PUBLIC CONTROL
OF THE
LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
PUBLIC CONTROL
OF THE
LIQUOR TRAFFIC:
Being a Review of
the Scandinavian Experiments in the light of
recent experience.
BY
JOSEPH ROWNTREE
AND
ARTHUR SHERWELL,
JOINT AUTHORS OF
*' THE TEMPERANCE PROBLEM AND SOCIAL REFORM,"
BRITISH GOTHENBURG EXPERIMENTS AND PUBLIC-HOUSE TRUSTS,
"state PROHIBITION AND LOCAL OPTION," ETC.
SECOND THOUSAND.
LONDON :
GRANT RICHARDS.
1903-
Delittle, Fen-jiick & Co., Vork
C3
z
an
AUTHORS' NOTE.
THE writers express their sincere
thanks to numerous correspondents
in this countr>% on the Continent, and
in the United States, who have helped
them with information and criticisms.
£2 They wish especially to acknowledge
«^ the constant assistance which they have
cc received from Dr. Sigfrid Wieselgren,
g of Stockholm, Mr, Ernst Andree, of
^ Gothenburg, Mr. H. E. Berner, of
Christiania, and Mr. Jorgen Irgens, of
^ Bergen, in furnishing much valuable
"Tj information which only local knowledge
Ui
° could supply.
For the English equivalents of the
foreign moneys and measures named
in this book the reader is referred to
the Appendix.
40 0:i',^/f O
Preface,
THE primary object of this book is to
examine certain objections recently urged
against the pubHc management of the Hquor
traffic, which are based upon an alleged
failure of the system of company control in
Gothenburg and throughout Sweden and
Norway generally. The questions involved are
twofold : (i) Has the system failed in any
important particular ? (2) If so, has such
failure been due to inherent defects in
the Company System or to its imperfect
application ?
While including in our review other
adverse criticisms, it will be convenient to
follow in the main a work recently published
by Mr. John Walker, M.A., entitled The
Commonwealth as Publican, which appears to
viii. Pr^EFACE.
embody almost every charge which has
recently been brought against the working of
the Gothenburg System.
In order, however, that the reader may
judge of the value that should be attached to
Mr. Walker's statements and opinions when
unsupported by evidence, we shall in the first
place give a few illustrations to show how
slight is his acquaintance with the subject on
which he writes.
On page lo, Mr. Walker says : "In
Norway, the samlags now generally have
a monopoly of the sale of beer as well as
of branvin." As a matter of fact it is
doubtful whether there is a single samlag
which has such a monopoly. Mr. Jorgen
Irgens, of Bergen, who is intimately acquainted
with the history and details of the samlag
system in Norway, writing on the 28th May,
1902, says : " I have to state that none of our
samlags has monopoly to sell beer or wine.
Perhaps there may be one or another spot or
village where such is the case, although I do
PREFACE. ix.
not believe it, but if so, such a monopoly
is not connected with the sale of liquor "
[i.e., spirits].
Again, Mr. Walker (p. 43), in seeking to
meet our contention that the Company-
System secures a divorce between politics and
the drink traffic, attempts to show that in
Scandinavia there has been no alliance
between the drink traffic and politics, and
consequently there can have been no divorce.
This question will be fully discussed later on.
At present we only note that in the elaboration
of this argument Mr. Walker states that the
electors in Norway are a limited class, and
take only a small interest in politics. We
will give Mr. Walker's words m extcnso.
The italics are ours : —
"In 1876, when the 'Samlag' first came into
being in Norway, the electors numbered 140,000.
So small was the interest in politics, that at
the election of that year only 84,000 of the
electorate applied to be put on the register,
and 37,000 actually voted. That Parliament was
therefore elected by the votes of about two per
cent, of the population. At present [1902] the
X. PREFACE.
franchise is restricted to la7ided proprietors, real
estate owners, and officials, among which classes
the liqnor traffic has ever had little, if any,
influenced
Now what are the facts ? It was only
necessary for Mr. Walker to turn to The,
Statesman's Year Book for igo2 (p. 1098), and
there he would have found that Norway is a
country of practically universal suffrage : —
" Every Norwegian citizen of twenty-five
years of age (provided that he resides and
has resided for five years in the country) is
entitled to elect, unless he is disqualified
from a special cause — for instance, actual
receiving of parish relief. . . At the election
in 1900, the number of electors was 440,174,
or 1973 per cent.-^ of total population, while
238,617 votes, or 54'2i per cent, of the
whole number, were recorded."
But perhaps in the whole volume there is
nothing more extraordinary than Mr. Walker's
off-hand method of dealing with a question
1 In England and Wales, in igoi, the proportion of electors to
the total population was only i6 6.
PREFACE.
XI.
of the first importance — that of the national
consumption of spirits.
All students of the liquor legislation of
Sweden and Norway know that a main claim
put forward on its behalf has been that in
both countries it has brought about a remark-
able reduction in the consumption of spirits.
The statistics bearing upon this question have
been studied and discussed in print by able
men in Sweden and Norway. In both
countries they are the subject of carefully
prepared and unchallenged official returns.
Trained experts sent out by the Government
of Washington, and by the Legislature of
Massachusetts, have examined these figures ;
the English Board of Trade, in their valuable
tables showing the consumption of spirits,
wine and beer in foreign countries, have
adopted them ; and it is a perfectly gratuitous
assumption to suppose that they are seriously
incorrect ; yet this point, fundamental to the
discussion of the success or otherwise of the
Scandinavian liquor legislation, is airily
xii. PREFACE.
disposed of by Mr. Walker in the following
lines : — •
" In America, where illicit distillation is
rampant, and railway companies do a regular
trade in assisting evasion, the statistics are mere
guess-work ; and in sparsely peopled countries,
where free distillation has only ceased for fifty
years, like Norway and Sweden, we fear this is
also largely the case. For instance, free
distillation was until last century general in
our own Highlands, and it is a matter of
common knowledge that for decades afterwards
many more hogsheads of whisky found their way
from the hills than the excise officer took toll of.
" It is, therefore, scarcely fair to compare
the returns of alcohol consumed in Scandinavia
with those in Britain. In Norway, particularly,
the totals are very much less, and it is almost
certain that these totals are not compiled with
the same exactitude as our own." ^
In The Temperance Problem and Social
Reform the official figures of the consumption
of spirits for both Sweden and Norway are
given. In Sweden the actual (as distinguished
from the estimated) figures date from 1856,
and in Norway from 1849. They thus go back
in the one country for forty-seven and in the
ip. 23.
PREFACE. xiii.
other for fifty-four years. Prior to these dates
the statistics of national consumption were
"estimated" and were of little value, but
Mr. Walker's words show that he refers to
the statistics which follow the era of free
distillation, i.e., to the period to which the
" actual " figures apply. To place this
important question of the consumption of
spirits in Sweden and Norway beyond all
doubt or challenge, we submitted the quotation
from Mr. Walker's book to the Statistical
Departments at Stockholm and Christiania.
The replies received from the Chiefs of these
two Departments are as follows : —
" Kongl. Finansdepartementets,
" Kontroll — Och Justeringsbyra.
"As to the contents of your letter of July 31st
last, I am glad to be able to bring you the
information that the charge, mentioned in the
work entitled T/ie Commonwealth as Publicayi,
page 23, viz., that in Sweden great quantities
of liquor are unlawfully produced, is absolutely
false. Contrary to the assertion, it is a fact that
illicit distillation of spirits, at least during the
last ten years, has occurred only exceptionally
and at present very seldom, and when it has
happened, it has been on a scale so trifling
xiv. PREFACE.
that it has no influence at all on the correctness
of the figures of the yearly consumption of
liquors in Sweden, as given in our official
reports. These figures agree with those on the
slip that accompanied your letter.^
" Stockholm, 19th August, 1902.
(Signed) " K. LINDEBERG,
" Chief of the Bureau."
" Det statistiske Centralbureau,
" Kristiania,
" 4 //i Sep te?)t ber, 1 90 2 .
" In reply to your letters of 31st July and
25th August, I am glad to be able to say
about the same as to unlawful production of
liquor in Norway as Mr. lyindeberg writes for
Sweden.
"According to returns from the police
authorities in the country districts to a
departmental Committee for revision of the
alcohol legislation some years ago, there was
during the years 1892 — 96, in forty-seven of
fifty-three districts, not ascertained any case
of unlawful production of liquor at all, in
five districts one or very few cases, and in
one district sixteen cases (during five 3^ears).
" As to the figures of national consumption
of liquor, I refer to pages 181 — -183 of the
enclosed number of the Meddelelser fra Det
statistiske Ceyiiralbureau.
" Yours truly,
(Signed) "A. N. KI^R."
1 i.e., the figures of actual consumption given in The Temperance
Problem and Social Reform.
PREFACE.
XV.
These figures agree with those given in
The Temperance Problem and Social Reform,
p. 476.
Mr. Walker's attempt to discredit the
statistics of spirit consumption in Sweden and
Norway is thus shown to be absolutely
without warrant.
The question of the accuracy of the
statistics in the United States is only indirectly
connected with the present inquiry, but the
fact to which we have given prominence — that
the national per capita consumption of alcohol
in the American Union is only about one-half
of the per capita consumption 'in this country- —
is one of such far-reaching consequence, that
we thought it well to submit Mr. Walker's
assertion to the Treasury Department in
Washington. The comment upon it made by
the Commissioner of the Department is given
below. The importance of the statement
made in the concluding sentence, which we
have italicised, will be apparent.
xvi. PREFACE.
" Treasury Department,
"Office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
"Washington, October loth, 1902.
" I am in receipt of your letter of the ist
instant, referring to the work of one, Mr. J.
Walker, in regard to the statistics of this
Bureau.
" The quotation presented by you from Mr.
Walker's book, in which he says 'the statistics
are mere guesswork,' is an assertion that is
not warranted by the methods of administration
governing this office. The laws of the United
States in regard to the collection of taxes on
distilled spirits are as stringent, and perhaps
more so, than those of any other civilized
country. Under no government has it been
possible to wholly repress the illicit distillation
of spirits. The efforts of this office in that
direction are indicated in a copy of the Annual
Report of the Commissioner of Internal
Revenue for the fiscal year ended 1901. On
pages 22 and 24 of the same will be found a
brief history of the repressive operations of
the Internal Revenue Bureau as directed
against illicit distillers.
"To undertake to estimate the amount of
illicit spirits that enters into consumption in
the United States would, perhaps, be a work
of supererogation, but the experience of this
Bureau is, that outside of certain mountain
sections, where illicit spirits are produced, and
PREFACE. xvii.
mostlj^ consumed iu the same section, the
collection of taxes is as nearl}'- thorough as
can be attained under any system of revenue
taxation.
"'In viy opbiion the amount of illicit spirits
produced in this country, upon 7vhich no tax is
paid, zvojild not materially affect the figures of
per capita cojisumption of the United States aiid
Territories}
" Respectfully,
(Signed) "J. W. YERKES,
** Commissioner."
Mr. Walker's readers have also reason to
complain that occasionally his statements,
though technically accurate, are in danger of
conveying an altogether mistaken impression.
Thus, on page 80, referring to the Grayshott
Inn, he writes: — "Since then, for various
reasons, there have been six different managers,
and, as a commentary on the statement of
Messrs. Rowntree and Sherwell, that pure
liquor alone was supplied, one of these was
recently convicted for selling adulterated
1 As is well known, there are no statistics of the consumption
of alcohol in the separate States of the Union, the figures that are
sometimes put forward being nothing more than estimates.
xviii. PREFACE.
drink."^ Technically, we suppose the drink
was "adulterated," but the impression
upon the mind of the reader who is not
connected with the Trade would have been
very different if Mr. Walker had said that
the manager was convicted for selling Scotch
whisky below the strength recognised by the
Food and Drugs Acts. And the significance
of this conviction would have been entirely
changed if Mr. Walker had added that,
by statutory law, the publican is at liberty
to sell whisky 25 degrees under proof without
posting any notice to that effect in the place
of sale, or at a lower strength than 25
degrees under proof if a notice to that
effect is exhibited. And the charge would
have lost all significance if Mr. Walker
1 It may be pointed out incidentally that the present writers do
not make the statement attributed to them by Mr. Walker. The
nearest approach to anything of the kind is to be found in the
epitomised statement of the Committee of the Grayshott Association
to the effect : " If a fully licensed house were to be opened in the
village, it would be in every way desirable that it should be one in
which no prominence should be given to the sale of alcoholic drinks,
but rather a refreshment-house in which alcoholic liquors of the best
quality should always be obtainable, but where food and non-alcoholic
beverages of good quality and at moderate prices should also be
freely provided, and their consumption encouraged."
PREFACE. xix.
had still further added that the danger of
whisky falling by evaporation below 25 degrees
under proof is one that is well known by
the Trade.
It will probably be deemed superfluous
to reply in detail to a volume bearing such
evident marks of haste in preparation,
but, as already said, its contents may be
usefully turned to account as constituting a
full statement of the charges made against the
Controlling Systems of Sweden and Norway.
Contents.
Preface p'^g^s vii.-xix.
Chapter I.
INTRODUCTORY.
Points Concerning which Social Reformers Agreed.
Growth of Conviction that Present Licensing
System is Essentially Defective. The
Sisyphean Struggle. Ends towards which
a Licensing System Needs to be Directed.
The Value of Informed Criticism. Statement
of the Essential Principles of the Gothenburg
System. Elimination of Private Profit no
Mere Detail of Administrative Reform.
Conspicuous Benefits of the Gothenburg
System. Elimination of Private Profit only
a Part of the System. Misapplication of the
Phrase " Gothenburg System." Comparison
with Other Systems of Public Control . pages 1-12
Chapter II.
THE QUESTION OF DRUNKENNESS IN
GOTHENBURG.
FALLACIOUS COMPARISONS.
Examination of the Real Facts as to Drunkenness
in Gothenburg and Elsewhere. The Com-
parative Value of Statistics of Arrests. The
xxii. CONTENTS.
Extent to which Comparisons are Reliable.
Statement of Considerations to be allowed for.
The Fallacy Underlying Recent Comparisons.
Sweden and Scotland Compared, The True
Facts and their Explanation. Thoroughness
of the Control Exercised in Scandinavia. The
Gothenburg System Essentially a Controlling
System. Illustrations of this Fact. Statement
of Administrative Checks and Restrictions.
Effect upon Consumption of Spirits. The
Uncontrolled Sale of Beer, and its Effects.
Two Systems in Contrast. Effect of Uncon-
trolled Sale of Beer upon Drunkenness. Other
Causes. The Influence of High Wages.
Comparison of Economic Condition of
Working Classes since 1865. Comparative
Statement of Wages in various Skilled and
Unskilled Trades. Higher Relative Increase
in Wages of Unskilled Labour, Important
Recognition of the Value of the Gothenburg
System as a Temperance Agency . pages 13-50
Chapter III.
PRICES AND DUTIES IN SWEDEN AND
NORWAY,
Cheapness of Spirits in Sweden, Effect of Price
of Alcohol upon Consumption, Comparison
of Prices in Sweden, Norway and United
Kingdom. Size of Dram of Spirits in each
Country. Prices Charged by Controlling
CONTENTS. xxiii.
Companies. Comparison of Sweden and
Norway. Effect of Spirit Duty upon
Consumption in the Two Countries. Relation
of Taxation to Consumption in case of Beer.
The Malt Tax in Norway, Progressive
Advance in Price of Spirits in Sweden and
Norway. Effect of Spirit Duty upon
Consumption in Chief European Countries
and in United States . . . pages 51-62
Chapter IV.
PAUPERISM IN GOTHENBURG.
Erroneous Statistics. The True Facts. The
Relation of Pauperism to the Controlling
System. The Growth of Pauperism in Sweden
Not Peculiar to the Towns. Increase in Rural
Districts where Prohibition Prevails. Ex-
planation of the Increase of Pauperism in
Sweden. Review of Influences Affecting
Pauperism during the last Forty Years. The
Effect of Periods of Commercial Depression.
The Value of the Early Figures, New
Methods of Tabulation. Distinction between
the Statistical Increase and the Real Increase.
Historical Resume of the Causes making for
Pauperism. The P'allacy of the Attempt to
Connect the Increase with the Controlling
System shown in the Case of Finland. The
Effect of Methods of Administration upon
the Volume of Pauperism Illustrated by
xxiv. CONTENTS.
Experience in England. Comparison of
English Poor Law Unions. Increase in
Statistics of Pauperism in Gothenburg,
accompanied by a Diminution of Poverty.
Increased Prosperit)'- of the Working Classes
in Gothenburg pages ^2)~11
Chapter V.
THE MENACE TO MUNICIPAL AND
POLITICAL " LIFE.
The Danger to Municipal and Political Life under
Private Licence. This Menace Destroyed b)'
the Scandinavian System. Examination of
a Recent Attempt to Controvert these
Propositions. The True Test of Political
Influence. The Alleged Failure of the Trade
to Influence Legislation Examined. The
Extent and Methods of the Trade Electoral
Organization. Political Activity of the Trade
in 1892 and 1895. The Power of the *' Local
Instrument." The Menace a Continuous
Factor in Political Life. Illustrations of the
Exercise of the Trade's Political Influence
since i860. A New Development in Trade
Organization. Formation of the National
Brewery Shareholders' Association. " A
Powerful Political Force." Avowed Objects of
the New Association. The Menace in the
United States. Elimination of the Menace in
Scandinavia. Divorce of the Spirit Traffic
CONTENTS. XXV.
from Politics in Sweden and Norway. The
Significance of the Fact. Evidence of Mr.
Chamberlain and Lord Peel. How the
Divorce was Effected. The Struggle with the
Distillers in Sweden. The Power of the
Brewers. Proposals of the Temperance Party
in Sweden and Norway to Extend the
Controlling System to the Sale of Beer. The
Power of the Brewery Shareholders as
Affected by the Adoption of the Controlling
System. The Altered Conditions. The
Lesson of South Carolina . . pages 78-126
Chapter VI.
THE PUSHING OF SALES.
^ Effect of Eliminating Private Profit Upon. The
Real Meaning of the Phrase. Illustrations of
the " Pushing " of Trade under the Stimulus
of Private Gain. Variety of the Methods
Adopted. Effect upon Consumption. Preva-
lence of Similar Methods in the British
Colonies and in other Countries. The
Pushing of Sales Destroyed under the
Controlling System. Examples of Russia,
Gothenburg, etc. Real Force of the Contrast
between Private Licence and the Controlling
System Illustrated. Methods Adopted by the
Controlling Companies to Reduce Sales
pages 127-143
xxvi. CONTENTS.
Chapter VII.
IS THE CONTROLLING SYSTEM IN
SCANDINAVIA A PROGRESSIVE OR
A RETROGRADE MOVEMENT?
The Alleged Retrogressive Character of the
Scandinavian Experiments. The Charge
Examined. Disproved by {a) the Attitude
of the Temperance Party towards the
System, and (d) the Actual History of the
Experiments. The Record of the Companies.
The Early Years Compared with the Last
Decade. The Temperance Aims and Methods
of the Companies as Illustrated by Recent
Policy and Developments. Detailed Exami-
nation of the Charges of Deterioration. The
Real, as distinct from the Alleged, Facts.
The Swedish System Compared with the
Norwegian. Superiority of the latter. The
Advanced Temperance Legislation in Norway
due to the Release of Temperance Sentiment
and the Elimination of the Political Influence
of the Distiller. The Evidence of Mn
Consul Michell Examined . . pa£-es 144-168
Chapter VIII.
THE EVIDENCE OF FOREIGN OBSERVERS
UPON THE WORKING OF THE COMPANY
SYSTEM IN SCANDINAVIA.
The Suggested Bias of Swedish Local Authorities
in Favour of the Controlling System. Alleged
CONTENTS. xxvii.
Adverse Opinions of " Impartial Travellers."
The Testimony of Foreign Observers
Examined. Mr. Chamberlain's Testimony.
The Evidence and Conclusions of the United
States Government Commissioners. Report
of the Commission appointed by the State
Legislature of Massachusetts. Favourable
Testimony of Other Observers . pages 169-180
Chapter IX.
THE COMPANY SYSTEM IN SCANDINAVIA
AND THE PUBLIC-HOUSE TRUST COMPANY
SYSTEM IN GREAT BRITAIN: A
COMPARISON OF THE CONDITIONS UNDER
WHICH EACH IS CARRIED ON.
Limitations of the Public-House Trust Movement.
A Monopoly of the Local Traffic Essential.
The Norwegian System in its Essence One of
Control. The Combination of Central Control
and Local Initiative Illustrated and Explained.
The Relation of the Norwegian Companies to
(fl) the Central Government, {F) the Magistracy,
and ic) the Municipal Council. The Resulting
Safeguards. Control Combined with Elasticity
of Method. Norwegian and British Public-
House Trust Systems Compared. Statutory
Control of the Company System Essential
pages 181-191
xxviii. CONTENTS.
Chapter X.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF COMPANY CONTROL
COMPARED WITH THE POSSIBILITIES OF
PRIVATE LICENCE.
The Vital Facts in the Problem of Intemperance.
Results of Stringent Law Administration in
Liverpool. The Decrease of Drunkenness in
the City. Causes of this Decline. How Far
Related to the Reduction of Licensed Premises.
Particulars of the Suppression of " On "
Licences in Recent Years. Decrease of
Drunkenness in Liverpool Not Primarily Due
to the Reduction of Licences. The True
Explanation of the Decline in Drunkenness.
Action of (a) the Watch Committee, (d) the
Licensing Magistrates, and (c) the Citizens'
Vigilance Committee. The Leverage by which
Reforms have been Effected. Character of the
Reforms, and the Methods Employed to Effect
them. The Net Result. The Limits which
govern Administrative Reforms. Absence of
Apparent Effect upon the Consumption of
Alcohol. The Present High Consumption of
Alcohol in Liverpool. The Possibilities of a
well-enforced Private Licence Law (as
illustrated by Liverpool) Compared with the
Possibilities of the Gothenburg System.
