Private Drinking

Four and twenty Yankees Feeling very dry

Went across to Canada and bought a case of rye.

When the case was opened They began to sing: SQRT

To heck with the President, God save the King.

--CANADIAN FOLK SONG

On the U. S. side of the Great Lakes, last week, unwilling citizens of a Prohibition regime looked towards the promised land of Canada, saw it more promising still. Fat U. S. bootleggers chuckled over the prospect of a new source of whiskeys and fine wines; Wet U. S. Congressmen watched with interest. In the legislature of the Province of Ontario before crowded and expectant galleries, Premier Ferguson introduced his bill to do away with the present liquor laws* and substitute others based on the limited franchise laws of Ontario's sister province, Quebec. He faced an enthusiastic dripping Wet majority triumphantly elected last December.

To U. S. tourists the most important provision of the new bill is one that provides for 30-day permits, under which they may buy liquor and consume it in their private domiciles; a domicile may be anything from a hotel-room to a tent. Residents under the new bill may obtain individual permits, may buy any quantity of liquor which the Liquor Control Board allows.

To this Board, the new bill gives almost unlimited powers; it is exempt from interference from either the Legislature or the courts in carrying out the broadly defined activities provided in the bill, including the issuance of permits, the determination of the location, hours and sales of liquor stores, the control of breweries and distilleries and the amount of liquor each permit-holder may buy. Under the new bill, druggists may not sell liquor; physicians, dentists, veterinaries and ministers of the gospel may obtain special permits to buy.

Last week one more Canadian province seemed likely to re-enter the Wet list. In the New Brunswick Legislature, Lieutenant Governor William F. Todd, committed the Government to "important provisions in connection with the sale of intoxicating liquor." As the present administration has a three-fourths majority in the legislature, any liquor control bill it submits could be easily put through.

*Under the present Ontario law (that the new bill may replace) the sale of 4.4% beer and whiskey on a doctor's prescription is permitted. Many bootleggers flourish. The new bill makes sure that liquor will only be sold through government stores by a provision for compulsory jail sentence without option of a fine for the unauthorized sale of as much as one bottle of liquor.