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Mr. lrish made a bitter attack on Mr. N. W. Rowell, charging that the liberal leader had placed party ad-- |yantage ahead of the public interest. This was a reference to "abolish the lbar." The Liberal leader -- said inl |reply that if Mr. Trish was blaming him for the prohibition _ legislation| now before the House he would take his criticism as a compliment rather: than otherwise. | 'Premier Hearst Firm in Op-- posing Resolution of Mr. Irish <as Uncallied for and -- Impracticable -- Mr. Rowell's Part in Reform The motion of Mr. ITrish, which was seconded by Mr. G. J. Musgrove, member for Niagara Falis, was with-- drawn upon the suggestion of the Premier. Although the Toronto member's speech evoked little en-- thusiasm on either side of the House, it was noticeable that the _ Cabinet Ministers present followed his re marks closely. The Ontario Government has no intention of compensating hotel-- keepers or ljquor merchants who may sustain financial loss when the Pro-- vince goes "dry."> This was made clear in the Legislature yesterday by Premier Hearst. Discussion of the matter was initiated by Mr. Mark Irish, member for Northeast To-- ronto, who advocated _ compensation because millions of dollars had been invested in the hotel business in On-- tario with the full sanction of the community and of the Government. While the Government chad not been in partnership with the liquor inter-- gfi's they had participated in the pro-- He thought the righteousness _ of compensation would eventually be re-- cognized. It would 'be seen that com-- pensation made for the permanency of prohibition. It would help to do away with any agitation on the part of those financially harmed by pro-- hibition, to re--establish themselves in business, He had been told that if he spoke in the Legislature in favor of compensation for license--holders he would be accused of being the mouthpiece of the liquor interests. He would leave that to the jury of public opinion. The verdict gave him no worry. He was not interested, nor were any members of his family in-- terested, financially or sentimentally, Mr. Irish, who read his specech, opened with a bitter attack on Mr. Rowell. He blamed the Liberal leader for the introduction of tem-- perance into the arena of politics, and charged that Mr,. Rowell had placed party advantage ahead of the public interest. *"No matter what the an-- swer may be, that answer can only be made by the hon. member for North Oxford himself (Mr. Rowell), and can scarcely be made to the com-- nlete satisfaction of anyone but him-- self," said Mr. Irish. Had the Lib-- erals not thrown the temperance question into the midst of party strife the Legislature would have made fur-- ther advances in the direction of tem-- perance reform than had been made, although perhaps not of the same character. A friend had told him that if he publicly advocated compen-- sation for license--holders who would sustain financial loss because of pro-- hibition he would simply be conduct-- ing the funeral service over his own political life. f Would Make for Permancnce. Irish Gives Reasons O COMPENSATION _ _ FOR LICENSE--HOLDERS for Compensation re-- He was told fifty million -- dollars were invested in Ontario in the pro-- duction and sale of intoxicating liquor. That investment was made more than |any other investment with the full sanction of the community and by the \ Government. The Government had \|even partic¢ipated in the profits, but had not taken any risk. It had been argued that hotelmen should not be compensated until they had made compensation for the lives and homes that had been ruined by the liquor traffic. They might as well argue that fish merchants should compensate the relatives of those who had diled of ptomaine poisoning as a result of eating canned fish. The sale of absinthe and vodka had beaen prohibited in France and Russia, but in France the Government had bougzht the stocks of absinthe, while in Ru&-- sia the Government controlled the manufacture of vodka, s3o that no one but the Governments of France and Russia sustained financial loss. rm"t'he manufacture, sale, distribution or storage of liquors of any kind. '1 Iam not even permitted by my doctor ito have any interest in the consump-- tion of it," he added. Government on the Traffic. Continuing his historical sketch, | the Premier said as recently as 1894 | there were 3,.151 licenses in the Pro-- | vince, which had been reduced to i,-- / 593 at the present time. The samc ; Premier Hearst did not conside' the motion one to which the House: could give its assent. If there was no objection to the general principi® of compensation, the difficulties that stand in the way at present seemedl to be insurmountable for anything to be done along the line suggested. The Premier pointed out that the temper-- ance bill proposed prohibition to be made effective for a period in the neighborhood of three years, the date not having yet been fixed. At that time the proposition was to have the peo-- ple say whether or not they wanted to continue on prohibition lines or whether they wanted to return to the condition of affairs that existed now or to some other licensing condition. The speaker stated, although point-- ing out he had not the opportunity cf checking up the figures, that as far back as 1875 there were fnearly 6,-- 000 lHcenses in Ontario,; the figures he had being 5,818. In 1876, when the Crook's act came into force, the liconses were reduced to 3,938%, in other words, practically 2,000 1i-- cenges were cut off by ons act of the Legislature. These tmhen could have said they wereé'"as much or more en-- titled to compensation as the licengses of to--day, becausgse the latter have had warnings that the life of the liquor traffic in the Proviunce was in jeo-- pardy both by direct vote of the peo-- ple themselves and otherwise., Injury by Hotelmen. '"'How are you going to compen-- sate the trade now for an indefin-- ite period ?" asked the Premier. "Let me go farther than that. If we are going to compensate there must be some consistency in our action in connection with compensation. If you are going to compensate now the men who will be deprived of their licenses and those connected with tha trada by reason of the proposed hbill or any proposed action which the House may take, what are you going to do with the men who have been deprived in the years gone by --f similar privileges ?" Previous License Cuts, Premier Strongly Opposed to Compensation Idea. '"We took a rake--off," declared Mr. Irish, "and now we propose to stack the cards and throw the players into the street, many of them actually, not theoretically, ruined." He admitted there were rascals in the liquor busi-- ness, but there were rascals in every business, even in the Church.