Powerful Effect of the Company System in
Scandinavia in Reducing Consumption. Ease
with which Progressive Restrictions are
Enforced in Sweden and Norway Contrasted
CONTENTS. xxix.
with the Difficulty of Licensing Reform in
this Country. The Aim of Private Licence
Contrasted with the Aim of Public Control.
Growth of Conviction in Favour of Con-
structive Reforms. The Provision of
Counter-attractions in Russia. Description
of the Work of the Russian Temperance
Committees. Remarkable Success of the
Constructive Agencies Employed. Need of
Counter-attractions Recognised in the United
States. Recommendations of the Committee
of the Town Council of Gothenburg.
Essential that such Constructive Agencies
be Adequately Equipped and Maintained.
Estimated Annual Cost. Rate Aid Impossible.
How the Necessary Funds Can be Procured.
Final Comparison of Private Licence and the
Controlling System .... pages 192-226
Chapter XI.
CONCLUSION.
Summary of Advantages of the Company System.
Objections to Propositions Considered.
Earlier Conclusions Confirmed by Recent
Investigations. Two Practical Conclusions.
Final Appeal to Temperance Reformers,
Restrictive and Constructive Reforms Both
Needed. The Present Opportunity. Unity
of Effort the Essential Condition of
Success ...... pages 227-237
XXX. CONTENTS.
APPENDICES.
Page
Compensation . . 239
The Policy of Exacting the Surrender of Old
Licences for New Ones 242
Foreign Moneys and Measures .... 247
Method of Granting Licences in Sweden and
Norwa)' 248
Statistics of Drunkenness in Principal Towns of
England and Wales ...... 254
Statistics of Drunkenness in Principal Towns of
Ireland. ........ 255
Statistics of Drunkenness in Principal Towns of
Scotland ........ 256
The Alleged Drunkenness of Finland . . . 257
The South Carolina State Monopoly . . . 259
Trustworthiness of the Statistics of the Consump-
tion of Spirits in Gothenburg, Stockholm and
Bergen 265
Results of Voting of Norwegian Towns upon the
Retention or Suppression of Samlags . . 268
Particulars of the Rate that would be required in
Various Towns to meet the Estimated Cost of
Counter-attractions to the Public-House . 271
CHAPTER I.
Introductory.
"It seems to me that the licensing system
. . . can never but very imperfectly fulfil the
objects for which it exists. The inevitable
antagonism between the national and legitimate
aspirations of the Trade to extend itself, and
the aim of the L,icensing System to prevent
extension and discourage consumption, can never
be overcome. The problem can never be solved,
and no final settlement satisfactory to the two
sides can ever be reached, on the old lines."
Address by Sir William HouUisworth, Bart., M.P., to the Manchester
Statistical Society, December 71th, 1901.
ALL who are interested in social reform,
-^ -^ whether connected with the Temperance
party or not, would agree that the con-
sumption of alcohol in this country
is excessive, and ought to be reduced.
This conclusion, indeed, appears to be
inevitable in view of the facts (a) that the
average expenditure on drink in the working
class families of the United Kingdom is
2 INTRODUCTORY.
probably not less than 6s. per week,^ a sum
which constitutes about one-sixth of their
total income ; and (b) that the per capita
consumption of alcohol in the United States
of America is only about one-half of the per
capita consumption in this country.
When the necessity for a great reduction
in consumption is kept steadily in mind, the
force of Sir William Houldsworth's words,
given above, becomes apparent. For if the
true national policy be to discourage alcoholic
drinking, a licensing system stands condemned
which places the sale of drink in the hands of
those who benefit by every glass they sell,
and who as private traders will stimulate
their sales to the utmost. No one can be
surprised at the growth of the conviction
that under the present licensing system the
nation is engaged in a Sisyphean struggle ; that
it is futile to attempt the effective control of
a lucrative trade, while placing those who
^ See The Temperance Problem and Social Reform.
INTRODUCTORY. 3
conduct it under the strongest temptation to
extend the area of their operations and
prevent the introduction of statutory reforms.
This conviction no doubt inspires the
perennial interest which is shown in all
experiments for taking the drink trade out of
private hands, and especially in the great
experiment which for more than thirty years
has been conducted in Sweden and Norway.
Yet, notwithstanding the benefits which it
offers, the Scandinavian system is exposed to
a curious cross-fire of criticism. With a true
and penetrating instinct, those who are
interested in the Trade oppose any form of
Company control ; and, with much less insight,
the experiment is opposed by some temperance
reformers. This criticism is not an unmixed
evil. It secures a searching investigation of
the system ; it brings into relief certain defects
in the scheme as adopted in Sweden — defects
which English reformers will do well to note.
It compels attention to the fact that Norway,
4 INTRODUCTORY.
profiting by the example of the sister country,
improved greatly upon her methods, establishing
the Company System in a form more complete
than is to be seen in Sweden. Criticism,
however severe, if discriminating and informed
helps towards the understanding of a difficult
problem. But criticism which is based upon
an imperfect acquaintance with the facts, or
which mis-reads their significance, can only
darken counsel.
In this last category must be placed
Mr. Walker's examination of the Gothenburg
System, which constitutes the first part of
his recent book, entitled The Commonwealth as
Publican. The latter part deals with the
Public-House Trust movement in Great
Britain. In a volume^ published in igoi,
we ventured to point out what we believe
to be the conditions of success in this latter
movement, regarded as an agency for the
advancement of temperance, and would refer
1 British Gothenburg Experiments and Public-House Trusts.
INTRODUCTORY. 5
readers who are interested in the discussion
to its pages.
Let us at the outset briefly re-state the
essential principles of the Gothenburg System.
It is the more necessary to do this as the
term is often loosely applied (and is so applied
by Mr. Walker among others) to systems
which have little in common with the Company
System as carried out in either Sweden or
Norway. As is well known, the principle
which underlies the entire Company System
in Scandinavia is the elimination of private
profit from the retail sale of spirits. Under
this system the retail sale of spirits is taken
out of private hands and placed under local
public control, which may be exercised either
directly through a municipality^ or through a
philanthropic company acting in association
with the municipality, but always under con-
ditions laid down by the central government.
1 Although municipal control is legal in both Sweden and
Norway, it is the Company System which has found favour and which
exclusively prevails. Under the Company System, however, as
practised in Norway, the Municipality is in many ways associated
with the Company in its work. See p. 187.
6 INTRODUCTORY.
In Sweden the control is inadequate ; in
Norway it is complete and efficient.
The removal of the sale from private
hands to public control is no mere detail of
administrative reform ; it differs fundamentally
from the long succession of licensing amend-
ment Acts which crowd the Statute book of
this country, and which, whatever may have
been the measure of their success, still at
the beginning of this century leave us with
a " gigantic evil " which remains to be
remedied. The inevitable antagonism between
the aspirations of the Trade to extend itself,
and these measures whose aim is to
discourage consumption, has never, in this
country, been overcome. It is the distinctive
and peculiar merit of the Gothenburg System
that it gets rid of this antagonism, and in
so doing brings the widest range of both
restrictive and constructive reforms within
reach of easy attainment.
It is sometimes assumed that the sole
merit of the Gothenburg System is that
INTRODUCTORY. 7
it prevents the pushing of sales by the
bar-tender. This is a strangely inadequate
conception of its scope and working. Its
more conspicuous benefits may be ranged
under four main divisions : —
I. — When the interest of the private trader
does not block the way, wise regulations
for the restriction of the traffic, suited to
the varying needs of localities, can be
adopted without difficulty or delay, and
be modified from time to time as
experience and an advancing public
sentiment may require. The efficient
enforcement of bye-laws, so hard to
secure under private licence, presents
no difficulty under the Company
System. In Gothenburg, the extra-
ordinary reduction in the number
of drink shops, the shortening of the
hours of sale, the raising of the age at
which young persons can be served, the
abolition of sales on credit, of gambling,
and of the immoral accessories of
INTRODUCTORY.
the public-house, — the absence, in short,
of all pushing or stimulating of sales,
whether by the bar-tender or by the
principals who determine the policy of
the public-house, illustrates how \yide is
the difference in the conduct of the
trade according to whether "men run
after liquor or it runs after them."
2. — The System secures a divorce between
politics and the drink traffic, and brings
within narrow limits the menace to
national and municipal life now
exercised by the Trade.
3. — Less noticed, but hardly less important,
is the consideration that the Controlling
System enlists the active co-operation
of good citizens, and is responsive to
an enlightened public opinion.-^ The
System is on the lines upon which all
social reforms are converging, namely.
* "Progress in temperance depends at every step upon a convinced
public opinion ; so that the first practical issue of the problem is to get
our temperance method into that position where public sentiment can
act and be acted upon with the greatest directness and efficiency." —
J. Graham Brooks, Forum, December, 1892.
INTRODUCTORY. 9
" a vigorous local and municipal
responsibility, prompted, guided, cor-
rected and supplemented by strong
central supervision."
4. — Lastly, it secures for public purposes
the enormous monopoly profits of the
retail trade, and so renders constructive
temperance reforms upon an adequate
scale possible. Social recreation is a
vital factor in a working life. At present,
in order to be social, men are often
driven to the public-house. The profits
of the Trade in this country are ample
to supply counteracting agencies upon a
liberal scale for the entire nation, and
to leave a balance of many millions
for the national exchequer.
This brief summary of the main features
of the Gothenburg System may suffice as a
reminder that, while its fundamental principle
is the elimination of private profit from the
sale of drink, other principles have from the
first been included within its scope and are
10 INTRODUCTORY.
essential to its success. It is, for instance,
essential to the right and safe working of the
System that, subject to the strict supervision
of the central government, the traffic should
be locally controlled. Equally important is
it that the central government should have
no power of increasing the number of public-
houses.
To take the trade out of private hands is
not de facto to establish the Gothenburg System.
To apply, for instance, the phrase "Gothenburg
System" to the Government Spirit Monopoly of
Russia, or to the State Dispensary System of
South Carolina, is to confound things which
are essentially distinct.-^ The Government Spirit
1 Yet Mr. Walker writes (p. 57) : —
" In only one country [Russia] has the ' Bolag ' been a
success financially." As a matter of fact, the Spirit Bolag or
Company is non-existent in Russia.
And again, referring to the South Carolina Dispensaries, on
p. 44 he writes : —
" We can, however, see a system with most of the good
points of the Scandinavian ' Gothenburg' at work across the
Atlantic." The Dispensary System, however, differs funda-
mentally from the Gothenburg System. See on this point,
The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, pp. 425 and 426.
(The paged references to The Temperance Problem and Social Reform
are to the seventh and subsequent editions.)
INTRODUCTORY. n
Monopoly in Russia is, as its name implies, a
monopoly under State control. The Government
has its own shops for the sale of spirits, and
can at pleasure increase or lessen their number.
The local community, except in so far as it is
the agent for carrying out the regulations of
the Government, has no control over the
number or the conduct of these shops. A town
is neither expected nor left free to work out
its salvation from the drink curse as local
circumstances and experience may suggest ;^ nor
can an enlightened public opinion be brought
directly to bear upon the local arrangements
for the conduct of the trade. And the system
has this fatal defect : the Government being
able at its will to increase the number of places
and facilities for the sale of drink, is exposed
to the temptation which assails the Government
of India in regard to opium and intoxicating
liquor, the temptation to stimulate production
and sale with little regard to the injury inflicted
1 Recognition should, however, be given to the local effort that is
put forth in connexion with the counteracting agencies. See p. 214.
12 INTRODUCTORY.
upon the consumer. So long as the Russian
system is administered by enhghtened states-
men, who recognise that any immediate increase
of drink revenue will be dearly purchased by
the impoverishment of the people, the danger
may not be felt, but it lurks in the system,
and sooner or later is likely to be experienced.
CHAPTER II.
The Question of Drunkenness in Gothenburg.
Fallacious Comparisons.
MANY of the critics of the Gothenburg
System call attention to the large
number of arrests for drunkenness in Gothen-
burg, and compare them with the number
reported from other towns. Mr. Walker, for
example, in a chapter entitled " Norway and
Sweden, Statistics of Arrests," presents the
following table, introducing it as a comparative
table of the arrests for drunkenness in the four
principal towns in Scandinavia and in four
similar towns in Scotland : —
Mr. Walker's Table.
Arrests for Arrests for
Scandinavia : drunkenness Scotland : ^ drunkenness
t^K.a.ii\j.ii.ia.v 1.0. . per 1,000. w>.v^».i«»ivi . per i.ooo.
Stockholm 31 Edinburgh i3"7
Bergen 25 Dundee 14
Gothenburg 58 Aberdeen 11
Christiania 41 Perth 11
He further gives a chart showing what
he supposes to be the arrests for drunkenness
1 The true figures for the four Scotch towns are given on
page 20, and are, it will be seen, nearly double those given by
Mr. Walker.
14 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
per thousand of population in Gothenburg
and Dundee. Before giving these statistics,
Mr. Walker refers to the unanimity with
which writers favourable to the Swedish
controlling system have discredited the
returns of arrests for drunkenness as
untrustworthy evidence, and then adds, with
curious unconsciousness of the nature of his
own handling of them, that these statistics,
while varying according to local conditions,
" have this advantage . . . that they cannot
be manipulated to support a particular theory
without actual dishonesty."
The question of the extent to which arrests
for drunkenness can be safely used as an
index of the intemperance, or even of the
visible drunkenness, of a town or country is
one of difficulty, and deserves more attention
than it has received. We submit, however,
the following propositions : —
I. — Statistics of arrests for drunkenness
over a term of years in any given town
will probably be an approximately true
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 15
indication of the increase or diminution
of drunkenness within its Hmits if no
change has been made in the poHcy
of the Watch Committee or of the
Chief Constable, or in the method of
tabulating arrests.
2. — When the comparison is made between
different toi^'iis in the same country, the
liability to error becomes great. Thus
Captain G. A. Anson, the Chief
Constable of Staffordshire, in a letter
dated March, 1903, says " that the
number of convictions for drunkenness
largely depends upon the strictness
with which the law is administered in
different places, so that no comparison
is of any use except as between
different years in any one particular
jurisdiction."^
1 We have inserted in the Appendix (p. 254) a table showing
the yearly average number of persons proceeded against for drunken-
ness, including drunk and disorderly, in the quinquennial period
1897 — 1931, for thirty-eight representative towns in England and
Wales. The figures appear to give broad indications of the drunken-
ness existing in different parts of the country, but also to illustrate
Captain Anson's position that they cannot be used for purposes of
i6 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
3. — When the comparison is made between
towns in England and towns in Scotland
or in Ireland, the Hability to error is
still further increased. The method of
tabulating arrests for drunkenness differs
greatly in England and in Scotland ;
and until the passing of the Licensing
Act, 1902, there were important
differences between the laws affecting
drunkenness in England and in
Ireland.
4. — When, however, the attempt is made
to institute a comparison between the
arrests for drunkenness in the United
Kingdom, or any portion of it, and foreign
countries, the liability to error becomes
so great that the figures are generally
destitute of comparative value. Indeed,
no better illustration of this can be
afforded than the comparison which has
been continually made between the
exact comparison between one town and another. This latter view
is enforced by the following among other comparisons : — Leeds as
compared with Bradford, Newcastle as compared with Gateshead,
and Tynemouth as compared with Hartlepool or Sunderland.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 17
proportion of arrests in Gothenburg and
those in various Scotch and Enghsh
cities. These comparisons have been
made upon the assumption that the
figures of arrests for drunkenness in
Gothenburg were fairly comparable with
the figures of arrests in the towns of
Great Britain, whereas, as we shall
presently show, they are altogether
different, and consequently entirely
worthless for comparative purposes.
Mr. Walker has fallen into the fallacy which
has misled many critics of the Scandinavian
experiments, and which it is necessary to
expose. The figures of arrests which he
quotes for Gothenburg include not merely
the cases of simple drunkenness, but also the
cases of breach of the peace arising from
drimkenness} On the other hand, the figures
which he quotes for Scotland include
1 Dr. Wieselgren writes us (February 21st, 1903) that in
Stockholm, and, indeed, throughout Sweden, the statistics of arrests
are taken out upon the same principle as in Gothenburg, and,,
consequently include all cases of breach of the peace arising out
of drunkenness.
B
i8 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
only the cases of " drunkenness," and do
not include the cases of " breach of the
peace " arising out of drunkenness. These
latter are, however, with very few exceptions,
primarily cases of drunkenness which are
accompanied by " breach of the peace," and
are only included under the latter heading
because " breach of the peace " is the major
oftence. According to Colonel M^Hardy,
the Chairman of the Prison Commissioners
of Scotland, whose Department is responsible
for the preparation of the Judicial Statistics,
only from five to ten per cent, of the cases
of "breach of the peace" are not primarily
cases of drunkenness requiring to be included
under that head for comparative purposes,
and we have his authority for stating that
an average deduction of seven per cent,
would fully allow for all non-drunkenness
cases.
We have been at pains to consult the
Prison Commissioners directly in this matter,
and we are informed that all statistics
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 19
purporting to give the returns of drunkenness
in the towns of Scotland, which do not include
the cases of breach of the peace (subject to
the deduction referred to above) are misleading,
and that to arrive at the real drunkenness
figures it is necessar}' to include the cases of
(a) Breach of the peace (less seven per cent.)
(b) Drunkenness, etc., not under Intoxicating
Liquor Laws.
(c) Drunkenness and Drunk and Incapable
(included under Offences against the
Intoxicating Liquor Laws).
Mr. Walker, therefore, has compared
figures which are not comparable. His
table, moreover, would have been misleading
even had its figures been correct, because the
towns which he selected were those in which
the cases of drunkenness were exceptionally
low, being in fact only two-thirds of the
average for the fifteen principal towns in
Scotland.
The following table shows the cases of
drunkenness in fifteen representative towns
20 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
in Scotland ; the cases of breach of the peace,
less a deduction of seven per cent., having
been included in the drunkenness figures in
accordance with the suggestion of the Prison
Commissioners : —
Yearly average number of cases of drunken-
ness disposed of in the quinquennial period
1897-1901.-^
Town.
Average
Population.
Rate per 1,000 of
Population.
Glasgow
Edinburgh....
Dundee
Aberdeen
Paisley
Govan
Leith
Greenock
Kilmarnock..
Hamilton
Perth
Ayr
Dunfermline.
Dumbarton . . .
Stirling
Averasfe.
736,684
47-07
306,099
28-62
158,894
22-95
145.328
i8-og
78,000
27-00
76,403
37-30
75>o83
28-61
66,982
44-81
33'833
32-41
31.192
43-29
30,722
27-97
26,859
51-71
24.730
22-93
18,300
47-60
17,480
44-41
34-98
1 For a detailed statement showing the number of cases of
drunkenness under each head, see Appendix, p. 256.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 21
With the actual facts of the drunkenness in
Scotland before us, we are better able to
estimate the significance of the drunkenness
existing in Gothenburg. In that town, as in
Scotland, the people have long been addicted
to the use of spirits. The arrests for
drunkenness in Gothenburg per 1,000 of
the population are given below. The average,
it will be seen, is higher than that for
Scotland taken as a whole, but the figures
correspond closely with those for Glasgow : —
Arrests for drunkenness
in Gothenburg per i.ooo
of the population.
1875-1879 39
18S0-1884 34
1885-1889 34
1890-1894 42
1895 33
1896 37
1897 47
1898 57
1899 58
1900 54
1901 44
1902 47
There are two features of this table that
call for explanation : —
(a) The general high percentage of arrests
throughout the entire period, and
22 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
(bj The increase in the percentage of
arrests in the years following 1896.
The general high level of arrests is due
to three causes : — (i) Less than half a century
ago Sweden was probably the most drunken
of the civilised countries of the world, and
national habits are not quickly changed.
(2) Gothenburg is surrounded by a wide
Prohibition zone. The nearest public-house
outside its limits is about ten English miles
distant, and the city is said to supply spirits
to a population equal to its own. No town
in Great Britain is similarly situated. Of
those arrested for drunkenness in Gothenburg
in igoi, thirty per cent, did not belong to
the town. (3) The excessive cheapness of
spirits (the national drink), which Mr.
Chamberlain has spoken of as "the standard
difficulty of the friends of temperance " in
Sweden and Norway. Detailed information
respecting prices is given in Chapter III.,
but to illustrate the point under consideration,
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 23
the following comparison may be given : —
The average dram of spirits supplied in
the public-houses of the United Kingdom
is one of 54*4 cubic centimetres (i'95 fluid
ounces), and the average price for it is
slightly more than 3d. (3-1 yd.)/ but a dram
of equal size and of almost identical strength,
purchased in Gothenburg, would only cost a
fraction over id. (i'2d.) There can be no
doubt that a reduction to this level in the
price of spirits in this country would lead
to an appalling increase of drunkenness —
probably to an extent far beyond that which
exists in Gothenburg.
These facts will be deemed a sufficient
explanation of the general high percentage of
arrests shown in the table, but the}^ do not
account for the increased proportion of arrests
since 1895. To understand this, it must be kept
steadily in mind that the Gothenburg System
finds but a partial application in Gothenburg;
that it applies to the sale of spirits only, and not
1 Evidence of this will be given in a work which the present
writers hope shortly to publish.
24 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
to the sale of beer. As might have been
expected, the sale of spirits, which is controlled,
has been very greatly reduced since the
establishment of the Company System,^ while
the uncontrolled sale of beer has advanced by
leaps and bounds.^
It is necessary in this connexion to
emphasise the fact that the Company System
as administered in Sweden, and still more
as administered in Norway, is essentially one
of control. The words " management " and
" public management," often used in this
country as descriptive of one of the options
which temperance reformers have in view,
fail to convey the dominant thought of the
temperance reformers of Scandinavia. How
thorough is the control which the Gothenburg
Bolag has exercised over the sale of spirits,
the following illustrations will show.
