Permits are not issued to corporations, associations, societies or partnerships. Therefore the opportunities for fraud are diminished. And on polling days all the stores are closed. In pre-Volstead times in the United States the law distinctly said that our saloons should remain closed on Election Day in many of the big cities; yet was this regulation--a very wise one--ever enforced? That is one reason why we have Prohibition today--we simply would not obey even those moderate and salutary laws enacted for the welfare of the community. The saloon-keeper paid not the slightest heed to them; in fact, he scoffed at them; and that is why he has no sympathy from the rest of us, now that his foul places are gone forever. One would not be so foolish as to assert that a state of perfection has been reached in the Government-controlled Provinces. Bootlegging goes on--but principally because this country is dry. If the States were also under Government control in the matter of the liquor traffic, there would be no temptation to transport stuff illicitly over the border. I imagine that the Canadians are quite as guilty as the Americans when it comes to these secret transactions; for if it takes two to make a quarrel, it is equally true that it takes two to consummate a sale of any kind. There would be a cleaner slate if we had the common sense to do as, say, Quebec has done. There are no swinging-door saloons; but there are tidy shops where one is not ashamed to go. No one is drinking on the sly, pretending to be consuming coffee out of a cup which really contains a high-ball. “In vino demi-tasse” is not the motto of Canada, as it is that of the United States. It is significant to note that in British Columbia, when that Province was completely dry--even without beer--141,057 prescriptions for liquor were issued; yet in the fiscal year which ended March 31, 1922, only 6,568 prescriptions were issued. And while our own Government continues to ask for mighty appropriations for the enforcement of Prohibition, the reports from the Province of Quebec state that for the fiscal year ending in June, 1922, a profit of $4,000,000 was realized, and that the regulations have proved quite as successful morally as financially. Can we say that, in the matter of morals, the Volstead Act has worked advantageously? It has undermined the whole country; and under fanaticism, we have shown ourselves to be a total failure. The New York _World_ says: “The Quebec law is a good law because it has city and country solidly behind it and it can be enforced. It provides for local option, it restricts the purchase of spirits, it allows the sale of wine and beer in cafés and it creates no enforcement problem. It affects every legitimate reform advocated by the professional Prohibitionists of the United States, but quietly, sensibly, profitably and without friction.” If we could but come to the sanity of Canada, in her Government-controlled Provinces!