
 SOAP, 
 
 and must not forget what mother 
 
 said about being sure to 
 
 get the genuine. 
 
..DOMINION.. 
 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union 
 
 LITERATURE DEPOSITORY 
 
 56 ELM STREET, _^ TORONTO 
 
 PLEBISCITE LITERATURE FOR SALE 
 
 The Plfibisfitc, How Shall I Vote; 
 A Terrible Cliarge. Vav 1(W . . . 
 A Short Storv. IV,r 1(H» 
 
 Per cuijy .u',; per Jiundred -.?2 50 
 
 z;y 
 
 On a LehiKh Vallev Train, l^er 100 2.'. 
 
 Kij?ht or VVroHK. VVhi<-li? Per 100 'Jo 
 
 Canada's Drink Hill. Per 100 I') 
 
 HardTimeH. I'er 100 1"> 
 
 Answer thcHe Four Questions. Per 100 l.i 
 
 Wanted, 2,000,000 Hoys. I'er 100 15 
 
 The Saloon Must Go. I'er 100 1.' 
 
 Have You Any Boys ? Per 100 15 
 
 Woman's Voice Against the Liquor Traffic. I'er 100 . . 15 
 
 Where is Thy Brother. Per 100 15 
 
 The Church vs. the Saloon. Per 100 15 
 
 The Home vs. the Saloon. Per 100 15 
 
 Live Issues for Living Men. Per 100 15 
 
 Roman Catholic Utterances. Per 100 15 
 
 Ten Keiisons for Signing the Pledge. Per 100 15 
 
 81.25 per 1,000. Postage 15 cents per 1,000. 
 
 For Epworth League and Christian Endeavor Temperance Com- 
 mittees, ''^ WEAPONis KOH Tempeuanck WARFARE," price 10 cents, by 
 Belle Braine, will be found invaluable. 
 
 MRS. A. M. BASCOM, Manager. 
 
 The Gm-Mill Primer 
 
 A First Book of Lessons for Young and Old, but Especially 
 for the Man who has a Vote. 
 
 FULLY ILLUSTRATED WITH INIMITABLE DRAWINGS 
 
 BV 
 
 J. W. BENGOUGH 
 
 Paper, Postpaid, 25c.; Per Dozen, $2.00; Per Hundred, $15 00. 
 
 A Large Demand is Expectid for the Approaching 
 Plebiscite Campaign. 
 
 Our country is to be congraLulated that its genial huniorist, 
 Mr. J. W. Bengough, employs his gifts of satire and caricature on 
 the right side of every moral (juestion. This last booklet may be 
 used as a temperance campaign document, so full is it of capital 
 hits at the iniquity and folly of the licensed liquor traffic. There 
 are fifty-seven short lessons with nearly a hundred of his own in- 
 imitable caricature engravings, in which almost every aspect of the 
 temperance question is discussetl. The boys and girls will read it 
 for the pictures, while the serious lessons will unconsciously sink 
 into their lives and mould their convictions. The " boys who luave 
 votes" will find cogent argument for using them for God and home 
 and native land. — Onward. 
 
 WILLIAM 6RIGGS, Publisher. 
 
 29-33 RICHMOND ST. WEST, TORONTO