Number of Places of Sale.
The population of Gothenburg in 1902
was 130,702, and the entire number of places
1 See p. 30. 2 See p. 34.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 25
within its limits for the " on " sale of spirits
was forty-three, viz. : —
For the public-house traffic- 14
For clubs, restaurants, and hotels
(not frequented by the working-
classes) 25
For eating-houses 4
43
This gives one place of " on " sale for every
3,039 persons, or, if the ordinary dram shops
alone are considered, one place of "on" sale for
every 9,336 persons. For the " off" sale there
are thirty places, of which seven are made use
of by the Bolag and twenty-three are sub-let
to wine merchants. There is, therefore, one
place for "off" sale for every 4,356 persons.
Temperance reformers in this country do not
venture to ask for limitation in the number of
licences equal to this.
Hours of Sale.
While the law allows the sale of branvin'-
over the bar to continue until 10 p.m., the
^ The native spirit of the Scandinavians is commonly called
"branvin," generally translated into English as "brandy." When,
therefore, in this chapter the word is used, it must be understood
as referring to a liquor distilled from potatoes or corn and
containing from 40 per cent, to 50 per cent, of alcohol.
26 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
Gothenburg Company closes its bars at 6 p.m.
in winter and 7 p.m. in summer. The higher
grade divisions of the Company's shops remain
open two hours later/ during which time
non-native spirits only are supplied, and then
only with food. All serving of branvin on
1 The extended hours for the sale of superior spirits in the Bolag's
own houses, and its willingness to hand over the sale of superior
spirits to wine merchants, remind one of a point which Swedish
correspondents think is continually overlooked in this country. Thus,
an exceedingly well informed correspondent in Gothenburg writes : —
"In all the foreign books I have read about the system, and they are
a good many, all the authors have made a common mistake in
neglecting the different customs of the different nations. In England
and America, for instance, a public-house is a public-house to all
classes of people. You see there very often the merchant, clerk, or
foreman standing beside the working man, or even beside the loafer,
taking his drink. In Sweden such a thing never happens. The
foreman of a working gang would never visit a spirit shop and drink
with his men. He visits instead the so-called better afdelning
\_i.e., division]. This is the reason why we must have this better
afdelning. If a working man went to a better afdelning and asked
for a drink, he would be sure not to be served. On a Sunday, when
the working man is dressed up, he might go to the better afdelning.
It rarely happens — I can't remember having seen it — that persons get
drunk at the best restaurants. In the police reports, which I receive
every month, you find now and then a so-called 'half better man'
taken up ; he has generally got his drinks at one of the public-houses
which are classed nearest to the better afdelning of our houses. . . .
It must be remembered that the foundation of the v/hole system is
to do good to the working people. The higher classes are
considered able to take care of themselves."
Whether this is a right foundation for a system may be
questioned, but if the English reader is to form a just estimate of
the integrity with which the Company System has been carried out
in Sweden, he must keep in mind the sharp and rigid division of
classes existing in the country, and the principle upon which the
Gothenburg System was avowedly based.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 27
Sundays and holidays, and after 6 p.m. on
evenings preceding such days, is prohibited,
with the exception of one dram, if served with
a meal, at the eating-houses between i and
3 p.m. The retail ("off") shops are open
from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m. The law would allow
them to be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. They
are closed during the whole of Sunday. The
importance of this early closing will be evident
from the fact that in the large cities of our
own country a considerable proportion of the
trade is done after 7 p.m. It is particularly
to be noted that on Saturday nights, and on
other occasions when excessive drinking is to
be anticipated, the Bolag shortens the hours
of sale.
The Bolag has moreover introduced a more
daring restriction. In order that the spirit
shops may be converted more and more into
restaurants for the working classes, the Bolag
has decided that during the dinner hour, between
12 and 2 p.m., all sale of branvin shall cease at
these places, except when taken with meals. Acting
28 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
in the same spirit, the Bolag has opened
eating-houses in different parts of the town,
where cooked food is served throughout the
day, and where branvin is supphed, if ordered
and paid for as an extra, to persons taking
their meals there, only one dram being
allowed to each visitor. There are at present
four houses of this class. When these houses
were first opened, a visitor, as a rule, took
his dram ; now more than half the visitors
take their meals without ordering branvin.
Sale of Liquor to Young Persons.
The Swedish law forbids the selling of
branvin to persons under the age of fifteen, but
the Company has voluntarily raised the age limit
to eighteen, thus excluding young persons from
the licensed houses three years longer than is
prescribed by law. In this country, under the
Act of igoi (i Edw. VII., c. 27), it has been
made illegal to sell '' any description of
intoxicating liquor to any person tinder the age
of fourteen years for consumption by any person
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 29
on or off the premises," except in sealed
vessels. The limit imposed by the Bolag is
therefore four years higher than that now
adopted in this country.
Again, the Bolag has abolished all sales on
credit.
Severe as these restrictions will seem to
the English reader, they have been carried out
with such judgment, and with so full a
knowledge of what the public opinion of the
city would support, that there has been no
driving of the traffic below the surface, and
no club difficulty, nor has the restriction led
to illicit sale.
The existence of these restrictions and their
unquestioned rigid enforcement make it a priori
impossible that the recent increase in the
arrests for drunkenness in Gothenburg can
justly be attributed to the Controlling System,
and the difficulty is greatly increased when
it is seen that these restrictive measures
have resulted in a diminished sale of spirits,
especially in the bar or " on " sale, which
30 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
necessarily represents consumption upon the
spot. That such has been the case to a
remarkable extent will be seen from the figures
in column I. of the appended table: — ^
Bolag Sale of Spirits in Gothenburg.
Litres per Inhabitant.
YEAR.
I
II.
III.
Bar or "on " sale.
Retail or "off" sale
Total.
1875^
12-99
14-46
27 '45
1876
13-18
15-21 1 28-39
1877
14-06
12-82 26-88
1878
13-61
II-I9 [ 24-80
1879
12-58
9-32 . 21-90
18S0
ii-ii
9-09 20'20
I881
10-13
9-02 1 19-15
1S82
9*12
8-59 : 17-71
1883
8-6o
9-48 I 1 8 -08
1884
8-55
9-63
i8-i8
i88s
8-44
9-62
i8-o6
1886
8-22
9'53
1775
1887
7-65
9-25
16-90
1888
7-46
9-29
16-75
18S9
6-50
9*56
i6-o6
1890
6*43
9-56
I5"99
1891
6-69
8-14
14-83
1892
5*90
7*65
13-55
1893
5-27
7'93
13-20
1894
4-91
8-12
13-03
1895
4-98
8-13
13-11
1896
4-94
8-31
13-25
1897
5-12
8-56
13-68
189S
5*45
9-14
14-59
1899
5'95
10-05
i6-oo^
1900
5*69
10-47
i6-i6
1901
5-48
10-57
16-05
1902
576
8-86
14-62
1 For the foundation of this Table see Appendix, p. 265.
'^ " In the Act of 1855 an unfortunate clause had given all
shopkeepers with a general trading licence the right to sell spirits for
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 31
It is thus seen that the " on " sale of
spirits in Gothenburg per inhabitant in 1902
was actually less than one-half what it was as
recently as 1875. Surely this is a remarkable
result ! As was to be expected, the reduction
in the " off" sale has been less than in the bar
sale. The restrictive agencies of shorter hours,
the non-serving of young persons and the like,
would almost certainly affect the " off" sales
less powerfully than the " on." They would
hardly at all affect the great population living
in the prohibition area outside the City.
An examination of the second column will
show that the present per capita "off" sale
is 39 per cent, less than it was in 1875.
In the conduct of its shops for "off" sale
the policy of the Bolag has been one of
•off consumption in quantities of not less than half a gallon. To
put it briefly, every shopkeeper could sell for 4s. 6d. half-gallon bottles
of spirits. It was thought that this quantity was large enough to
prevent spirits being bought retail for immediate consumption. But
the workmen clubbed together, bought at this wholesale rate, and
consumed it on private premises, thus defeating the law and the
Company. In 1S74 the law was altered, and the whole retail spirit
traffic transferred to the Company. The record of its achievements,
therefore, really dates from that year." — Workman, What is the
Gothenburg System ?
^ For the explanation of the increased consumption in the years
1899 to 1901 see pp. 44-48.
32 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
steady restriction. Sales on credit are not
permitted ; the hours of sale have been
shortened ; and since 1866 the price of spirits
for "off" sale has been advanced 50 per cent.^
Taking the "on" and "off" sale together,
the per capita reduction in the Bolag sale of
spirits since 1875 is more than 46 per cent.
With this reduced consumption of spirit,
and with this efficient control over the sale,
the apprehensions for drunkenness ought
steadily to have declined. Why have they
not declined ? Obviously there must be a
factor, not present in the Company System,
which is responsible. The explanation is
found in the fact that in Gothenburg,
as throughout the towns of Sweden, two
^Acting upon the principle to which attention has already been
directed (see note, p. 26), the Company has not retained the "off"
sale of "superior spirits " in its own hands, but has let twenty-three
of the " off" licences to wine merchants. The intention of the licence
was to forbid the sale of branvin in the city except in wholesale
quantities (250 litres), whilst allowing the sale of wine and "superior
spirits." It is, however, said that the terms of the licence are evaded,
and that the "cognac" sold by the wine merchants in litre bottles
is the native spirit coloured and strengthened. The wine merchant
may not sell any spirit under i kr. 80 ore per litre, whilst the price
of the branvin sold by the Bolag is i kr. 35 ore per litre. It is
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 33
systems have been at work at the same
time, namely, the Controlling System as regards
spirits, but something approaching to Free
Trade under the stimulus of private gain in
the sale of beer and doctored wines. ^
The result has been exactly what might
have been expected, namely, a great reduction
in the consumption of spirits and a great
increase in the consumption of beer. The
consumption of spirits and of beer in Sweden
since 1875 has been as follows : —
doubtful, however, whether the margin in price is sufficient, especially
when it is remembered that the alcoholic strength of the branvin
sold by the Bolag is 43 degrees, whilst the wine merchants are at
liberty to sell spirit with an alcoholic strength of 50 degrees.
1 Mr. James Whyte, the Secretary of the United Kingdom
Alliance, writes {The United Kingdom Alliance Vindicated, p. 53)
that the Bolag controls " a good deal of the beer trade in
Gothenburg." This is a mistake. The Bolag controls only its own
sale of beer. Mr. Andree states that the average quantity of beer
sold by the Gothenburg Bolag in the years 1897, 1898 and 1899 was
156,400 litres, so that the quantity sold by the Bolag was not
as much as one eighty-fifth portion of the entire sale of the city
(see p. 40, footnote).
34 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
SPIRITS.
BEER.
YEAR.
(50 per cent, alcohol.)
Litres per head of
Litres per head of
the population.
the population.
1875
12-4
16-4
1876
12*4
15*9
1877
io'6
17-0
1878
10-5
20-5
1879
8-8
16*4
1880
8-1
l6'2
1881
8-8
i8-3
1882
8-0
15-8
1883
6-8
i6-8
1884
8-0
20-8
1885
8-4
20-3
1886
7-8
22'I
1887
7-0
227
1888
7*5
27-2
1889
6-2
28-2
1890
7*1
27-4
I89I
6-6
30-9
1892
6-7
30-8
1893
6-8
31-6
1894
7-0
33'o
1895
7'o
35*5
1896
7*3
42-4
1897
7-6
45'o
1898
8-1
50-0
1899
8-6
'
1900
8-7
No returns.
I9OI
8-7
It will be seen from this table that the
sale of beer in Sweden per head of the
population has risen from 16*4 litres in 1875
to 50 litres in 1898,^ an increase of more
than 204 per cent.
1 The latest year for which figures are available.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 35
Mr. Andree, the Manager of the Gothenburg
Bolag, informs us that the average yearly sale
of beer in Gothenburg for the three years
1897, 1898 and 1899 was : —
Beer 13,400,000 litres
"Small" Beer 4,200,000 ,,
17,600,000
During the same period the average population
of Gothenburg was 120,018. The average
yearly per capita sale would therefore be as
under : —
Litres. Imperial Gallons
Beer iii equal to 24*45
"Small" Beer.... 35 ,, ,, 771
146 ,, ,, 32-16^
In the case of beer, however, as of spirits,
Mr. Andree says that Gothenburg supplies an
outside population equal to its own ; so that
allowance must be made for this in
^ The estimated per capita consumption of beer in Great Britain
and Ireland for the year 1901 was as under : —
England and Wales. Scotland. Ireland. United Kingdom.
Imperial Gallons. Imperial Gallons. Imperial Gallons. Imperial Gallons
Beer ... 3500 iigo 1950 30-81
36 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
attempting to arrive at the true per capita
consumption of beer in the city.
The stronger beer is sold by the bottle
at a price equal to is. io*4d. per imperial gallon,
and the medium beer at a price equal to
IS. 2*id. per imperial gallon. The "small"
beer, however, is sold for five ore per glass of
650 c.c, equal to no more than 4*66d. per
gallon.
Assuming that the consumption of beer
has increased at the same rate in the City
of Gothenburg as in Sweden as a whole, the
per capita consumption in the city will now
be more than three times what it was in
1875.
Now what are the conditions under which
this large quantity of beer is sold ? We have
seen how few are the places in Gothenburg
at which spirits can be obtained, but the
number of "on" beer licences is 174, and
there are no less than 662 other places where
beer can be bought for consumption off the
premises.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 37
The same contrast is noticed in the hours
of sale. It will be remembered that the
Bolag spirit bars close at 6 p.m. in winter
and 7 p.m. in summer, while the shops for
the "off" sale of spirits close at 6 p.m.
all the year round. But the licensed "on"
beer-houses keep open until 10 p.m. all the
year round, and the shops that carry on the
"off" sale may be open during the night and
part of Sunday. The following extract from
a " Report from the Police of Gothenburg to
the Committee appointed by the King for
taking the Malt Liquor question into consider-
ation (March, 1900) " will show the actual
condition of things. The police say : —
" At the end of last year there were
here about 660 shops where malt drinks
were sold ["off" sale]. About 200 of
these were bona-fide [grocery] stores where
the beer sold was exclusively for household
use, and against this nothing can be said;
but in the others the beer sale may be
said to be the chief thing. These beer
433342
38 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
shops are, besides, found for the greater
part in the outskirts of the city, or in
the parts of the town where the magistrates
generally have not allowed Temperance
Cafes. It is quite clear that under these
circumstances the beer sale that is carried
on both during the night and also partly
during Sundays and holy days will cause
inconvenience of several kinds. Not only
that the lower classes of the population
through this are given an opportunity to
get beer in excessive measure for
consumption at home (this has been the
active cause of making and stimulating the
so-called home drinking, and even the
women have begun to give themselves to
drunkenness), but around these beer-shops
the loose male population gathers late in
the evenings, and people drink the beer
so bought in the street, and in alleys, and
other out-of-the-way places. Of course
the police, according to par. 15 in the
Temperance regulations, have power to
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 39
prohibit, for a fixed time or permanently,
the sale of beer at any place where in
consequence of the sale illegal practices
arise or general disorder is caused. But, on
the one hand, the necessary evidence cannot
always be had, and, on the other, the
police prohibition is generally circumvented
in the following manner. After the
police have forbidden a certain person
to sell malt drinks for fetching ["off"
sale] , immediately after this another
person presents himself before the
magistrate to carry on business in the
same shop, where the business is then
carried on as before. In this way three
different persons have in one instance
during a very short time followed each
other in the same shop, and through this
almost unlimited liberty to sell beer for
consumption off the premises, the good
intent of the rules is worked against,
and the police regard it as a real
necessity that the licence to sell beer
40 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
should be made less easy, and should
not be given without special permit." ^
We have thus the two systems brought into
sharp contrast. On the one hand, as regards
spirits, wise restriction in various directions
enforced without difficulty or friction ; and on
the other, as regards beer and wine, a phase of
that unending conflict between the interests of
the public and the interests of the individual
1 The effect of control upon the visible drunkenness of a city has
received a striking illustration in the case of Liverpool. We refer to
it at length at pages 192-210, but, to illustrate the point now under
consideration, may here say that the arrests for drunkenness in
Liverpool, which in 1889 were 16.042, had in 1902 sunk to 5,115.
this extraordinary reduction, moreover, having taken place concurrently
with a great increase in population. This reduction, as we show, was
almost entirely due to efficient control of the traffic. Liquor has no
doubt been withheld in recent years from those verging on
drunkenness, but the amount so held back must have been quite
immaterial in its relation to the total consumption of the city,
a consumption which, indeed, is very great. The absence of control
(as in the sale of beer in Gothenburg) is necessarily productive of
much drunkenness. Mr. Whyte argues, in his pamphlet " The
United Kingdom Alliance Vindicated" (p. 53), that because the
large proportion of the sale of alcohol in Gothenburg is under
Company control, it is not likely that the inclusion of the remainder
could greatly affect the temperance conditions of the city. This
statement, as it stands, is somewhat misleading, since, as we have
pointed out, the control of the Gothenburg Company is practically
confined to spirits, the per capita consumption of which in 1901 was
16 litres, whereas the per capita consumption of beer was 146
litres, only one eighty-fifth part of which is controlled by the
Company. But tlie view itself is entirely at variance with the
decisive experience of Liverpool. It is at variance, moreover, with
the opinion expressed in the following words, which we
quote from an editorial article in the Alliance News of July
13th, 1894: — "We think that if the whole of the liquor trade in
the towns of Sweden and Norway, instead of only the trade in spirits,
had been placed under ' the system,' the effect on the sobriety of the
people would have been much more marked than, under the present
restricted application of the principle, has been the case."
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 41
trader which, with its resultant inefficiency of
control, is the invariable accompaniment of
private licensing.
The effect of the two systems — control as
regards spirits, and unrestricted sale as regards
beer — is strikingly shown in the annexed
table, in which the arrests for drunkenness
during the five years commencing with 1875
are compared with the arrests during the five
years ending with igoi : — ^
Analysis of Arrests for Drunkenness in
Gothenburg.
Number who drank last at
YEARS.
Bars of
the
Com-
pany.
Per-
cent-
age
of
total.
Beer
Saloons
Per-
cent-
age
of
total.
Home
or
from a
bottle
pur-
chase.
Per-
cent-
age
of
total.
Place
not
re-
ported.
Per-
cent-
age
of
total.
Total.
1875-79-
Annual Average
1897-1901.
Annual Average
1,038
1,286
42%
20%
253
I.715
10%
27%
332
1,848
13%
29%
861
1.523
35%
24%
2.484
6.372
1 Referring to this table, Mr. Walker writes (p. i8) : — " When the
arrests for drunkenness became so abnormal that the Company was
likely to get into serious disrepute on that account, some clever local
official must have suggested that the beer-shops should be convicted of
causing the increase, and with this object the authorities took the
trouble to inquire of each person arrested where he was last served."
Did it never occur to Mr. Walker, when making this insinuation, to find
42 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
Mr. Walker comments upon this table as
follows : —
"It is evident that when the half-tipsy [a
pure assumption] workman is turned out at the
'Bolag' closing-hour he will resort to the still
open beer-shop, and thence the consumption of
libations of beer on the top of ardent spirits
would soon and naturally lead to the police
station. He would thus be last served at the
latest open place of entertainment, i.e., the
beer-shop. If one-half of the public-houses in
a city shut at six and the other at eleven, it
is certain that mostly all the incapables could
be traced to the eleven o'clock houses, as the
experience of the police is that the largest
percentage of arrests occurs after closing-time."
out the actual facts ? Had he done so he would have ascertained that
the inquiry was instituted with a view of enabling the Company to
exercise a stricter control over its bar managers. Dr. VVieselgren
writes us : — " In 1874 I made a proposal to the board of the
Gothenburg Public-house Company, that the police authority of the
town should be asked to inquire where every person, taken into
custody for drunkenness, had been supplied his last drink, and that
statistics on the basis of this inquiry should be handed over to the
board. The object of this measure, which has been taken since the
beginning of 1875, was simply to make it possible for the directors to
exercise a control over bar stewards and to prevent the serving of
intoxicated persons. If the statistics pointed to a particular public-
house, the directors and the controlling inspectors of the Company
had reason closely to watch the manager there and his people. Thus
the police authority well know that for twenty-eight years the
Company directors have been very desirous of having untrustworthy
managers reported to them." It will be thus seen that valuable as
the inquiry has been in demonstrating the efifect of the uncontrolled
sale of beer, the benefit is an incidental one, the figures having been
obtained for another purpose.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 43
True. But the explanation would apply to
the first quinquennial period equally with the last.
In the first period, however, forty-two per cent, of
those arrested had drunk last at the Company's
bars, and in the latter period only twenty per
cent. In the earlier period, moreover, only ten
per cent, of those arrested had drunk last at
the beer saloons, but in the latter period the
proportion had risen to twenty-seven per cent.
The significance of these figures is perhaps
even more strikingly shown by the fact that,
in the earlier period, those arrested for
drunkenness who had drunk last at the
Company's bars, numbered 16 per 1,000 of the
population, and in the latter period 10 per
1,000; while in the case of those who had
drunk last at the beer saloons, the number had
grown from 4 per 1,000 of the population in
the years 1875-79, to 14 per 1,000 in the years
1897-1901. The further question remains:
Why do the Bolag shops close at six, and the
beer saloons keep open till ten ? The obvious
answer is that the Bolag considers the interest
44 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
of the public, while the private trader considers
his own interest. Mr. Walker adds : — " Yet
that inquiry has shown that an average of 975
persons were annually arrested who admitted
drinking last at the ' Bolag.' This astounding
number is said to be a less percentage than
formerly, but it is large enough to dispose of
the ' Bolag's ' claim to act as a temperance
agency." The percentage^ it will be remembered^
had fallen from forty -two in the period 1875-79
to twenty in the period 1897-1901.-^
In addition to the ever present influence
of the uncontrolled sale of beer upon the
intemperance of Gothenburg, the great pros-
perity of Sweden in more recent years has
had the same effect upon consumption that
1 Occasionally one meets with English writers who actually
attribute the drunkenness of Gothenburg to the Company System.
