A “DRY” DENMARK

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 3483, 7 November 1913, Page 7

A “DRY” DENMARK

AGITATION FOR TOTAL PRO-

HIBITION

I. C. Christensen, leader of the j; Liberal party, has started an agitation j for Statewide prohibition in Denmark. Not long ago the Liberal party successfully fathered a bill which enforces important restrictions on the sale of liquors in bars, restaurants, and similar places, and the Liberal leader evidently intends to follow this qp with a law enforcing total prohibition of the sale of intoxicants in Denmark.

During the last few years the Dan- • ish. people have become more and more abstemious in their habits, and as the younger generation is especially temperate, the agitation for prohibition is not based on any growing insobriety on the part of the people of the country. In explaining why the Liberal party, which stands for a large measure of personal liberty, should be backing such a bill, Mr Christensen says alcohol is poison, and that the •State should forbid and regulate its use just as it does in the case of other recognised poisons. Until tho late temperance legislation went into effect, Denmark has depended upon education to fight the evils of intemperance, and this is the first time the advocates of tho prohibition movement have sought Government regulation of the liquor traffic. It is believed that the people will acquiesce in the proposed legislation in spite of the alleged attack on personal liberty, which they feel must be limite tod the good of the community • Some of the leading Liberal papers have protested strongly against the bill, one pointing out that a person is not educated' by making him_ incapable of managing his own affairs, but by letting him live his life in the largest possible liberty under the responsibility of himself and the community. The Opposition papers attack the. Ministry’s nek .policy arid insinuate that it is for tfje purpose pf. &tohmg, votes.'"'’' ' 'r-.V