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THE KING’S. BUSINESS If we were Post-Millennialists, we could hot help being hopeless; pessimists, but being Pre-Millennialists, and entertaining the Bible ,hope that the Lord may come any time, and that the darkest hour precedes the dawn, we are optimists under, any and all circumstances. But as. the night grows darker, our cry grows louder, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” The Liquor Traffic knows neither humanity nor patriot- Ruthless Greed of ism ; it recognizes no sentiment, but the love of gold. Liquor Traffic England at the present time affords a most striking proof of this fact. England’s most prominent statesman at the present time, Lloyd George, has declared that England’s most danger ous enemy is neither Germany nor Austria, nor Turkey, but strong drink. Everyone knows that Lloyd George was right in this. Lord Kitchener has made a similar statement. In consequence steps were taken toward the pro hibition of the manufacture and sale of strong drink during the war. At once, the liquor interests which had fattened on the misfortunes of their fellow- countrymen, arose in protest, and, even a very moderate attempt to limit the sale of liquor, divided even the party in power. The liquor interests demand that the use of liquor should be limited by people -voluntarily renouncing the use of it during the war, as the King has, and not by law. They 'know pér- fectly well that this would be utterly ineffective. If .they had thought it would be effective, they would have opposed it as bitterly^ as they did pro hibition by law. It means nothing to them that the war was being pro longed by the liquor traffic, in incapacitating the soldiers for effective service on the one hand, and incapacitating the working men for the rapid produc tion of arms and ammunition, on the other hand. The war might be pro longed, thousands upon thousands of lives might be sacrificed, hundreds of thousands' of women might suffer, but what cared they as long, as they con tinued to get big dividends on their brewing and distilling stock. What a monster-remorseless, cruel, conscienceless, the liquor traffic is ! It would seem as if every owner of brewing or distilling stocks must feel as if his fingers were dripping blood, and he must shudder when any one even hints the word, patriotism. uttered his memorable statement regarding the most dangerous of England’s enemies ; when he was backed up in his utterance by General Kitchener and by the King and many of the leading statesmen of England, only those who were familiar with the power of the liquor traffic in English government, doubted for one moment that the liquor traffic would be prohibited as long as the war continued. But those who had watched and studied for past years, "the power of this iniquitous business in English legislation, knew that things would come out just as they have. Even they were surprised when a great Church expressed its grave apprehension regarding thé wisdom of prohibition. For years England has been held in utter helplessness by the liquor traffic in every attempt made toward saner, and more wholesome One of the strangest and most amazing sights in con- nection with the present awful war, is the utter helpless- ness of England because of the strangle-hold that the liquor traffic has secured upon her. When Lloyd George England Throttled
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