The question may be asked : What part of the Company System
is thus responsible ? Is it the fewness of the public-houses
(one to every 3,039 of the population), or the severe limitation of the
hours of sale, or the refusal to supply young persons under eighteen,
or the non-giving of credit, or is it the reduction of fifty-six per cent,
in the bar sales of spirits between 1S75 and 1902 ? If, as is
stated, more than 17,000,000 litres of beer are sold annually in
Gothenburg, and if the sale is carried on without the wise restrictions
that attach to the Company sale of spirits, there seems no occasion
to seek further for an explanation, or to resort to a hypothesis so
extravagant as that under consideration.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 45
good times have on the Drink Bill of this
country.
Through the courtesy of some leading
Gothenburg firms, we have obtained the
following information as to the advance in
wages in that city since 1865. The figures
are of so much interest, not only in
this connexion, but in relation to general
economics, that we give them ifi extenso,
adding the English equivalents and the
percentages of increase : —
" Gothenburg, ^th January, 1903.
" In reply to your inquiry I beg to say that
the daily wage of the workmen of the Corpora-
tion, who are not paid by the job, amounted
during the year 1865 to kr. i'24-i'52 (is. 4id.-
is. 8:fd.), and during the year 1902 to kr. 2'6o
(2s. lofd.).
"Yours, etc.,
"FIGGE BLIDBERG.
" Chief of Department."
The increase is at the rate of 88"4 per cent.
" Gothenburg, 7/// January, 1903.
" We hereby certify by request that the wages
paid on the whole to workmen at our Breweries,
taking into account workmen receiving regular
wages, amounted to kr. 10 (lis. lid.) per week
in 1865 as against kr. 18 (;^i) per week in
1902.
" AKTIEBOLAGET J. A. PRIPP & SON."
The increase is at the rate of 80 per cent.
46 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
" Gothenburg,
" ^th January, 1903.
" We hereby state by request that the working
wage of an ordinary unskilled painter amounted
during 1865 to 15 kr. (i6s. 8d.) per week during
the summer months, reckoning seventy-two
working hours per week, and to 10 kr. (iis. ijd.)
per week during the rest of the year, with sixty
working hours per week ; the anmial wage hence
amounted to 650 kr. {£z^ 2s. 2|d.)
"During the year 1902 the wage was 27*26
(;^i IDS. 3id.) per week (47 ore per hour,
i.e., 6Jd.) for the summer months, with fifty-eight
working hours per week, making in all 709*10
kr. {£Z9 ys- lofd.) During the rest of the
year it was 40 ore (sJd.) per hour, with fifty-four
to thirty-six working hours per week, the
wages for this period hence amounting to
kr. 394*32 {£21 i8s. i^d.) This makes kr. 1,103*48
{£^1 6s. id.) for the entire year.
"Yours etc.,
" Forenade Malaremastarnes Aktiebolag,
"J. F. Harstrom."
The hicrease per hour is at the rate of 133*6 per ce7it.
The increase per annuvi is at the rate of 69*8 per cent.
DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG. 47
Statement of wages per hour paid to workmen
employed at the Lindholmens Verkstads Aktiebolag
during the years 1865 and 1902.
1865.
1902.
Percentage
of Increase.
Wage
Equiva-
Wage
Equiva-
Per
Per
per
hour.
lents in
£s. d.
per
hour.
lents in
£s. d.
hour.
day.
d.
d.
Smiths for ships' plates ...
19 ore
2i
32 ore
4i
684
531
Assistants for do.
II >•
H
23 ..
3
1091
go- 1
Engineers
19 ..
2i
33 ..
4*
737
579
Carpenters...
18 „
2^
30 „
4
667
51-5
Founders
19 ..
2i
32 „
4i
684
531
Smiths
18 „
2i
31 ..
4i
722
566
Cabinet-makers
20 ,,
2j
31 ..
4i
550
409
Outside workmen (Dock
and sHp, etc.)
II •.
li
23 ..
3
1091
901
Working day
II hours
10 hours
Lindholmens Verkstad, 5//e January, 1903.
SVEN ALMQVIST.
A feature of these tables is that the
remuneration of unskilled labour has advanced
at a much higher rate than the wages of skilled
labour. In the case of labourers, the advance in
the thirty-eight years seems to have been from
eighty to ninety per cent. ; while cabinet-
makers have only advanced forty-one per cent.,
carpenters fifty-one-and-a-half per cent., smiths
and founders about fifty-five per cent. No
48 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
doubt during the same period rents and
rates, along with some kinds of food, have
advanced in price. On the other hand,
the cost of flour and clothing is less. It
cannot be questioned that the purchasing
power of the labourers, from whose ranks
the great proportion of those arrested for
drunkenness come, has enormously increased
since 1865.^
Collateral evidence in the same direction is
afforded by the increase of material wealth in
Norway. Writing in 1892, Mr. Thomas M.
Wilson, of Bergen, a very careful and well-
informed observer, said : — " In estimating the
improvement that has taken place in the
drinking habits of the Norwegians since the
introduction of control, bear in mind that
the ability to indulge in intoxicating liquors
is practically doubled since 1871."
1 The British Consular Report of April, 1900, dealing with the
industrial development of Sweden, says that "the value of Swedish
industrial produce thirty years ago has been estimated at /s, 555, 500,
in the beginning of the nineties at /'le, 666, 600, and a couple of years
ago at ;^55.555.ooo. The power of consumption has trebled itself
during the last thirty years."
DRUNKENxMESS IN GOTHENBURG. 49
The linal question which the temperance
reformer of this country will ask is, whether
the Company System does or does not tend
to the reduction of consumption, and to a
lessening of intemperance. One piece of
evidence of great weight may be added
to that which has already been given. If
thoughtful and disinterested persons resident
in the place, who are concerned for its moral
progress, and who have a full knowledge of
local conditions, recognize the Company
System as a temperance agency, and desire
to see it extended to the sale of beer, the
evidence in favour of the system becomes
irresistible. Striking evidence of this kind is
supplied by the fact that in November, 1898,
the Bishop and the Dean of Gothenburg,
together with thirty clergymen in active
service in and around the town, " concerned
with the evil consequences caused by the
beer-houses," petitioned the Royal Governor
of the province that various restrictions might
be applied to the sale of beer, such as
50 DRUNKENNESS IN GOTHENBURG.
have been applied b}- the Bolag to the sale
of spirits. The special importance of the
petition lay in its concluding words, which were
as follow: — "Finally we should recommend
as a suitable measure that the present
number of beer licences should be successively
reduced, whenever the present holders, owing
to death or other causes, cease to use them ;
so that eventually all these licences, ivith the
exception of those connected with the serving of
food, should come under the control of the
Gothenbjirg Public-House Licensing Company, —
conducted according to the Gothenburg System.'"^
Note. — Mr. Walker's indictment of the working of the
Gothenburg System in Finland is discussed in the Appendix.
See p. 257.
1 For further evidence of the same character, see pp. 145-147,
chaptp:r III.
Prices and Duties in Sweden and Norway.
WE have already called attention to
the excessive cheapness of spirits in
Sweden. We stated that the average size of
the dram of spirits supplied in the public-
houses of the United Kingdom is 54*4 c.c,
and the average price of it is slightly
more than three-pence (3-17) ; whilst a
dram of equal size and of almost identical
strength, purchased in Gothenburg, would cost
only a fraction over a penny (1-2). We
expressed the opinion that were the English
price brought down to the level of the
Gothenburg price, an appalling increase of
drunkenness would result. In the following
table the price of a dram of spirits as sold
in the controlling companies' shops in the
Swedish towns of Stockholm and Gothenburg
is compared with the prices charged in
the controlling companies' shops in the
52 SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
Norwegian towns of Christiania and Bergen.
The average price charged for the dram in
the United Kingdom is also added : —
Price of Dram of Spirits (" On " Sale)
as sold by the controlling companies in
the largest towns in sweden and norway.
Percentage
Equivalent
TOWN.
of
Absolute
Alcohol.
Size of Dram.
Price cf
Dram.
puce per
Imv^rial
Gallon.
Sweden —
S. d.
Stockholm
43
50 C.C. ...
Sore
8 li
(Population 301,000)
Gothenburg
43
50 „
s\.
8 li
(Population 130,702)
Norway —
Christiania
45
50 „
15 »
15 li
(Population 228,000)
Do
45
35 "
10 ,,
14 5
Do
36^
50 „
12 „
12 li
Do
36*
35 >.
8 „
11 6h
Bergeu
45'
35 ..
10 „
15 li
(Population 75,000)
Do
39'
33'3 ..
7 ,,
10 7i
United Kingdom ...
43"6
54'4 >'
3^-17
22 of
1 The price has since (February, 1903) been raised to 9 ore,
equal to 9s. id. per imperial gallon.
'^ The sale of this 36 per cent, quality is said to be only about
5 per cent, of the total sale.
^ The sales are about equally divided between the 45 per cent,
and the 39 per cent, qualities.
SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES. 53
It will be seen that the 50 c.c. dram
is sold in Stockholm and Gothenburg at a
price equivalent to 8s. i][:d. per imperial
gallon, but in Christiania a dram of the same
size but of a slightly greater strength is
sold at 15s. i4d. per imperial gallon.
Now it is a striking fact that the per
capita sale of spirits (as well as of beer) is in
Norway less than one-half that in Sweden.
Many causes contribute to bring about this
result, but there can be no doubt that the
excessive cheapness of spirits in Sw^eden is an
important factor in stimulating consumption.
The annexed table gives the prices charged
for "off" sale in the Company shops in the
towns enumerated in the previous table : —
54 SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
Price of Spirits ("Off" Sale) as sold by
THE Controlling Companies in the largest
TOWNS in Sweden and Norway.
Percentage
Equivalent
TOWN.
of
Absolute
Price.
price per
Imperial
Alcohol.
Gallon.
Sweden —
S. d.
Stockholm
46^
I kr. 15 ore per litre
(customer supplying
bottle)
5 94
Gothenburg . . .
43
I kr. 20^ ore ditto
6 Qi
Norway —
Christiania
45
2 kr. 20 ore^ ditto
II li
36
I kr. 60 ore* ditto
8 I
Bergen
45
I kr. 60 ore per three-
fourths of a litre*
(customer supplj'ing
bottle)
10 9I-
39
I kr. 20 ore ditto
S I
In Stockholm it will be seen that a spirit
of an alcoholic strength of 46 degrees is sold
at a price equivalent to 5s. g^d. per imperial
gallon, while in Christiania a spirit one
degree weaker is sold at a price equivalent
1 The strength mainly sold.
- The price has since (February, 1903) been raised to i kr.
35 ore, equal to 6s. gfd. per imperial gallon.
3 The prices actually charged in Christiania for the litre
bottles are kr. 2-30 and kr. 1-70. These charges, however, include
the price of the bottle. To obtain comparative figures, 10 ore
(the ascertained cost of the litre bottle) has been deducted from
each of the prices.
* Although in Bergen the quotation is given as " per three-
fourths of a litre," an extra charge of 10 ore is made if the
buyer does not bring an empty bottle.
SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES. 55
to IIS. i:J^^d. per imperial gallon, and in Bergen
at 10s. g.^d. If it be asked how it is that
tlie Norwegian controlling companies charge
so much more for spirits than do the
Swedish controlling companies, the explanation
is chiefly found in the difference in duties
imposed in the two countries, as shown
below : Equivalent
Duty amount per Imperial
per litre. gallon.
(50 per cent, alcohol.) s. d.
Sweden 50 6re^ 2 6^
Norway i kr. 14 ore^ 5 g
The duty in Norway is therefore more
tlian twice .the duty levied in Sweden,
but even the Norwegian duty is 5s. 3d.
per gallon less than the duty imposed in
this country.
1 As we write, information reaches us that the duly has this
year {1903) been advanced to 65 ore per litre, equal to js:. ^^d. per
Imperial gallon.
^ In iSSS the Norwegian duty on spirits (100 per cent, alcohol)
was fixed at i kr. 60 ore (is. gld.) per litre. In February, 1894, the
duty was advanced to i kr. 90 ore (2s. ijd.) per litre. In May, 1895,
the duty was further advanced to 2 kr. 40 ore (2s. 8d.) per litre,
but in 1900 was reduced to 2 kr. 28 ore (2s. G;|d.). In the above
table, for purposes of comparison, the duty is shown as upon
spirits of 50 per cent, alcohol.
56 SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
The relation of taxation to consumption
is further suggested in the case of beer. It
has already been stated that the per capita
consumption of beer in Sweden is now double
that of Norway, and, as will be seen from
the figures below, the consumption in Sweden
has grown rapidly in recent years, while that
of Norway has remained stationary : —
Consumption of Beer. Litres per head of the Population.
Sweden. Norway.
1891 30-9 217
1892 30'8 20-6
1893 31'6 20'S
1894 33'0 19*^
1895 35-5 177
1896 42*4 i6-2
1897 45 ^7*8
1898 50 21*6
1899 ] 23-2
IQOO I f^ 22*7
-^ rreturns. '
I9OI I 20-0
Now in Sweden there is no tax upon either
beer or malt, but in Norway there is a very
SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES. S7
heavy tax upon m:ilt.^ The Chief of the
Statistical Department of Christiania informs
us, under date 4th February, 1903, that "one
htre of beer is taxed on an average, according
to the malt it contains, at about 11 to 12 ore'^
[equal to 6i^d. to 7.^d. per imperial gallon] .^
The duty on imported beer in casks is at
present 22 ore per kilo, and that on bottled
beer 27 ore per litre."
To the English on-looker it would seem
as though Sweden might, with benefit to its
finances no less than to its people, advance
1 There has been a progressive advance in the Excise duty
upon malt in Norway as shown below : —
Equivalent price
Ore per bushel of 40 lbs.
per Kg. £ s. d.
1871-7 II 2 023
1877-8 140 o 2 10
1878-g 170 o 3 5*-
1894-5 211 043
1895 371 o 7 5iJ
^ The quantity of malt on which the tax is levied is known, but
the quantity of beer manufactured from the malt is estimated. If
less beer is actually brewed from a given quantity of malt than the
official estimate, the incidence of the tax will be greater, and vice
versa.
3 This duty, it will be seen, is very high. In England, the
Excise duty upon beer is 7s. gd. per barrel of 36 gallons. The
Norwegian duty, taken at 7d. per imperial gallon, would give an
equivalent figure of 21s. per barrel of 36 gallons.
58 SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
the duty upon spirits to at least the
Norwegian level, and also impose an excise
and customs duty upon beer.
The restrictive action of the controllinsf
companies, to which reference has already
been made, has further shown itself in a
progressive advance in the price of spirits, as
well as in a progressive reduction of their
alcoholic strength : —
Tables showing the advances that have
been made in the selling price of spirits
as sold by the controlling companies in
the largest towns in sweden and norway.
SWEDEN.
For consumption ON the premises.
STOCKHOLM.
GOTHENBURG.
Price per
Years. glass of
50 CC.
Alcoholic
strength.
Years.
i
1
Price per
glass of
50 CC.
Alcoholic strength.
1877-79 6 '^'"^
1880-87 7 „
1888-1902 8 „
1
44%
43%
(since
1891)
11866-69
'1880-87
1888-1902
!i903
6 ore
7 ..
s „
9 ..
In 1866 the strength
was 47% ; in 18S4 it
was reduced to 46^% ;
in 1888 to 45%; in
i88g to 44°,'j, and in
1902 to 43%.
SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES. 59
SWEDEN.
For consumption OFF the premises.
STOCKHOLM.
IS77-7S
1879-85
I8S6-S7
IS88-90
I89I-I90I
1902
Price per ] Alcoholic
litre. 1 strength.
0-76 krona
084
092
I 04
IIO
115
46-^
GOTHENBURG.
Price per
litre.
1866-87
1888
1889-go
1891
1902
1903
090 krona
100
I 04
IIO
120
1-35
Alcoholic strength.
Same as for
sale.
NORWAY.
For consumption ON the premises.
BERGEN.
Branvin 45% alcohol. Branvin 39% alcohol.
Years.
Size of glass.
Price. ' Years.
Size of glass.
Price.
1877-88
1888-96
since 1S96
50 C.C.
40 ..
333 ..
10 ore 11877-88
1888-96
since 1896
50 c c.
40 ,.
333 ..
7 ore
6o SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
NORWAY.
For consumption OFF the premises.
CHRISTIANIA.
Branvin 45% alcohol. Branvin 36% alcohol.
Years.
Price per litre.
Years.
Price per litre.
1SS6-95
since 1895
2 kroner
2 „ 30 ore
1886-95
since 1895
I krone 45 ore
I ,. 70 ..
BERGEN.
Branvin 45% alcohol. Branvin 39% alcohol.
Y'ears.
1877-88
18S8-96
since 1896
Price per bottle ^-litre.^ j| Years
I krone 25 ore
I .. 35 ..
I ,, 60 „
1877-S8
1888-96
since 1896
Price per bottle f -litre.'
o 90 krone
095 ..
120
An examination of the preceding tables
shows that in Stockholm, Gothenburg,
Christiania and Berc^en, either the price has
been raised or the size of the dram has
been reduced. In Gothenburg it will be
1 Although in Bergen the quotation is given as " per bottle of
3-litre," an extra charge of 10 ore is made if the buyer does not
bring an empty bottle.
SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES. 6i
noticed that not only have there been many
advances in price, but the alcohoHc strength
of the spirit has been repeatedly reduced.
Note. — The argument that the amount
of duty greatly affects the consumption
of spirits is corroborated by the comparative
statistics of the European countries in which
spirits are chiefly consumed. In Denmark,
for example, the consumption of spirits is
much higher than in any other European
country, or indeed in any country for which
statistics are available, while the duty is
exceptionally low. We can hardly be wrong
in suggesting a connexion between this
enormous consumption and the low price at
which spirits are sold consequent upon the
very low rate of duty.
The per capita consumption of spirits in
several countries, together with the duty,
shown as for an imperial proof gallon, is
given below. For purposes of comparison
these duties are all given in terms of
62 SPIRIT DUTIES AND PRICES.
50 per cent, alcohol, although in some cases
the duty is levied upon a standard of
100 per cent, alcohol : —
Country.
Consumption of Spirits
per head of population
1901.^
Amount
Char
of Duty
ged.
50 per cent, alcohol.
50 per cen
. alcohol.
S.
d.
Denmark ...
3-21
5^
Belgium ...
2"20
3
7i
Sweden
1-91
2
H
German V
I'Sg
I
6 =
Holland
rSi =
4
9i
France
I '55
4
United States ...
I -13
5
6
Russia
i-oS*
3
10
United Kingdom
i-oi
II
Norway
0-84
5
9
1 The latest year for which statistics are available.
- Appro.xiraate.
^ 1900, the latest year for which statistics are available.
* 1S9S, the latest year for which statistics are available.
CHAPTER lY.
Pauperism in Gothenburg.
Mr. Walker writes (p. 30) : —
" The fact which renders statistics of
pauperism important is that the ' Gothenburg'
Sj'stem was introduced as a remedy for patiperism,
and not primarily as a cure for drunkenness.
It was a reasonable supposition that, if the
working classes were spending too much
money on drink, it would be a great advantage
if the State got the benefit of it and applied
it to the amelioration of their lot. Yet when
the 'Bolag' started in 1S66, there were in
Gothenburg 68 paupers per 1,000 of the
population ; in 1870 the numbers rose to 8g
per 1,000; in 1875 to 94; and in 1879 to 97.
In 1885 it sank to 90. After 1887 it is
explained that not only actual paupers were
included in the statistics, but also the dependants
of all in receipt of relief, and for this reason
the figures rose to 100 in 1S90 and 120 in 1892.
In the United Kingdom there were in 1S70
40^ paupers per 1,000, including all outdoor
and indoor paupers and their dependants ; the
ratio fell in 1896 to 26; in 1S99 to 24"4," and
in 1901 to 24."
The statistics given in the above paragraph
and in an accompanying chart are altogether
wrong. Mr. Walker has counted the
1 The correct figure is 46-5.
' The correct figure is 265. See the Thirtieth Annual Report
0/ the Local Government Board, 1900- 1901, p. 360.
64 PAUPERISM.
paupers in Gothenburg twice over. The " Mean
Number of Paupers " which appears in the
Annual Report of the EngHsh Local
Government Board ^ is arrived at by adding
together the numbers on the lirst day of July
and the following first day of January, and
dividing the number thus obtained by two.
Of course if the two totals were added
together the number would be doubled. Now
this is exactly what Mr. Walker has done in the
case of Gothenburg. Instead of taking the
number of paupers upon a given day, or
the mean of two separate counts, he has
added together the totals of two counts and
given the sum of these as the measure of the
pauperism of the city. The detailed facts as
to the pauperism in Gothenburg for the year
1892 (the last year for which Mr. Walker
supplies figures) and for tlie quinquennial
period ending with 1902, may be seen in the
following figures, furnished by the superin-
tendent of the Gothenburg v^orkhouse : —
^ Report lor 1901, p. 360.
PAUPERISM.
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66
PAUPERISM.
The true figures for the pauperism ot
Gothenburg are to be obtained by taking the
mean between the numbers on the ist January
and the ist July, and adding to this mean
number the whole (so we are advised) of the
paupers who are described as " indoor but
not in town workhouse." The corrected
figures thus taken for 1892, and also for the
last five years, are shown in the following
table : —
Year.
Population of
Gothenburg.
Paupers.
Number of Paupers
per 1,000 of Population.
1892
106,356
5.924
5570'
189S
120,151
7,229
6o'i7
1899
122,370
6,914
56-50
1900
125,825
6,845
54'40
I9OI
128,977
6,846
53*o8
1902
130,702
7,042
53-88
Inaccurate as are Mr. Walker's figures,
the fact nevertheless remains that the ratio of
pauperism to population in Gothenburg is
higher than in 1866, his figures for that year,
1 Mr. Walker gives the pauperism of Gothenburg in 1892 as
120 per 1,000 of the population. Even counting the paupers twice
over the figure should be 104, not 120.
PAUPERISM. 67
as for subsequent years, being incorrect. Mr.
Walker assumes that the Company System
is responsible for this. " Pauperism," he says,
" under its influence has grown more prevalent."
This generalisation of Mr. Walker's is, however,
as untrustworthy as his figures. Obviously the
right course to adopt in seeking an explanation
for the growth of pauperism in any particular
place is to ascertain whether its experience
has been exceptional, or whether a similar
increase has been taking place throughout the
country. Especially was it necessary for the
object in view to ascertain whether the
increase in pauperism was to be found in the
rural districts of Sweden which are not tmder
the Company System hit under prohibition. If this
decisive test had been applied, the assumption
of a connexion between the Company System
and the increase of pauperism would at once
have been disproved. For, as will be seen
in the accompanying table, there has been for
a lengthened period in the rural districts, as
well as in the towns of Sweden, a great and
68
PAUPERISM.
progressive increase in the number of paupers,
showing that influences making for pauperism
have been in operation throughout the whole
of the country : —
Paupers
in the Country
Paupers in the Towns
Year.
Districts of Sweden
of Sweden per
per 1,000
of the Population.
1,000 of the Population.
1840
27-9
49-0
1845
27'3
50-5
1850
337
506
1855
38-3
50-2
i860
33*4
42-9
1865
33'3
548
1870
46"2
68-0
1875
40-5
66-4
1880
43"9
71*4
1885
43"3
667
1890
44"4
76-0
1895
43 '4
867
1896
427
82-4
1897
4i'6
77*9
1898
407
73-8
1899
40'o
69*2
1900
39"4
68-6
It would have been sufficient, as a refutation
of Mr. Walker's contention that pauperism
has grown under the influence of the Bolag, to
bring forward these figures ; but as it is a
matter of interest to know why the pauperism
of Sweden has increased, we submitted the
PAUPERISM. 69
question to Mr. Ernst Beckman, a member of
the Swedish Parliament, who, having consulted
the best authorities of the Royal Swedish
Central Bureau of Statistics, has replied as
follows, under date December 17th, 1902 : —
" I have now consulted some persons who
are our best authorities as to the causes of
pauperism in Sweden. Their view of the
matter corresponds with my own.
** I. — The Gothenburg System has notiiing
whatever to do with the increase of
pauperism in Sweden.
" 2. — The increase between 1865 and 1870
is easily explained. The years just
preceding the latter date were what
we have termed ' the hunger years.'
The crops failed in several districts
and famine reigned in a great part of
Norrland. The hard times caused a
very large emigration of comparatively
young people, breadwinners, to the
United States of America. Old people
were as a rule left behind, being
70 PAUPERISM.
unwilling or unable to leave their
homes. Much poverty, which had to
be relieved by the rates, was the
natural consequence of those fearfully
hard times. The manufacture of
alcoholic drinks went down from
15,438,647 kannor in 1866 to 10,183,527
kannor in 1868, rising again in 1870
to 15,710,312 kannor, which goes to
prove that drink had nothing to do
with the increase, at least not more
than usual, being always a fruitful
cause of misery.
" 3. — Before 1874 the poor-law statistics
are comparatively unreliable. In 1888
a circular requiring more accurate
reports was issued. The result (which
did not appear until a subsequent
year) was an increase of 11,659
* paupers,' chiefly in Stockholm and
Gothenburg. Now there is not, I
believe, any country where the statistics
as to pauperism and relief are, if I
PAUPERISM. 71
may so express it, as severely detailed
as in Sweden. For instance : if school
children are given a cup of milk in
school in winter and the expense is
charged not to the school board but
to the poor rates, they are statistically
counted ' paupers ' (understodstagare).
Also : if the father of a family of,
say, wife and five children, is allowed
a measure of firewood, there are
immediately seven new ' paupers ' in
the statistical tables.
— The cause of the increase of the
percentage of 'pauperism,' not dependent
on greater exactness, but on real increase
of the number of persons that fall on
the rates, is to be looked for far back
in time, as Mr. Gustav Sundbarg, the
well-known statistician, has kindly
pointed out to me. After the great
wars in the beginning of last century,
nature busied herself to fill the losses
by increased nativity. The persons
72 PAUPERISM.
born between, say, 1815 and 1820,
were already past the age of emigra-
tion when the great tide set in towards
the latter part of the sixties. The
greater part of them stayed in Sweden.
The culmen in the percentage of
'pauperism' was reached in 1895. About
the same time the number of persons
about seventy years — when relief
may be needed — was uncommonly
large. Statistics show that the surplus
of persons aged sixty-five (and more)
— above the normal number — has
mcreased immensely, from 20,310
persons in 1880 to 143,985 in 1899,
an increase far above what might be
expected from the growth of the
population.
" 5. — No doubt — as you suggest — a mistaken
system of administration has its share
in the pauperism existing in our country.
I happen to know that in some of the
wealthy Dalecarlian country districts,
PAUPERISM. 73
where the immense forests belonging
to the community give a large income,
there are a great many paupers, because
the people think that they can well
afford to give relief. Whereas in other
districts in the same province very
poor communities have very few
paupers. You will also find in a
pamphlet which I send a table showing
the very large decrease in Gefle^ owing
to the introduction of the Elberfeld
System — another proof that a change
from one system to another can
materially lessen pauperism.
"6. — You will notice a general decrease in
the percentage from 1895, both for
towns and for country districts."
^ The figures of the pauperism in Gefle (a town which in 1890
had a population of 29,522) are as under : —
Paupers per 1,000
of the Population.
1895 959
1896 95 6
1897 73-8
189S 599
1899 500
1900 456
74 PAUPERISM.
But if the increased pauperism of
Gothenburg cannot be attributed to the
Gothenburg System, so neither can the
lesscfied pauperism of Finland, a country in
which the Gothenburg System prevails. In
Finland we are told that *' the number of
paupers in receipt of relief has decreased in
eight years from 110,000 to 68,000, partly
owing to reformed poor law administration,
but largely owing to economic progress." ^
The effect of methods of administration
upon the volume of pauperism is well
known to every student of the subject.
It has been strikingly illustrated in the
history of our own country. Mr. Nassau W.
Senior, in his chapter upon the English Poor
Laws,^ writes: — In England "they [i.e., one
section of the community] looked on while
poor rates rose from ^^2, 004, 239 in 1785 to
;^6, 829,042 in 1830; they looked on while in
1 Finland, Its Public and Private Economy (1902), by N. C.
Frederiksen, formerly Professor of Political Economy and Finance
in the University of Copenhagen, p. 14.
2 Historical and Philosophical Essays, Vol. II., p. 85.
PAUPERISM. 75
whole counties the rates equalled a third of
the remaining rental — while estates were
abandoned, and whole parishes were on the
point of being thrown up, without capital or
occupier, to the poor." "We firmly believe,"
Mr. Senior says, " that, if the remedy [i.e.,
the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834] had been
delayed, even for a few years, . . . calamities
would have fallen on a large portion of
England such as no free country, unassailed
by a foreign or a domestic enemy, has ever
endured."
The statistics of pauperism at different
dates are not conclusive evidence of the
growth or diminution of poverty, as is shown
in the article on Poor Laws in the recent
supplementary volume of the Encyclopcedia
Britannica (Vol. XXXI., p. 835), from which
we extract the following : —
" Both in town and country, since 1875, a few
Boards have practically discontinued to give
outdoor relief— that is, relief to paupers at their
own homes. Other Boards have continued to
give it lavishly. Between the two extremes almost
every variety is to be found. The following
76
PAUPERISM.
table will illustrate the position. The figures
are taken from the summer returns (a period
less afifected by weather conditions), at a date
previous to the change of policy which arose
from the above-mentioned discussions of 1869
and from returns for 1899. For this comparison
Unions in proximity have been chosen : —
Two Town Unions.
Name of Union.
Date.
Whitechapel
(East London) ..
St. Olave's
(South London)
(July ist, 1870
tjuly ist, 1899
(July ist, 1870
Ijuly 1st, 1899
Number of
Number of
Indoor
Outdoor
Paupers,
Paupers,
less
less
Total.
Vagrants
Vagrants
and
and
Lunatics.
Lunatics.
974
3.236
4,210
1,162
26
1,188
1.320
3.548
4,868
2,278
4,120
6.398
Proportion of
Paupers to
Population
at last
Census.
One Pauper
to every
62
Two Country Unions.
Name of Union.
Date.
Number of
Indoor
Paupers,
less
Vagrants
and
Lunatics.
Number of
Outdoor
Paupers,
less
Vagrants
and
Lunatics.
Total.
Proportion of
Paupers to
Population
at last
Census.
Bradfield (Berks)...
Bradfield (Berks)...
Hungerford (Berks)
Hungerford and
Ramsbury (Berks)
July ist, 1870
July ist, 1899
July ist, 1870
July ist, 1899
152
104
109
61
807
17
1,049
395
959
121
1,158
456
One Pauper
to every
16
140
17
39
PAUPERISM. 77
The table shows that in Bradfield there
was in 1870 one pauper to every 16 of the
population, but in 1899 one to 140 of the
population ; that is, pauperism had declined
in the thirty years almost in the ratio of
from 9 to I. It need not be said that no
corresponding change in the conditions of
poverty had taken place in the same time.
Whatever may be the true explanation of
the growth of pauperism in Gothenburg, the
essential point to note is that since 1866 the
general condition of the working classes of
the city has improved. Dr. Wieselgren, than
whom there is probably no higher authority,
writes (loth January, 1903) : — " The condition
of the working people is better now than at
the time the Company System was introduced
in Gothenburg. The workmen, their wives
and children, are better housed, fed and clad
now than then.''
CHAPTER V.
The Menace to Municipal and
Political Life.
IN a former volume ^ the present writers
laid emphasis upon the danger to
municipal and political life which results from
a system of private licence, and pointed out
how, so far as the spirit trade is concerned,
this danger had been destroyed in Scandinavia.
Mr. Walker, in The Commonwealth as Publican,
seeks to minimise this danger, and suggests
that the political influence of the liquor trade
is comparatively unimportant. He further
contends that the absence of a Trade menace
in Scandinavia is due to causes other than
the influence of the controlling system. In
1 The Temperance Pyoblem and Social Reform.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 79
depreciating tlie political influence of the
liquor trade in this country he says : —
" The best test of the political influence
and strength of any faction is the amount of
legislation the}' have succeeded in getting
passed in their favour. For instance, agri-
cultural tenants, Scottish crofters, miners,
trades unionists, and shop assistants have one
after the other got their respective grievances
removed. So far as the licensed trade are
concerned, they have not one favourable Act
in the Statute Book as a trophy of their
prowess."
Mr. Walker overlooks the real " trophy
of their prowess." It consists in the Trade
having been able to stave off any considerable
measure of reform for a period of thirty
years. In 1871 Mr. Bruce, on behalf of
the Government of the day, brought forward
a comprehensive measure of licensing reform
which even then was felt to be urgently
needed. That Bill, strongly opposed by the
Trade, was withdrawn, and in the years that
have intervened since 1872 only Acts of
comparatively small importance have been
passed, although, to quote from the Majority
8o THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
Report of the Royal Commission on Liquor
Licensing Laws (iSgg), "it is undeniable that
a gigantic evil remains to be remedied, and
hardly any sacrifice would be too great
which would result in a marked diminution
of this national degradation."
The extent to which the liquor trade in
this country is organised, and the means by
which it makes that organisation effective in
political affairs, were fully set forth in The
Temperance Problem and Social Reform; but, in
view of Mr. Walker's extraordinary suggestion,
it may be well at this point to repeat some of
the evidence.
No secrecy is maintained as to either
the aims or methods of the Trade, as will
be seen by the following extracts from an
article on "Trade Electoral Organisation,"
which appears in the Brewers' Almanack for
1894 (pp. 161-65), signed by the Manager
of the National Trade Defence Fund :
" After a period of lamentable inactivity,
the Trade realised the necessity of
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 8i
self-organisation for electoral purposes, and
for the past few years has been actively
engaged in forming itself into a strong
and compact non-political body for the
most practical of all objects — self-defence."
Then, referring to the introduction of
the Liquor Traffic (Local Control) Bill
in March, 1893, the writer proceeds :
*' Fortunately for the Trade, this declaration
of war did not find them unprepared.
Their leaders had seen the necessity for
organisation for electoral purposes as
distinct from former antiquated combina-
tions for social intercourse and protection
as traders. Meetings had been held,
funds had been collected, officers had been
elected, and a policy framed — nothing was
wanted to unite the Trade but an outward
and visible foe, who made his appearance
in the Chancellor of the Exchequer."
" The Direct Veto was met by the only
answer the Trade could give, a direct No ;
and the opportunity arrived of putting to
82 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
practical test the value of our improved
organisation, of which we had had a
satisfactory trial at the General Election
(of 1892)."
" Organisation is the process of forming
instruments of action. When the time
for action arrives, those instruments
should be ready ; the organiser therefore
must not remain inactive until that time
comes. . ."
"No amount of 'paper' organisation
from a central office will be of any practical
use unless the local instruments are to hand,
and prepared to act. . ."
" Our one object is to return, by all
legitimate means, regardless of politics, to the
House of Commons and other administrative
bodies, candidates favourable to Trade
interests. . ."
" When the Trade fully realises its
political possibilities in a state of efficient
organisation, it will become a power in the
State.''
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 83
The entire article powerfully suggests
the operations of an elaborate political
organisation, directed by qualified leaders/
working through the agency of more than
126,000 "on" licensed houses, and supplied
with unlimited funds. ^ The significance of
the whole is summed up in the passage
already quoted. " No amount of ' paper '
organisation from a central office will be
of any practical use unless the Local
instruments are to hand and prepared to
work." The proposition may appear to
be self-evident, but its real importance
and bearing upon practical legislation has
been strangely overlooked. We shall have
1 The Licensing World of July 12, 1895, referring to the
General Election Campaign of that year, says : " The Board
[of the Licensed Victuallers' Central Protection Society of London]
has at its command at this moment a great number of assistants
specially skilled in every department of activity now called
for, and these men are simply working night and day. The
Chairman, Secretary, and the principal members of the Executive —
the very cream of the elected leaders of the Trade — are daily, we
may say almost hourly, in consultation, directing the work of the
vast organisation under their command, and applying the forces of
the Trade with what we believe will prove to be unerring skill."
2 " Mr. Bass told the world that for every pound put down by
the Alliance, he and his friends would put down a hundred." — Sir
George O. Trevelyan. Speech delivered at Edinburgh, November 28, 1875.
84 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
occasion to refer to the point further on.
Here it will suffice to show how numerous
and effective the "local instruments" are.
The following figures give the total
number of premises licensed to sell by
retail in the United Kingdom, April ist,
igoi : —
England
and Wales.
Scotland.
Ireland.
Total.
*'0n" Licensed
Premises ...
"Oflf" Licensed
Premises ...
-101,664
21,334
7.4II
4,132
17,780
1,388
126,855
26,854
122,998
11,543
19,168
153,709
In considering these figures, it is to
be remembered that each of the " on "
licensed houses — to say nothing of the
"off" licensed houses — will have its own
circle of customers, a certain proportion
of whom will unquestionably be influenced
by the proprietor. The " local instru-
ment " which the organisers of the Trade
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 85
desire is thus ready to their hand in a
singularly efficient form. The publican,
like all other tradesmen, wishing to sell
as much as he can, will energetically resist
the candidature of men who would seek
to restrict the national consumption.
How this vast influence is exercised in
Parliamentary elections will be familiar
to the reader.
The rival candidates are catechised
upon their position in regard to the
Trade, and, irrespective of whatever
national questions may be at stake, the
Trade influence is cast on the side of
the candidate whose answers are deemed
the most satisfactory. Under these
circumstances it was perhaps inevitable
that the support of the Trade should
eventually be given to one of the great
parties in the State. And such has been
the case. The Brewers' Almanack has,
in each yearly issue, a full list of the
Members of Parliament, with their attitude
86 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
to the Trade indicated by the words
" Favourable," '' Against," " Doubtful."
Turning to the Almanack for 1896 — the
issue next following the General Election
of 1895 — we find that, of the Conservative
and Unionist Members, 388 are marked
as " Favourable," 9 as " Against," and
13 as " Doubtful." If Great Britain alone
is taken, there is only one Conservative
or Unionist Member marked as " Against."
The sharpness of the line of cleavage
between the two Parliamentary parties
upon this question is further shown by
the fact that of the Liberal members, 172
are marked as " Against," only 5 as
" Favourable," and 2 as " Doubtful."
It would be a serious mistake to
conclude from these figures that the
entire Conservative party in the con-
stituencies is hostile to licensing reform.
Many of its members deplore that the
supposed exigencies of party warfare should
have ranged their representatives in
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 87
support of the Trade. Not only do many
Conservatives give laborious service in
personal Temperance effort, but cordially
support the far-reaching legislative
proposals of the Church of England
Temperance Society. The frank recog-
nition of these facts heightens, however,
our sense of the menace exercised by the
Trade. It has not only been able to
impose its demands upon the repre-
sentatives of a great party, but it has
done so notwithstanding the existence
within that party of a considerable body
of opinion hostile to such demands.
The Menace a Continuous Factor in
Political Life.
Mr. Walker, however, seeks to avoid the
weight of this evidence by suggesting that the
political power of the Trade has only been
seriously exercised in relation to one measure —
Sir William Harcourt's Local Veto Bill. " In
any case," he says, (p. 41) "this political power
88 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
was only exhibited on this one occasion, and
does not seem to have been seriously felt either
before or since." Those who mix in politics
will smile at this suggestion, and it is strange
that it should be put forward in the face of
overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The
organisation of the Trade has, it is true, been
perfected only within a comparatively recent
period, but its political influence has been
exercised against numerous legislative proposals
over a long series of years. On July gth,
1862, Mr. W. E. Forster moved the second
reading of a Bill to extend the principle of
the Tippling Act to the sale of beer. The
Bill contained only one clause, and provided
that no debt for wine, beer, cider or perry
could be recovered " unless such debt shall
have really been and hona-fide contracted at
one time to the amount of 20s. or upwards."
On July 1 2th, a Trade journal. The Morning
Advertiser^ published a letter, signed *'A Looker
On," urging the editor to exert his " powerful
influence to prevent the further progress of
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 89
this obnoxious measure." In an editorial on
the letter, The Morning Advertiser said : —
" Unless the Trade meet at once and organize
an opposition to it [the Bill], it is just
possible that it may creep through the
lyCgislature. It therefore behoves all who will
be affected by the Bill to meet without an
hour's delay, with the view of checking its
further progress. A prompt and energetic
opposition will ensure the rejection of the Bill."
The opposition of the Trade was successful;
the Bill, which secured a second reading by a
small majority, being subsequently withdrawn.
Alluding to this victory in an article on the
Licensed Victuallers' Protection Society, The
Morning Advertiser said (July 17th, 1862) : —
"We cannot, however, permit the present
opportunity to pass without pointing to the
fact, in support of our opinion as regards
the useful efforts of the Society in stemming
the tide of rash legislation, that it has succeeded
within the last eight and forty hours in
defeating Mr. Forster's Bill relating to the sale
of beer, wine, etc. ... It is true that as
regards the Bill in question it may be said
that 'the snake is not killed but only scotched,'
as we are already threatened with a renewal of
the measure ... in the course of the next
session ; but although this is so, the rejection
go THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
of the measure at the present moment will
aflford to the parties interested an opportunity
of marshalling their forces for future action ;
and we have no doubt but that the Protection
Society, aided by the Country Trade, . . . will
be in a position to fight the battle in which they
may be engaged, in respect to the particular
question under consideration, with energy, and,
we have every reason to believe, with success."
The nature of the "energy" which was to
be employed to prevent the re-introduction of
the Bill was fully disclosed in another article^
in a Trade journal, in which the Government
of the day were denounced for having supported
the measure, and the licensed victuallers were
called upon to use their influence against
them at the next general election. The writer
said : —
" Here will come in for useful purposes that
division list which we published three weeks
ago. In the event of a general election it will
be the duty of every licensed victualler when
applied to for his vote to extract a pledge from
the candidate with regard to legislation on
licensed victuallers' matters. This pledge will
be readily given when required by such a body
at such a time."
1 Quoted by Sir W. Lawson in the House of Commons,
June 8th, 1864.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 91
Sir W. Lawson, after quoting the fore-
going added : " this article went on to say that
this being the pohcy of the Government, the
hcensed victuallers would, as they had done on
previous occasions, show that as a body they
were, politically speaking, the most powerful
in the country. The extract then went on to
state that . . . when Lord Palmerston
was forced to appeal to the country, then
would have come the opportunity of the
licensed victuallers of England, in whose
hands it would be whether he should be able
to retain office or not." ^
An even more frank acknowledgment of
the deliberate interference of the Trade in
political elections was made a few years later
by Mr. George Caudelet, Parliamentary Agent
of the National Licensed Victuallers' Defence
League, in a letter which he wrote to The
Times on April 17th, 1880, explaining the
reasons which led the Trade to abstain from
actively opposing Liberal candidates at the
1 Hansard, 3 Series, Vol. 175, p. 1392.
92 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
general election in that year. The letter
needs no comment : —
" To the Editor of The Times.
"Sir,
"Perhaps a'ou will be good enough to allow
me a portion of your space to make a few
passing explanatory and suggestive remarks
on the action of the Trade during the recent
elections, as various reports are afloat relating
to the course pursued in 1880 compared with
1874.
"Shortly before the recent dissolution a letter
was addressed to me by the Right Hon. B.
KnatchbuU-Hugessen, M.P., who, no matter
whether in or out of ofiice, has always been
disposed to advocate justice being dealt out to
us fairly. This letter earnestly advised the
Licensed Victuallers generall}- to avoid a Trade
combination against Liberal candidates and to
vote according to their political convictions.
" This document, I need scarcely say, was
considerately received, as advice from a friend.
The reasoning of the right hon. gentleman, it
is only right to say, was clear and intelligible,
and was widely circulated among many
constituencies, and, from my own personal
knowledge, was accepted and acted upon, with
few exceptions, to the advantage of the Liberal
candidates.
"We are therefore in hope generally the
Liberal party will, during their coming term of
power, avoid extreme and hostile legislation of
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 93
such a character as that which was resorted to
prior to 1874. If an attitude of moderation is
manifested by the new Government towards the
Trade, I venture to hope the day is not far
distant when the rule of acting at future elections
in a combined form will become exceptional.
The rash and violent attacks which have
hitherto been made upon this Trade have,
from my long experience, caused the Trade
at past elections to do that from necessity
which was not a matter of choice, considering
the interests involved. I therefore venture to
hope that the moderation which Mr. Hugessen
has successfully encouraged may be strength-
ened, so that the Licensed Victuallers and
Beersellers may learn to feel that the}' have
friends on both sides of the House of
Commons.
" Yours faithfully,
(Signed) " george caudelet, Par. Agent,
" National L/. V. Defence I<eague."
In 1894 ^^- Fowler introduced his Local
Government Act, and a determined attempt
was at once made by the Licensed Victuallers'
organisations to capture the newly-created
parish councils in the interests of the Trade.
At the half-yearly meeting of the Council
of the Licensed Victuallers' Defence League
at Burton-on-Trent, it was decided that
94 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
'' A circular should be sent to the various
associations throughout the country urging
them to call meetings at an early date to
discuss the important question and to select
candidates for election."^ On June 30th of
the same year, an article, entitled " The
Local Government Act, 1894, as it affects
the Licensed Trade," written by the agent
of the National Trade Defence Fund, appeared
in the official organ of that Fund. Herein
it was said that "to traders in the country
districts — and to those especially do my
remarks apply — the Act opens up an area of
influence the importance of which cannot be
over-estimated, and as to the duty of the
trader, he should take an active interest in
securing registration of all trade voters in
his parish, whether as freeholders, lessees,
lessors, tenants, coachmen, barmen, other
employees or lodgers. He should ascertain
(as soon as it is settled) the number of
parish councillors allotted to the parish, and
1 Fiery Cross, December, 1894.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 95
then arrange (if there is no retail society in
his district) for a meeting of his fellow-
traders for the purpose of ensuring the
proper representation of the Trade on both
district and parish councils. Where there is
a retail society, such should meet without
delay and arrange for the selection of Trade
candidates in every parish in the area over
which the society has influence.
" One trader on a parish or district council
is worth a dozen off. He is ' in the know ' ;
his opponents occasionally want favours, and
these can be given on terms. Duty to
oneself; duty to the largest ratepayers; duty
to the great Trade itself, constrains its
members to take their lot and share in this
matter, and if done systematically throughout,
and universally, must result in untold advan-
tages, moral, financial and political, to the
licensed trade of the country."^
The Morning Advertiser^ the London daily
organ of the Trade, recommended " all country
1 Ibid.
96 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
licence holders to look well after these new
Parish Councils. . . The Parish Councils
should afford them \i.e.^ licensed victuallers] ,
or some of them, an opportunity of increasing
their influence and strengthening and com-
pleting their organisation. The thing is that
licensed victuallers should be persuaded that
activity in parochial and municipal affairs is
of no less importance — is perhaps of more
importance — to them, than activity in party
concerns."^
Finally, to show how consistently the
Trade adheres to its own principle of " Our
Trade our Politics," we may quote from the
report of a recent general meeting of the
members of the Manchester, Salford and
Districts Beer and Wine Trades Defence
Association, which appeared in The Licensing
World of June 28th, 1902. The President
(Mr. W. Hartley), in moving the adoption
of the minutes, stated that " he was afraid
that at the present important crisis the
1 Ibid.
THE MF:NACE of the trade. 97
Trade did not realise in a sufficiently general
manner the extreme danger that surrounded
it. With a long and varied experience, he
could not remember a period when its
})osition was so critical. A responsible
Government, with a large majority behind it,
had introduced a licensing Bill that bristled
with difficulties for retail licence holders, and
this from a Government tJicy had been very
largely instrumental in returning to power, and
from whom they had a right to expect, if not
liberal treatment, at least fair consideration."
In the face of evidence so explicit and
detailed as the foregoing, which, moreover,
could be multiplied almost indefinitely, it is
difficult to understand the suggestion that
the political influence of the Trade has been
exercised in relation to one measure only.
A New Development in Trade
Organisation.
Recent developments in the political organ-
isation of the Trade have greatlv aggravated
the menace whicli it offers to the social and
98 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
political life of the country. In discussing
this menace in the second chapter of The
Tejnperance Problem and Social Reform, we
directed attention to the wide extension of
the Limited Liability system, under which
large numbers of people have become partners
with the Trade to this extent, that they are
financially interested in its prosperity and
continuaiice . It is true that the "ordinary"
shares of brewery companies are frequently
not offered to the public, but the preference
shareholder will desire that his shares shall
retain their value, and that his dividends shall
be regularly paid. Many brewery companies
are, however, so highly capitalised that if the
national consumption of beer were reduced
to a point which social reformers of all
schools would regard as wise, the value of
the stock would be most seriously affected.
The holder of brewery shares has therefore
an obvious interest in opposing social or
legislative effort which aims at a reduction
of the national drink consumption.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 99
Mr. Walker suggests that : — ■'* Perhaps the
authors [of The Temperance Problem and Social
Reform] exaggerate both the influence and
the dangers likely to spring from " the political
power exercised by the Trade. " We have
never," he says, "so far, either heard or
seen that these companies have made direct
use of this influence. We question even if
it would be to their interest to mix in
party politics."
Mr. Walker has ignored the evidence
that we gave on this point.^ We need not
repe'cit it here, but we invite attention to
explicit evidence of very recent date, which
shows that the brewery companies are seeking
to increase the political power of the Trade
by organising the share and debenture holders
into an association which is to be an ally of
the National Trade Defence Association, and
to work alongside of it. The idea seems
to have originated in the Midlands. The
^ The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, pp. 90-92.
loo THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
following notice of it appeared in The Brewers'
Journal of August 15th, 1902: —
" A Brewery Shareholdkks' League.
"At a recent meeting of the Executive
Committee of the National Trade Defence
Association, held at .5, Victoria Street, London,
S.W.. the following resolntion was proposed by
the Chairman, Mr. E. N. Buxton, seconded by
Mr. Levi Johnson, and carried unanimously : —
* That this Committee hears with satisfaction
that the Midland Counties District has taken
steps to revive a Share and Debenture Holders'
Association, in conjunction with the District
Organisation of the National Trade Defence
Association, and expresses the hope that the
new Association will be successful and that it
may be extended to other districts at an early
date.' "
The growth of this movement is made
apparent b}- the following extracts from an
article by Mr. T. Jeffery Vince, entitled "The
National Brewery Shareholders' Association,"
which appeared in The Brewers' Journal of
September 15th, 1902: —
" In the spring of the present year one of
the directors of a large brewery in the
Midlands remarked, at the annual meeting of
his company, that, in his opinion, the time
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. loi
was now ripe for a combination of persons
interested in the trade as shareholders
in brewing companies, and that snch an
organisation might prove itself a highly
vah^able auxiliar)- to existing associations for
the defence of this much-threatened industry."
The writer of this article points out
that :—
" The existing associations for trade defence
carry on their operations mainly among those
who, being themselves actively engaged as
brewers or licence-holders in what our
teetotal friends call the ' liquor traffic,' may
be expected to understand more readily and
with less instruction than the general public
the bearing of any legislative projects upon
their interests. Outside these valuable
organisations lies, unorganised, undisciplined,
uninformed, a great army of shareholders,
who are not so well acquainted with the
conduct of the brewing industry, and yet
have no unimportant interest in any legislation
that may be proposed for the further
restriction of the trade in which they have
invested their savings. The new Association
proposes to attempt the organisation of this
army, numerous eyiough as it is to coytstitute,
with due guidarice, a pozver/u/ political force ;
to circulate among its members b>- means of a
monthly gazette such political. Parliamentary,
and financial information as they should be
interested to receive ; to provide machinery for
I02 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
rapidly obtaining signatures to petitions to
Parliament in any sudden political emergency ;
and, at bye-elections especiallj', to invite its
members to join the licensed trade in watching
and dealing with the pledges exacted from
Parliamentary candidates. The political in flu rnce
of the Associatioji will lie in the fact, which I
desire to emphasize^ that it is not a7i offshoot or
adju7ict of the National Trade Defence, but an
ally workiftg alongside. . . .
" The temptation to Members of Parliament
to support the minor proposals of temperance
reformers is reall}' a very strong one. Every
candidate, after refusing to vote for local
option, is accustomed to add, amid renewed
applause, that he is not averse to moderate and
reasonable temperance reform ; and nobody can
take exception to this laudable generality. It
is, therefore, gratifying if, at the end of any
Session, he is able to point proudly to some
vote he has given as evidence that he is in
earnest. In most constituencies the zealous
and acrimonious teetotallers outnumber the
electors who are actively engaged in the trade.
But if the shareholders ivere organised and
instructed there would be a body of opinion and
voting streyigth which no candidate could afford to
despise. It has indeed bee?i calculated that the
average number of holders of brewery shares in
a Parliamentary division exceeds the average
phirality of votes at a contested election . . . " '
1 The article concludes as follows : —
" The directors of the following companies have alreaxiy
showed practical interest in the movement by sendinfj
donations to the organisation fund :■ — Messrs. Bass, Ratclift
and Gretton, Limited, Burton ; Ind, Coope & Co., Limited,
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 103
The Menace in the United States.
The political influence of the Liquor
Trade is not, however, confined to this
country. It exists in a dangerous form in
the United States, both in the Prohibition
States and in those under High Licence. In
the former, the chances of destroying a
Prohibition regime are so great that extra-
ordinary efforts are put forth to prevent the
re-election of a sheriff who has sought to
enforce the law.
" The liquor traffic, being very profitable,
has been able, when attacked by prohibitory
Burton and Romford ; Peter Walker & Sons, Limited,
Warrington and Burton ; Warwicks & Richardsons,
Limited, Newark-on-Trent ; M. B. Foster & Sons, Limited,
London ; Bristol Brewery (Georges & Co.), Limited, Bristol ;
Ashby's Brewery, Limited, Staines; Mew (W. B.), Langton
and Co., Limited, Isle of Wight ; Walker & Sons, Limited,
Gravesend ; Yates's Castle Brewery, Limited, Manchester ;
J Sharman & Sons, Limited, Bolton ; Buckley's Brewery,
Limited, Llanelly ; Hull Brewery Company, Limited, Hull ;
Tamplin & Sons, Limited, Brighton ; Braime's Tadcaster
Breweries, Limited, Leeds ; Farnham United Breweries,
Limited, Farnham ; Daniell & Sons' Breweries, Limited,
Colchester ; Joule & Sons, Limited, Stone ; Maryport
Brewery, Limited, Maryport ; Stretton's Derby Brewery,
Limited, Derby ; and Forest Hill Brewery Company,
Limited, London, S.E.
"Many other firms have promised financial support.
In due course the committee will proceed to canvass
individually the shareholders, whose personal adherence
will constitute the real strength of the Association. A
scheme by which the country will be divided into districts,
each with a local secretary and a local committee, is in
preparation."
I04 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
legislation, to pay fines, bribes, hush money,
and assessments for political purposes to
large amounts. This money has tended to
corrupt the lower courts, the police adminis-
tration, political organisations, and even the
electorate itself. Wherever the voting force
of the liquor traffic and its allies is
considerable, candidates for office and office-
holders are tempted to serve a dangerous
trade interest, which is often in antagonism
to the public interest. Frequent yielding to
this temptation causes general degeneration
in public life, breeds contempt for the public
service, and, of course, makes the service
less desirable for upright men."^
Under High Licence, whether in New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, or elsewhere,
the liquor saloon is the powerful instrument
of political corruption.
A writer in The Atlantic Monthly'^ says:
" To think of political reform with the
1 Tht Liquor Problem in its Ltgislativc Aspects. Bv the " Cnmmiuee
of Fifty."
'-'G. F. Parsons, The Saloon in Politics.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 105
influence of the saloon in politics what it is
seems almost fatuous. To discuss the subject
of political reform without takin^^ this weighty
factor into consideration seems almost puerile.
To belittle the importance of the saloon is
most dan^^jerous. To essay compromise with
it is a fatal mistake. In the nature of the
case it must be eliminated, or it must
dominate everything. Full freedom having
been accorded it thus far, it has made a
long stride toward dominion. Even among
those who clearly recognise the perils of the
situation, it has become an axiomatic statement
that it is useless to oppose the saloon in
the cities."
Elimination or the Menace in Scandinavia.
When, however, we turn to Scandinavia,
an altogether different condition of things is
found. Dr. E. R. L. Gould, the Special
Commissioner of the United States Labour
Department, wTites : —
" A conspicuous merit is the complete
di\-orcing of the liquor traffic from politics.
io6 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
In these countries the ehmination of the
liquor element as a political power is
complete." And again : " In Norway every
vestige and semblance of political influence
is eliminated. Indeed, to my mind, this
absolute separation which has been practically
effected between liquor and politics is a
conspicuous merit."
Similar evidence is given by Mr. John
Koren, the Commissioner appointed by the
State Legislature of Massachusetts to inquire
upon the spot into the working of the
Gothenburg System. In summing up the
advantages to be derived from the Company
System as "exemplified by the manner of its
application in Norway," he says : " Drink-
selling will be divorced from politics, [it]
can no longer serve as an instrument of
corruption, and one of the greatest obstacles
to all social reform may thus be overcome."^
The evidence of Mr. Lars O. Jensen,
Right Worthy Grand Templar for Norway,
1 Report on the Norwegian System, furnished to the Common-
wealth of Massachusetts by Mr. John Koren, p. i66.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 107
is to the same effect. Speaking at the
International Alcoholic Congress at the
Hague, in 1893, Mr. Jensen said : *' It [the
Samlag System] hinders the formation of an
organised liquor party ; because the money
derived from the traffic is used for charitable
institutions and for the public benefit, and
does not go to the liquor-dealers."
Mr. M. G. Blomquist, of Stockholm,
addressing the same Congress, gave similar
testimony. Alluding to Sunday closing and
the shortening of hours of sale, he said : —
" But these legislative reforms have been
possible by the introduction of the Gothenburg
System in Sweden, because the publicans no
longer have the slightest injluence in the political
life of Sweden.'''^
1 These statements must be received with one important
qualification. As will be shown later on, it is the ipirit traffic
that has been divorced from politics, not the traffic in beer. The
distiller has no "local instruments" through whom to work, but
the brewer has thousands of such "instruments." Therefore,
whilst the political power of the distiller is a thing of the past,
that of the brewer remains intact. One is continually reminded
of this when travelling in Scandinavia. The necessity of bringing
beer under company control is admitted on all hands; but when
inquiry is made whether legislation in this direction is likely to
be passed, one is told that the brewers are very wealthy and very
powerful, and the change can only come after a fierce struggle.
io8 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
It seems impossible to misread the
significance of these facts. In Great Britain
and Ireland the influence of the Trade is
primarily exerted through the holders of "on"
licences, who are " local instruments " of
singular efficiency. Deprived of these "local
instruments," the brewers and distillers would
lose most of their electoral force — they would
be in a position analogous to that of a
Parliamentary candidate without a body of
active workers. The legitimate influence of
the Trade through public meetings and the
press would remain, but that which makes
it so portentous and threatening a power in
the State would have ceased to exist.
Mr. Chamberlain was one of the first to see
this. Addressing the House of Commons on
March 13, 1877, in support of his Resolution
for the municipalisation of the retail drink
trade, he pointed out that '* Success would
at least exclude from our political life the
baleful influence of a gigantic vested interest,
whose tyranny and whose insolence must be
THE MENACP: of THI: T1>:ADE. log
as repugnant to those who could profit by
it as it was to those who were suffering from
its opposition."
The same view is expressed in Lord
Peel's Report, where it is stated that " The
ehmination of private profits could not fail
to be of public benefit, both directly and
by diminishing the obstacles to temperance
reform. The evils of the tied-house system
would vanish, and with it much of the
disturbing influence of the drink question in
local politics." ^
Under the Company System there are no
" local instruments." The managers of the
Company's shops are not dependent upon any
1 Hansard, \o\. 232, pp. 1S72-3.
'■* Minority Report of the Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing
Laws, p. 279. Thtt testimonj^ of influential leaders of the Temperance
movement in this country is equally explicit. Mr. T. P. Whittaker,
M.P., in the Memorandum which he published as an Addendum to
the Minority Report of the Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing
Laws, stated (p. 325) that " The disappearance of the publican as an
element in municipal and Imperial politics, which works solely in the
interest of its own personal ends — ends which can only be achieved at
the cost of the degradation of the people — woul 1 b.- an enormous j^ain
to the fiurity, independence and efficiency of public life, and would
very creatly facilitate the more stringent and effective limitation of the
sale of drink by the people in iheir respective localities."
no THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
brewer, nor are their interests at all bound
up with the Trade. The interest of a bar
manager, both in Sweden and in Norway, is
to stand well with his committee ; and if a
manager ever did attempt to influence an
elector, he would run the risk of immediate
dismissal.
The Struggle with the Distillers
IN Sweden.
What then is the reply that Mr. Walker
gives to evidence so clear and decisive as
that which has now been adduced as to the
divorce between the spirit trade and politics
in Scandinavia ? He attempts to meet the
point thus : —
"To secure a divorce, we must first have an
alliance. Yet from end to end of their (Messrs.
Rowntree and Sherwell's) valuable work we do
not find a single example of the traflBc being
connected with politics in Norway and Sweden ;
and, although in some of the less well-informed
works such statements have been made, little
or no evidence has been given in support of it.
In neither Norway nor Sweden has there ever
been that keen interest in party politics so
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon race."
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE, iii
It is true that in The Teinperance Problem
and Social Reform we did not give any
illustration of the alliance which formerly
existed between politics and the liquor
traffic in Scandinavia, for the reason that no
illustration appeared to be necessary. The
fierce national campaign extending over
fifteen years, from 1870 to 1885, in which
the Swedish distillers, led by the " brandy
king," Lars Olssen Smith, sought to bring
about the repeal of clauses which embodied
some of the most important principles of the
epoch-making law of 1855, excited widespread
attention and is matter of history. A sketch
of this great struggle, with its varied and
dramatic incidents (abbreviated from the
writings of Dr. Sigfrid Wieselgren), is given in
that quarry of information which no student of
the Company System can afford to neglect —
Dr. E. R. L. Gould's Report on the Gothenburg
System of Liquor Traffic, prepared under the
direction of the Government of Washington,
and presented in 1893. A more detailed
112 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
account is to be found in a series of five
articles contributed to Tlic Temperance Record
by Dr. Wieselgren, in February and March,
1886.
The rise of the menace in Sweden, the
date of its appearance, and the circumstances
which called it into existence can be clearly
seen.
In 1829, distillation was de facto free in
Sweden. The population in that year was
about 2,850,000, and the number of stills
paying licence fees was 173,124. This would
give one still to every three or four families.
Under these conditions there could be no
political menace exercised by the Trade, as
the consumers of spirits were so largely its
manufacturers.
The legislation of 1855, however, transformed
the home distillation of spirits into a strictly-
controlled manufacture, and placed its sale
for both "on" and "off" consumption under
the restriction of a special law. With the
suppression of home distillation, the licensed
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 113
houses became the sole channels through
which the national demand for spirits could
be met. Those interested in the liquor traffic
who acquired these licences rapidly grew in
wealth and political power, so that in 1870,
when " the fifteen years' life and death
struggle commenced," the Trade had become
a potent political force. The distiller and
the publican were in close association, as
the latter was very often financed by the
former. ^
The sale at this time was centred in the
towns,^ but now this sale was threatened
by the formation of controlling companies.
If these were allowed to become firmly
established, the distillers felt that their trade
would seriously suffer. So far, Stockholm
had not adopted the system,^ and of the
six largest towns of Sweden, only Gothenburg
1 Letter from Dr. Wieselgren to the present writers.
2 It will be remembered that under the operation of the
Act of January, 1855, most of the public-houses in the rural
districts had been closed.
^ Stockholm did not adopt the controlling system till 1877.
114 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
had as yet established a controHing
company. Before it was too late then
this system must be crushed.
The struggle for this end was conducted
under the leadership of Lars Olssen Smith with
extraordinary vigour and tactical resource. To
the agricultural interest he said in effect, " You
are not fairly dealt with. The towns benefit at
your expense. They receive too large a share
of the fees for both the ' on ' and ' off ' licences
considering that much custom comes to
them from the adjoining country districts.
Moreover, the towns which have adopted this
new Gothenburg System make a great profit
upon the sale of spirits, and almost all these
profits are retained by the towns. This
injustice should be remedied, and it can
best be done by abolishing the licence fees
altogether, making a corresponding increase in
the excise duty levied by the State upon the
manufacture of spirits. With this increased
revenue it will be possible to abolish the
land taxes which press upon the agricultural
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 115
districts." This argument appeared so
reasonable and appealed to such powerful
interests that it received great support. The
real object of the policy thus advocated by
Olssen Smith is not at once apparent to the
English reader, nor does he immediately see
why the chief point at issue had from the
first been that of the proposed combination
of the taxes. Its inner meaning is to be
found in the proposal to abolish the licence
fees. If the licence fees were abolished, it
was believed that the sale of spirits would
become free, subject only to the approval of
the seller by the authorities. This free sale
would not only destroy the controlling
companies but it would lead to greatly
increased trade. Nor did Olssen Smith
make his appeal to the agricultural interest
only. To the artizan classes he held out the
bait that the destruction of the controlling
companies would result in cheap brandy.
He even sought, and to some extent
obtained, the support of Temperance societies,
ii6 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
by representing to them that the Bolags were
mere money-making schemes.
At times the issue of this conflict appeared
to hang in the balance, and up to 1883 or
1884, Olssen Smith seems to have anticipated
success. Speaking of the Gothenburg System
in one of the late years of the struggle, he is
reported to have said, " Next year we hope
to have it abolished all over Sweden." That
this did not happen, and that the essential
principles of the law of 1855 were maintained,
was owing largely to the firmness of her
King (Oscar H.). The Diet of 1877 had
asked the Government to frame a new
liquor law, but the King and the Minister
of Finance delayed doing so until the
agitation led by the "brandy king" against
the law of 1855 had almost spent itself.
On February 25th, 1885, however, the Prime
Minister laid the Bill before the King at a
cabinet meeting. The Prime Minister gave it
as hi? decided opinion that the principles on
which the existing law was founded had so
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 117
completely gained the confidence of the
Swedish people, and proved themselves so
efficient in promoting their welfare, that it
would by no means be advisable to abandon
them.
The new Bill contained a series of excellent
provisions in the interests of Temperance.
Referring to the controlling companies, the
Prime Minister said : " I am convinced that
those companies, if properly administered, will
prove the most effectual means of promoting
order in the brandy traffic, and it is only by
their means that the trade can be carried
on in such a manner as not to encourage an
increased consumption of spirits. It stands
to reason that when a private individual
engages in the brandy trade, as well as in
any other, his interests will induce him to
sell as much as he can ; whereas the
companies, if they properly fulfil their
mission — and happily our country can boast
of many such — need never be influenced by
selfish motives. Therefore the law ought to
ii8 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
be framed so as to offer a decided
encouragement to the system of controlling
companies."
The Cabinet accepted the proposal of the
Minister, and it was sanctioned by the King.
The propositions were then submitted to the
Diet, and, with some modifications, one of
which referred to the proposed distribution of
the brandy revenue, were adopted. Nothing
more was heard of the virulent attacks on the
Gothenburg System. Without one dissenting
voice the Diet accepted the Government
proposition, by which a decided encourage-
ment of the system of controlling companies
was introduced into the Act, which at the same
time widened the sphere of the companies'
activity.^ Thus, with almost dramatic
suddenness, the baneful political power of the
distiller passed from the national life of
Sweden. The shops for retail sale, which in
other countries are the real centres of trade
* Dr. E. R. L. Gould. Report on the Gothenburg System of
Liquor Traffic.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 119
influence and the instruments through which
the electorate can be powerfully worked upon,
were no longer in private hands. The hope-
lessness of further struggle was recognised,
and from 1885 to the present time the
political power of the distiller has been
practically non-existent in Sweden.
The Power of the Brewers.
It remains, however, to be pointed out
that, although the political- power of the
distiller is, in Scandinavia, a thing of the
past, the power of the brewer remains intact.
In support of this latter statement the
following information, contained in a letter
from Dr. Sigfrid Wieselgren to the present
writers, dated August 21st, 1902, may be
given : —
"As for the connexion of brewers with
politics I need only refer to the fact that
the Government has appointed two com-
mittees on the taxation of beer, without
the investigations and proposals of the
I20 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
committees leading to any results. A third
committee has been appointed this year,
I wonder with what results ? The first
committee, of which I was a member, had
its conferences in 1881. Thus, during twenty-
one years the brewing interest has succeeded
in preventing the taxation of malt liquors,
which temperance reformers regard as being
of great importance, especially from the
point of view of the stricter control on the
sale of these drinks which would be made
possible in this way."
Dr. Wieselgren informs us that at his
suggestion a conference of organised Tem-
perance workers was held this year, which, inter
alia, unanimously passed a resolution in favour
of placing malt liquors under the restrictions
of the Gothenburg System. Dr. Wieselgren
adds that, as president of the conference, he
handed over the resolutions of the conference
to the Minister of Finance, " and soon after,
the third committee, above referred to, was
appointed. ... A new Cabinet has since
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 121
been formed, and we do not yet know
whether the present Government is in favour
of our opinions, or whether the power of
' the brewers' union ' shall again become
predominant. Owing to their good connexions
with poUticians both in the press and the
Diet, the representatives of the brewing
industry have hitherto proved to be very hard
adversaries. They do all they can to prevent
the bringing of beer under Company control.
In the election now going on their influence
can be clearly traced."
In Norway the conditions are closely
similar. Referring to the present state of
things in that country, Mr. Berner, of
Christiania, writes us (30th April, 1902) :
" I regret to say that the efforts of the
Temperance men to have the law of 1894
extended to all intoxicating drinks (beer and
wine) have not as yet succeeded. The
brewers, in fact, own most of the houses
in which the beer and wine licences
are exercised, or tliey lend the licensed
122 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
shop-holders the necessary capital with which
to exercise their trade ; so far, many are
interested in raising opposition to the
extension of the law to beer and wine."
Mr. Sven Aarrestad, the leader of the
Temperance party in the Norwegian Storthing
and in the country, refers in the following
terms to the aggressive action and growing
power of the brewers : — ^
"As to beer, monopolising must present
itself as desirable. It appears that the
breweries more and more gather within their
sweep, and get under their control, both
hotels, inns, and restaurants, and all kinds
of places of public entertainment, in order
to have the greatest possible power over
all the channels through which beer can
flow to the public. In the greater towns,
especially, it has come to this, that the
breweries stand behind most of the
businesses where beer is sold or drunk. The
nominal owner is only a man of straw acting
1 Minority Report of the Committee of Revision, drawn up by
Mr. Aarrestad, and bearing date March ist, 1898.
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 123
for the brewery. The brewery furnishes the
premises, pays the rent, and supplies the
necessary capital to start the business —
if the man of straw can only get the
licence. As to the rural districts, it is not
a rare case that breweries in the towns
are the real owners of tourist hotels,
sanatoria, and such places, for which licences
are asked. The breweries are businesses
with very great capital, and as there are
comparatively few of them, they can easily
form a ' ring,' and there is already such a
combination. How this ' ring ' might act in
certain contingencies is clear from various
indications — among others, from a statement
which has not been contradicted, that all the
breweries have agreed not to furnish beer to
the Samlags as cheaply as to private dealers,
and this of course in order, if possible, to
prevent the sale of beer being monopolised
by the Samlags."
The point which it is here important to
observe is that this aggressive action of the
124 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
brewers, as also their political power, would
be practically destroyed if the whole of the
retail sale of beer throughout the country
were placed under Company control. The
political power of the distiller has in Norway,
as in Sweden, been eliminated by placing the
whole of the retail sale of spirits under
Company control, and a corresponding result
would follow in the case of the brewers if the
sale of beer were similarly treated. The
establishment of a few beer Samlags here and
there is ineffectual towards this end.
The Power of the Brewery Shareholder.
It has, however, been urged that, while
the Company System, by eliminating the
private publican, would necessarily bring the
political influence of the public-house to an
end, it would leave the influence of the share
and debenture holder in unabated strength.
This view is, however, based upon an
inadequate conception of the altered conditions
that would obtain were the Company System
THE MENACE OF THE TRADE. 125
once firmly established in this country. The
estabhshment of the Company System (as
distinguished from the various private Trust
Companies which are so rapidly springing up in
all parts of the United Kingdom) pre-supposes
that the question of compensation has been
finally disposed of. The other questions upon
which the Trade now take a great interest
are restrictive measures dealing with the
reduction of the number of public-houses,
the hours of closing, the age at which
young persons shall be served, etc. All these
questions, however, would, under the system
of public management advocated in this
volume, cease to be matters of Imperial
legislation ; for, subject to certain limitations
laid down by Parliament, localities would, as
in Norway and Sweden, determine these
questions for themselves. The struggle
between the Trade and the nation would
therefore shrink into narrow compass.^
1 If the question of Local Veto were before a locality, the
influence of the share and debenture holders would no doubt be
felt. The withdrawal of the publican opposition would, however,
altogether alter the conditions under which such a vote would
be taken.
126 THE MENACE OF THE TRADE.
Note. — The Dispensary System of South
Carolina has Httle in common with the
Gothenburg System, except that in both the
hquor trade is taken out of private hands.
The Dispensary System is, however, of special
interest in the present connexion as showing
that, even under a system defective in many
ways, the political power of the Trade is
practically destroyed when private profit is
dissociated from the sale of drink. Full
evidence on this point is given in the
Appendix.-^
1 See p. 259.
CHAPTER VI.
The Pushing of Sales.
A COMMITTEE whose investigations led
to the formation of the Gothenburg
Company, said in their Report : —
'* Neither local enactments nor police
surveillance can do much so long as public-
houses are in the hands of private individuals,
who find their profit in encouraging in-
temperance, without regard for age or youth,
rich or poor."
Some recent writers, including Mr.
Walker, argue, however, that the elimination
of private profit from the sale of drink can
have little effect, because the publican must
necessarily supply his customers with the
article they want ; if they ask for beer, it
is useless to press aerated waters.
128 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
But in discussing the matter it is
necessary clearly to understand what is
meant b}' the phrase " Pushing of Sales."
If, indeed, the phrase be restricted to the
direct influence which can be exercised by
the bar-tender upon his customers in inducing
them to take some other article than that for
which they ask, it may be conceded at once
that the effect of such "pushing" must be
small. The present writers, in an earlier
volume,^ laid emphasis upon this point.
But the phrase as ordinarily used carries
a much wider meaning. It refers to the effort
made by those engaged in the trade — principals
as well as subordinates — to stimulate sales. As
The Times^ in discussing the tied-house
system, long ago pointed out,^ "The natural
tendency of a brewer is simply to push the
sale of his beer. Provided no forfeiture of
licence be incurred, the especial manner in
which the business is conducted does not
^ British Gothenburg Experiments and Public-House Trusts. See
pp. 23, 31. 36, 60, 79.
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 129
matter much to him. His main desire is
that the neighbourhood should drink as much
as possible."
A few specific instances may be given
from our own country and from abroad to
illustrate how the trade is pushed under the
stimulus of private gain.
In the Report of the Sub-Committee of
the Glasgow Magistrates which recently visited
Liverpool to inquire into the administration
of the Licensing Acts in that city, it is
stated that the following are among the
grounds on which the Head Constable objects
to the re-licensing of a house : —
" That the house is the resort of improper
persons.
" That undesirable inducements are offered
to customers.
" That sailors' advance notes are taken
in payment for drink.
" That they hold customers' money and
let them have drink until it is
exhausted.
I30 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
" Free drinks are given to induce custom.
" Drink on credit.
" That they have sold drink during
prohibited hours."
It is not likely that the Head Constable
would have enumerated these abuses unless
they had existed, and the reason of their
existence is obvious. It was to increase or
"push" sales. These abuses owe their
existence to the stimulus of private gain, and
would not have been found in connexion
with a Gothenburg Company.
Two other illustrations may be taken from
Liverpool. In the interesting pamphlet entitled
** Licensing Administration in Liverpool.
Summary of Reforms (1889—1898),"^ compiled
by the Liverpool Vigilance Committee, the
following paragraph occurs on page 5 : — -
" Music, Singing, and Dancing Licences.
— Among the many questions to which the
attention of the Justices has been directed in
1 The Licensing Laws Information Bureau, 46, Bridlesmith
Gate, Nottingham.
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 131
recent years has been that of the undesirability
of continuing to allow licences of this nature
to be granted to public-houses. As a result
of the action of the Bench these licences,
which numbered 238 in 1890," have since,
been reduced to 38.
Why were these 238 licences taken out in
1890 ? Manifestly in order that the music,
singing and dancing might draw people to the
public-house. The object was to stimulate
sales.
In the same Report, under the heading
" Back Doors," it is stated that " the
agitation against these semi-secret entrances
was actively commenced in 1890," and that
by the year 1898 the justices had effected the
total closing, for trade purposes, of about
377 back doors. Semi-secret entrances are
not to be found in houses under Gothenburg
control. The object of such entrances is to
facilitate the use of the public-house by
persons who would not care to enter by the
ordinary door ; in other words, the object of
132 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
these semi-secret entrances is to increase
sales.
Birmingham has lately been greatly stirred
upon the question of " air-gun shooting
clubs," of which a large number had been
established in connexion with public-houses
with a view of adding to their attractiveness.
Early in February the magistrates passed
a resolution: "That the justices view with
disfavour the establishment of air-gun shooting
clubs at licensed premises, and hope that
any such clubs now in existence will be at
once discontinued." As the Birmingham
magistrates are accustomed to give practical
effect to their recommendations, this resolution
excited strong feeling, and a crowded meeting
to protest against it was held in the Town
Hall on March 2nd, 1903.^
At a subsequent magisterial discussion
of the question, Mr. Arthur Chamberlain,
1 Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, at the meeting of the magistrates, said
" He took it that those meetings were . . . arranged by the Trade
and engineered by the Trade for Trade purposes." It points, however,
to the attractiveness of these clwbs that the Trade were able to fill
the Birmingham Town Hall with a meeting to protest against the
resolution of the magistrates. The resolution has since been virtually
withdrawn.
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 133
defending the resolution, said : " Air-gun
clubs were innocent amusements in themselves,
and the magistrates had said nothing against
them. What they had said they objected to
was their connexion with public-houses. They
certainly led to drinking. . . . They were
an additional attraction to the public-house.
They turned a non-frequenter into a frequenter
of public-houses." He added: "There were
formerly 203 of these gun clubs in connexion
with public-houses, and since the magistrates'
pronouncement they had been reduced to
163."^ It was pointed out that these air-gun
clubs were a great attraction to young men.
Unquestionably the object of these clubs was
to attract customers and so increase sales.
A few licensed houses, for the sake of
pushing sales, tolerate abuses more serious
than those hitherto mentioned. In the
Criminal Statistics for England and Wales,
1901, there is a table (pp. 106-109) showing
the number of public-houses and beer shops
^ Birmingham Daily Post, March 6th, 1903.
134 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
frequented by thieves in the counties and
boroughs of England and Wales. The total
number of houses so frequented is 360,
namely, 218 public-houses and 142 beer
shops. Now, if the criminal clientele of
these houses is such that it can be
tabulated by the police, the publican cannot
be ignorant of the character of his customers.
Why then does he permit abuses which
carry the risk of a loss of licence ? Mani-
festly because he gains by every glass of
liquor which he sells.
These illustrations indicate the variety of
methods adopted for stimulating sales, as
well as the extreme lengths to which in
some cases the pushing of sales is carried.
The efforts in this direction which are made
within the limits of the law are so well
known that two further illustrations of very
recent date will suffice. At the annual meeting
of the shareholders in Olivers Ltd., wine
and spirit merchants, Bristol, the chairman,
Mr, j. W. G. Dix, said : — " One unsatisfactory
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 135
feature they had to deal with was the
increased competition which they had to
encounter, and that was serious. The
directors had endeavoured to make the retail
bars more attractive, and an improvement
had been carried out which would facilitate
the carrying on of the business." ^
Again, in the Dundee Advertiser of
September 20th, 1902, the following letter
appears: — "To-day I noticed in the window
of a public-house in your city the intimation
that the results of all important football
matches would be wired to that particular
house. This is a ' draw,' and, no doubt, a
good one for the enterprising publican."
When cases of this kind are brought
forward, it is sometimes urged in reply that
the object of the publican is not to push
sales but to command a clientele. But if
one publican seeks to make his house more
attractive, another will follow suit, and if the
public-houses of the country generally are
1 The Wine Trade Review, November 15th, 1902.
136 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
made more attractive, they will attract more
customers, especially among the young, and
so the national consumption of liquor, instead
of being reduced, will be further increased.
The experience of the mother country is
being reproduced in the colonies. A Bill to
remedy the evils of the tied-house system
was recently introduced into the Victorian
Parliament. In the course of the debate
Mr. A. A. Billson, a brewer, said : — " The
result in many instances — I do not say in
all cases —is that the buyer finds that the
rent and the interest which he or she, as
the case may be, has to pay is more than
he or she can make out of the business,
and these people then have to resort to
some illegal means, such as gambling, keeping
their hotels open after hours, trading on
Sundays, or probably introducing some other
vices of a worse character. Honourable
members may ask, 'Why do they do this?*
The answer is that when a person has put
his money into a hotel, and finds he has
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 137
paid an inflated price for it, he is then
very anxious to get his money out of it, and
will resort to all kinds of practices for the
purpose of making both ends meet."^ That
is to say he will " push sales."
If we turn to foreign countries the evidence
is equally decisive that sales are " pushed "
under the stimulus of private gain, and that
improved conditions result when this stimulus
is withdrawn.
A Foreign Office Report^ upon the
Government Spirit Monopoly in Russia,
contrasting the present system with that
previously existing, says : — " In the dram-
shop the proprietor was usually willing to
supply drink on credit, advance it on wages
owing, or exchange it for agricultural produce,
clothes, etc." These abuses were done away
with when the trade was taken out of
private hands. They had existed , formerly
owing to the determination of the dram-shop
proprietor to "push" his sales to the uttermost.
1 Victorian Alliance Record, October ist, 1902.
- Miscellaneous Series, 465, 1898.
138 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
In Gothenburg, prior to the introduction
of the Controlling System, a similar condition
of things existed. " Innkeepers and publicans,
who made a living by selling liquors, and paid
a heavy fee to the authorities for their
licences, naturally had an obvious interest in
obtaining as large a sale as possible for their
own benefit. For this purpose it was a
common practice among them to sell on credit,
the consequence being that the workman, after
settling his debt to the publican, had often
nothing left of his weekly wages to supply
his own wants and those of his family. Being
refused credit, the drunkard had recourse to
the pawnbroker, and many a workman took
his. most necessary articles of furniture to the
publican, who thus not unfrequently made
an unreasonable profit in the pawnbroker's
business as well." ^
But perhaps the most glaring illustration
of the extent to which the pushing of sales
may be carried is to be found in connexion
1 The Goteborgs Utskdii finings Ahtiebolag.
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 139
with the working of the Raines Law in New
York. Under this law, in order to sell liquor
on Sunday with impunity, " it was only
necessary to run an establishment having ten
bedrooms, exclusive of those occupied by the
family and servants, and facilities for serving
a sandwich." The law was passed in March,
1896, and by November of that year the
police of New York City reported to a Senate
Committee the existence of 2,378 liquor-selling
"hotels," of which 2,105 were stated to be
the offspring of the law, and the remaining
273 bond-fide hotels. In Brooklyn, the hotel
list had swelled from 13 to 1,474, and in other
cities a similar condition prevailed. ^
In an article on "Sunday Opening by
Statute," contributed to Municipal Affairs
(December, 1901), by William Travers Jerome,
District-Attorney under the present Reform
Administration, it is stated that " there are
2,167 [of these] ' hotels ' in the city of
^ The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects, Second Edition,
1898, p. 369.
I40 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
New York, a very large proportion of which —
probably over 80 per cent. — are nothing but
houses of assignation." This portentous abuse,
which sprang up in a few months, was of
course due to the determination of the
publican to secure the profits of the Sunday
trade.
Illustrations of an aggressive trade policy
ever seeking the extension of business might
be multiplied almost indefinitely.-^ They are,
however, so patent that the fact of the
" pushing of sales " can only be questioned
when a restricted and altogether inadequate
meaning is attached to the phrase.
The following curious extract from Defoe's The Compleat
English Tradesman will show that the pushing of sales is no new
thing :—
" I might enlarge here, and indeed it would very well
take up a whole chapter, to give some particular instructions
to those tradesmen I call public-house keepers, vintners,
victuallers, inn-keepers, and the like ; how they should carry
on their trades like men of business, and perhaps, in the end,
not less to the advantage of their families, without prompting
the pot and the glass, and as the Text calls it, putting the
bottle to their neighbour's nose, in a gross and scandalous
manner, as is generally the practice; making themselves
brokers to the Devil and tempters to vice, merely for getting
two-pence or three-pence, or perhaps six-pence extraordinary
spent in their house ; I think I need not explain myself, the
ordinary practice of those people, and the custom of their
houses (those tabernacles of Bacchus) describe it too plainly."
— 2nd ed. (1725), vol. 2, part 2, p. 95.
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 141
The full force of the contrast between
the methods of private licence and those of
Company control is illustrated by the action
of the Directors of the Christiansand^ Samlag.
"When, early in 1874, it was discovered that
the sales for 1873 exceeded those of the
previous year, additional measures were at
once adopted by the Society for checking
the sale of spirits. Stringent orders for the
further restriction of sales were at once issued
to the bar managers, and a request was also
made for the services of a special liquor
officer, to be paid by the Company. As a
consequence of these efforts the consumption
for 1874 showed a marked diminution, not-
withstanding the unusual prosperity of the
working classes. Moreover, not content
with the gradual progress it was making,
the Company engaged the services of a
representative of the Society of Home
Missions to do temperance work in various
parts of the city. Aid was also promised
■^ Town in Norway. Population in 1900 — 14,666.
142 THE PUSHING OF SALES.
for the establishment of coffee houses specially
adapted to meet the wants of day labourers,
where only temperance drinks would be sold.
Again, in their report for 1882, the directors
state that, in spite of stringent times and
lower wages, and the stricter rules governing
the spirit shops, the bar trade had not
diminished to the extent expected, although,
from the figures given, a considerable reduc-
tion seems to have taken place. In order to
ascertain the reason for this, several meetings
were held with the managers, a list was
made of the regular customers, and the
quantity of liquor bought by the latter noted.
It was found that many men of the working
classes squandered a large portion of their
wages in drink. The directors at once took
steps to prevent this. Smaller dram glasses
were ordered, and the rule made that only
one dram once in three hours must be served
to each person. . . and all sale of liquor was
prohibited to persons known to depend in part
or wholly on charity, or who neglected their
THE PUSHING OF SALES. 143
families in any way. It is stated that these
orders not only proved effective, but were
even hailed with approbation by the customers
themselves. The fear that the severe rules
now governing the bar trade would lead to
larger sales at retail, and thus foster home
drinking, was not realized." ^
Is it possible to conceive that ordinary-
publicans, acting under the stimulus of private
gain, would adopt similar measures ?
'^ Report of the Massachusetts State Commissioners, p. 98.
CHAPTER VII.
Is the Controlling System in Scandinavia a
Progressive or a Retrograde Movement ?
THE belief has been expressed by
Mr. Walker that the Scandinavian
movement is retrogressive. His conclusion
is summed up in the following passage : —
"Apart from the significant trend of indirect
data like pauperism, the general tenor of the
statistics and facts we have considered leads to
the conclusion that since 1855 there has been
an improvement in the sobriety of the country
[Sweden]; but after the system became general
the impetus of the former improvement gradual!)^
sloived down, until the last decade, when there
has been a return towards the former state of
degradation. Its supporters continue to base
their arguments in great measure upon the
undoubted improvement since the old days, but
are blind to the present retrograde movement.
That the movement is retrograde, the arrests
for drunkenness, the consumption of spirits.
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 145
and the other data we have mentioned, all
go to show. The most that can be claimed
for the system is, that it has rendered the
public-house so unpopular as to divert part
of its trade to other channels."
Now there is ample evidence that this
conclusion is erroneous, and that in both
Sweden and Norway the movement is
distinctly progressive. Apart from detailed
evidence which we shall shortly give, the
attitude of the Temperance party and of
others concerned for the moral progress of
the people towards the system, decisively
shows that they regard it as a valuable
Temperance agency. On no other hypothesis
can one account for the action of the
Bishop and Dean of Gothenburg and of
the local clergymen in petitioning, in i8g8,
the Royal Governor of the Province that
beer, equally with spirits, should come under
the control of the Gothenburg Company.
Evidence yet more recent of the attitude of
the Temperance party in Sweden towards the
system is also forthcoming. In January, 1902,
146 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
the Swedish Temperance Society invited the
organised Temperance workers, the Good
Templars, the Blue Ribbon and other
Associations, to a Conference at Stockholm.
The chief discussion was upon co-operation
in the work of reforming the laws relating
to the production and sale of malt liquors.
The resolutions of this Conference were unani-
mously passed, and among these was one in
favour of placing malt liquors under the same
control as spirits, i.e., under the restrictions of
the Gothenburg System.
In Norway, the great Act of July 24th,
1894, was drawn up by Mr. Aarrestad,
leader of the Temperance party in the
Storthing and in the country, in association
with Mr. Berner, a prominent and influential
member of the Temperance party, and Mr.
Jensen, Chief Clerk in the Department of
the Interior. This Act provides that in towns
all trade in spirits, other than wholesale,
whether on or off the premises, must be
put under the control of the Samlags.
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 147
Four years later Mr. Aarrestad drew up
the Minority Report of a Committee of the
Storthing, bearing date March ist, 1898, in
which he said : — " On the whole, it must
be said that all trade with intoxicating
drinks is fit for monopolising. This is valid
equally with the wine trade as with the
brandy trade, and it holds good also as to the
beer trade — at least as to the stronger beer.'' It
is impossible to believe that the Temperance
organisations and the Temperance leaders in
Sweden and Norway would thus urge that
beer should be brought under company
control if the movement was one that
had " gradually slowed down until " in the
last decade there had been " a return towards
the former state of degradation." Since Mr.
Walker's book was published we have very
closely tested this question of the alleged
deterioration of the system. As the readers
of The Temperance Problem and Social Reform
will be aware, we there expressed our sense
of the dangerous character of the provision
148 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
which exists in Sweden for the appropriation
of the surplus profits of the Bolags to the
rehef of local rates. It is a remarkable
proof of the inherent strength of the
controlling system that, notwithstanding the
serious defect in its constitution as carried
out in Sweden, the temperance purpose of
the Company movement is so generally kept
in view in that country.
In the years immediately following the
formation of the Company in Gothenburg
(1865-1873), it is probable that the business
side of the experiment held too large a
place in its management, but from 1874, when
some change was made in the directorate
of the Company, its temperance aims have
been kept steadily in view. Dr. Wieselgren,
in speaking of his own experience as a
director of the Gothenburg Company (a
position in which he rendered signal service),
says : " By far the greatest difficulty was
that of finding the true course between the
Scylla of bar-drinking and the Charybdis of
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 149
tippling in the homes." English critics,
in judging of the policy of the Controlling
Companies, hardly give sufficient place to
this thought. The progressive action of the
Gothenburg Company in recent years is a
thoroughly satisfactory record. Not only has
there been a steady reduction in the number
of public-houses, and efficient maintenance of
other restrictive agencies, but quite recently
an effort has been made to convert the
public-houses more and more into restaurants
for the working classes. The Bolag, as
already stated, has decided that during the
dinner hour (between twelve and two p.m.)
all sale of branvin shall cease at these
houses except when taken as an appetiser
with meals. The Report of the Company
for the year ended September 30th, 1902,
states that 2,216,995 portions of food
had been sold in the year. "Since 1883,
the Bolag has opened [free] reading-rooms^
' These rooms are altogether distinct from the excellent free
library of Gothenburg.
I50 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
in different parts of the town, which offer a
refuge to the working man, or to anyone
who, wishing to avoid the public-house, but
being in want of a home, does not know
where to spend his leisure hours in the
evening. At these places coffee, tea, milk,
chocolate, non-alcoholic drinks, sandwiches
and other light refreshments are supplied,
but neither beer nor spirits of any kind.
They are also provided with a goodly
selection of books and newspapers, as well
as with materials for letter-writing. Young
workmen, especially those excluded from the
public-houses by the rules of the Bolag,
have found these reading-rooms to be an
excellent substitute." The number of visitors
to these rooms has risen from 198,780 in
1897-98 to 456,314 in 1902. At the same
time the number of the reading-rooms has
been increased from three to seven. The
loss upon these reading-rooms, which is borne
by the town authorities, is 26,000 kronor
(/^i,444) per annum.
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 151
In a further passage (page 60), Mr. Walker
says that the Gothenburg System seems to
have been managed in its early years " without
any hint of corruption or peculation, for we
find that, among the voluminous evidence on
the subject in the ' Reports of the House of
Lords Commission on Intemperance ' in 1877,
there is no mention of any complaint on this
head. Since then, however, many companies
have fallen from their original ideals, and an
unpleasant feature is that this tendency is
most noticeable in those formed in recent
years. Let us give some examples."
The following are among the examples
which Mr. Walker gives : —
I. — Of the ninety-two Swedish Bolags, fourteen
remain "Bolags" only in name, and are
practically private concerns with three share-
holders each ; eight had, in 1893, only two,
one of them having on its list of shareholders
only the actual licensee and his barman.
2. — Such companies had often neither directors,
auditors, nor meetings, and therefore, in spite
of all the machinery of the " Bolag," there
existed no checks upon the expenditure of
the profits, and the licence was practically
152 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
conducted as a private venture, devoting an
unknown and probably small portion of its
drawings to the public funds.
3. — A similar result follows the farming out of
public-houses by the companies. Forty-five
companies work on this principle.
4. — Thirty-four companies have not retained a
single licence in their own hands.
We shall deal with these assertions directly.
Meantime we may remark that the question
under consideration is not whether there
have been abuses in the past, some of which
still exist, but whether on the whole the
Controlling System in Scandinavia is a
progressive or a retrograde movement. In
The Temperance Problem and Social Reform
(1899), attention was directed to the
existence of abuses in the case of some
companies. Nevertheless Mr. Walker
writes : — " Messrs. Rowntree and Sherwell
were in Sweden in 1898; yet this Act [i.e.,
the Act of May 24th, 1895] seems to have
altogether escaped their notice, and in their
book we have not a hint of the abuses
which made it necessary, and which were
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 153
exposed by Baron Bonde in the debate in
the Diet."
This statement is characteristic of tlie
careless haste with which Mr. Walker wrote.
In every edition of The Temperance Problem
mid Social Reform,^ pointed attention has been
directed to these abuses and to the law
of May 24, 1895.
The condition of things which Mr. Walker
describes was that which existed prior to this
law of May 24th, 1895, and the material he
uses is that which was collected in connexion
with the official inquiry which preceded the
legislation of that year. How great is the
improvement that has taken place since that
time will be presently shown ; but it may be
well in the first place to give some detail of
the one hundred Swedish companies existing
in 1901.
These companies are of two classes, which
are called respectively Share Companies and
1 See pages 290-292 editions i to 6.
,, 468-470 ,, 7 to 9.
„ 114-115 6d. edition.
154 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
Private Companies. Of the former there are
thirty, and of the latter there are seventy.
With respect to the differences in adminis-
tration between the two classes of company,
Dr. Wieselgren, in a letter to the present
writers dated October 28th, 1902, writes : —
" In the Share Bolag each shareholder
is responsible only to the extent of his own
contribution to the capital stock ; in the
Private Bolag every partner is responsible
for the engagements of the Bolag, not only
to the extent of his contributions, but with
his private means. The partner in a Private
Bolag must consequently run greater risk
than a shareholder in a Share Company.
But the fact that a Bolag may be single
or joint is of no importance with regard to
the manner of conducting the business — both
of them can do it well, both of them can
do it badly. Mr. Walker is greatly mistaken
in thinking that the Private Bolags are a
recent feature marking the growing degradation
of the Company System. The Private Bolags
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 155
have always been the majority, both sorts
exist under the same law, and what Mr.
Walker says concerning their devoting an
unknown and probably a small portion of
their profits to the public funds is very
unreasonable, as they must use the same
form in their account books as the Share
Bolags, and their accounts are also subject
to the same official inspection."
Now if the question were asked whether
private bolags were the ideal form of the
Company System, an answer in the negative
would doubtless be given, ^ but the point is
whether the Company System is on the whole
progressive or retrograde. Now what are the
facts ? Mr. Walker, evidently referring to
conditions which obtained before 1895, says,
" Thirty-four companies have not retained
a single licence in their own hands." In
igoi this condition of things no longer existed.
In that year ninety-six of the hundred Swedish
companies had licences for an "off" trade,
i In Norway all the Samlags are Share Companies.
156 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
and of this number only three companies
transferred the whole of their licences ; while
of the ninety-nine Bolags which had licences
for an "on" trade, only five transferred the
whole of their licences.
Again, Mr. Walker states that, in 1893,
fourteen companies had only three share-
holders, and eight only two. In 1901, however,
out of the entire body of seventy private
companies there was not one which had fewer
than nine shareholders}
Mr. Walker further states that such
companies had often neither directors, auditors,
nor meetmgs. In igoi, however, of the seventy
private companies, one had two directors,
forty had three, fifteen had four, thirteen had
^ The number of shareholders in each of the seventy private
companies was as follows : —
1 had 57 shareholders.
43
34
25
20
16
3 .. 15
5 .. M
1 ,, 13
„ 12
5
6
35
70
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 157
fifteen, while of the remaining one we have
no return.
It is manifest, then, that in regard to
these points which Mr. Walker selects as
evidence of the companies having " fallen
from their original ideals," there has been
in every particular a marked advance in recent
years.
We have no desire to minimise that
defect in the Swedish system which sanctions
the appropriation of so large a portion of
the Bolag profits to the relief of rates, and
we think the Swedish Temperance Union
does good service in calling attention to such
abuses as still exist. It should, however, be
remembered that what are spoken of
as " abuses " are often nothing more than
the ordinary methods of private traders.
Thus the Swedish Temperance Union names,
among other abuses, the case of four small
places (each with a population of less than
3,000) in which the Company's manager is paid
either in part or altogether by a commission
158 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
upon sales. In a recent petition to the King,
the Swedish Temperance Union points to a
much-needed reform, urging that the Public
Controller should be invested with the right
to take legal action and to revoke the licences
of companies which do not fully carry out
the provisions of the law of May 24th, 1895.
Another assertion of Mr. Walker's is that
in Sweden Sunday closing is not so prevalent
as formerly, and that the Bolags have been
the means of opening the public-houses on
Sundays. On inquiry we can find no
ground for this statement. On the contrary,
Mr. Andree, the general manager of the
Gothenburg Bolag, writes (July, 1902) : —
** Sunday closing is more prevalent here than
before." All the shops for "off" sale are
closed by statutory law throughout the whole
of Sunday, and of the ninety-nine Bolags
which conduct an " on " sale, at least sixty-
six do not open their houses at all on
Sunday; of four we have no report, while
twenty-nine are only open during certain
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 159
hours of the day.-^ Mr. Walker makes a
general charge against the Swedish system
in the following sentence : — *' In America, the
promoters never pretended to have very lofty
ideas of morality,^ but the tendency to
corruption and peculation on the part of all
concerned is as pronounced as in Sweden."
After a laborious and detailed examination
of the question, we are in a position to state
that this general charge of corruption and
peculation against those who conduct the
system in Sweden is without foundation.
Mr. Walker has drawn his illustrations
of defective Company management almost
1 The clauses of the Act of May 24th, 1895, dealing with
Sunday closing, are as follows : —
■' On Sundays and holidays the sale of brandy over
the bar shall generally be limited to the meal times, and
brandy shall be served only to guests ordering food.
"When special circumstances call for the extension
or limitation of the time of selling brandy over the bar, the
governor shall make the necessary provisions in this
respect, after having received a statement from the Local
Government Board and having consulted with the magistracy
or the Board mentioned.
" During divine service the bar trade places shall always
be closed."
In Norway the public-houses are closed at i p.m. on Saturday,
and do not re-open until 8 a.m. on Monday.
2 We have already pointed out that the Gothenburg System
does not exist in America.
i6o COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
entirely from Sweden. Although the purity
and efficiency of administration in that
country is advancing, there can be no doubt
that the Norwegian system forms a better
model for imitation than the Swedish. As
has often been pointed out, the Company
System was introduced into Norway some
years after its establishment in Sweden.
Norway had the great advantage of availing
itself of the experience of Sweden, and of
thus avoiding some of the mistakes which
had been made in that country. From the
first, the Company System in Norway was
put under effective Government control. The
appropriation of the profits was determined
by statutory law, and the bye-laws of the
companies have to receive the sanction
of the Government. The Act of May 3rd,
1871, authorising the introduction of the
Company System into Norvv^ay, provides that
"the right of retailing ardent spirits may also
be granted to societies which bind themselves
to apply the possible profit of their trading
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. i6i
in aid of objects of general public benefit
and utility ; and whose articles of incorporation
are confirmed by a resolution of the magistracy
and municipal council, and are sanctioned under
the royal seal.^'^ For forgetfulness of public
weal or for any breach of trust, the governor
has the right to withdraw the licence
privileges without compensation. Approval of
the bye-laws also being "only for the
present," the Government may at any time
bring a faithless company to a change in
policy simply by threatening it with extinction.
The control is strict, and one company has
been so treated. More frequent necessity
has not arisen.^
It needs no minute examination to see
that in Norway the company movement has
been a progressive one. We have already
directed attention to the fact that the law
of July 24th, 1894, was drafted by the
Temperance leaders of the country, and gave
' Local Option in Norway, by Thomas M. Wilson, page 12.
'^Popular Control of the Liquor Traffic, by Dr. Gould, page 8.
i62 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
expression to its temperance sentiment. The
advanced Temperance party held that if the
sale of spirits was to continue at all, it
was better that it should be under the
control of the Samlags than that it should
be free ; and hence it was desired to
narrow the alternatives to a choice between
the Samlags and Prohibition.^
In drafting and securing the passing of this
Act, the Temperance party, after an experi-
ence of the working of the Company System
extending over eighteen years, emphatically
set their seal upon it as the system under
which they desired that the sale should
be carried on. Their efforts to place beer
under company control still further emphasized
their attitude towards the Company System.
English reformers have been fearful that
if the profits of the trade were taken out
1 Certainly no complaint can be made that the recent temperance
policy of Norway has not been sufl&ciently advanced. If anything,
it has moved too quickly. The opportunity of choosing between
the Samlag and Prohibition given by the Act of July 24th, 1894,
was made use of by each of the fifty-one Samlag towns, with the
result shown in the Appendix (sec p. 268).
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 163
of private hands, the path to more advanced
Temperance legislation might be barred. If
the profits of the trade were, as in Sweden,
appropriated to the relief of rates, this
might be the case ; but in Norway, where
the profits are appropriated chiefly to a
National Fund, and, for the rest, to objects
of public utility not supported by the rates,
no difficulty of the kind has been felt. The
result, indeed, has been of an altogether
opposite character.
The question may be asked : How is it
that Norway has been able to pass such an
Act as that of July, 1894, an Act so far in
advance of anything that has been possible
in any other European country ? The answer
obviously is, that public opinion in Norway
was able to exert itself freely, and was not
hindered by public-house influence, the
distillers having no places of retail sale
through which they could influence the
electorate. At the risk of labouring a point
unduly, the explanation may be again given
i64 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
that the reason why a similar law has not
been passed with regard to beer, is because
the retail sale of beer is in private hands,
and the brewer can influence the electorate
through the very numerous beer-shops in the
country.
As is well known, one section of the
Norwegian Act of July, 1894, assigned
sixty-five per cent, of the profits of the
controlling companies to the State. The
Temperance party recognised the danger
that lurked in the appropriation of large
profits locally earned to local objects
of public utility, and wisely secured the
diversion of a large portion of the profits to
the State. ^ In view of the benefits which the
localities had received, it could not have been
a matter of much surprise if this proposal
had been seriously contested, but that such
was not the case is a further illustration
^ In the practical proposals made by the present writers, in
the last chapter of The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, the
danger of the locality acquiring an interest in the maintenance
or extension of the traffic is effectually guarded against. It is provided
that after allowing for the grants for counteracting agencies, which
are to be determined by population and not by profits earned,
the whole balance shall go to the State.
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 165
of the extent to which Temperance sentiment
had flourished and acquired power under the
Company System.
Mr. Walker tries to make out a case against
the Company System in Norway by the
following quotation from the report made
in 1893 by Mr. Michell, the British Consul-
General in Norway : —
"As a matter of fact, the original purpose
of applying all profits to philanthropic purposes
has been more and more departed from during
the last fifteen years, within which several
towns have made contributions out of gains
on the sale of spirits towards the construction
of waterworks, public schools, and even of
railwa3'S."
This now discredited report was
completely refuted at the time. It was
discussed by the Norwegian Storthing on
the 17th July, 1893, and a resolution was
adopted nem. con. characterising Mr. Michell's
reports "as calculated to convey false impres-
sions abroad."
Moreover, at the request of the Home
Department of Norway, Mr. H. E. Berner, of
Christiania, who is regarded as the highest
i66 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
living authority upon the Company System
in Norway, wrote a full refutation of Mr.
Michell's charges, which was forwarded by
the Norwegian Government to our own
Foreign Office.
" Twenty-two of the most experienced
British subjects residing in Norway, the
average length of their residence being sixteen
and a half years, also took independent steps
to make Her Majesty's Government acquainted
with the character of the Report that had
been issued under the imprimatur of the
British Foreign Office. These gentlemen
addressed a memorial to Her Majesty's
principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, in which they characterised Mr.
Michell's Report as ' entirely misleading and
inconsistent with the truth respecting the
system in question,' and they humbly prayed
that the Report be withdrawn from circulation
on account of its incorrect and misleading
character. That memorial was accompanied
by the testimonies of twenty-seven British
COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE. 167
Vice-Consuls in Norway upon the working
of the Gothenburg System in the local areas
under their observation. Those testimonies
were all of a favourable character." ^
Mr. Michell appears to have been curiously
ignorant of the facts about which he wrote.
It is quite incorrect to say that the original
purpose was to apply all profits to philanthropic
purposes. The law of 1871, under which the
Companies were established, expressly provided
that the net profits of the Samlags should be
devoted to objects of public utility, and this
was interpreted as referring to objects which
the municipality is not, by law, already
obliged to support. The statement that the
Samlags made contributions out of the gains
on the sales of spirits towards the construction
of railways is misleading. The very simple
explanation was given by Mr. Thomas Wilson,
of Bergen, in these terms : —
" The railways of Norway are State
property and are constructed with Government
1 Quoted from a Memorandum forwarded to one of the
present writers in 1894 by Mr. Thomas M. Wilson, of Bergen.
i68 COMPANY SYSTEM PROGRESSIVE.
funds in conjunction with local shareholders,
who have, however, no voice in the affairs
of the railway. As a condition for making
a local railway line the State requires that
the local public bodies, and wealthy residents
of the districts through which the line is to
pass, shall subscribe for a certain minimum
amount of the railway's stock. The local
savings banks and other public bodies,
including the controlling societies, have, in
the cases spoken of, subscribed as share-
holders for stock so as to comply with the
Government condition and ensure the con-
struction of the desired railways ; but the
controlling societies' investments are temporary
only, and the societies may realise and sell
out their stock when desired and apply the
amount to * general useful purposes ' at any
time. The sum invested in the railway stocks
is simply a deferred application of profits,
but which temporarily serves a ' general
useful purpose,' and will eventually be
applied as a donation to some other * general
useful purpose,' like all other profits."
CHAPTER VIII.
The Evidence of Foreign Observers upon the
Working of the Company System in
Scandinavia.
IT has been urged^ that in Sweden the
local authorities are naturally in favour
of a system which contributes so largely to
the municipal purse, and that some discount
should be taken from the opinions they
express in favour of the Company System.
The caution is one to which an investigator
upon the spot would no doubt give due
place. No one, however, who had enjoyed
the advantage of a free conversation with
the Chief of the Police in Gothenburg upon
the working of the Controlling System in that
city could, we believe, come away from the
interview with any other conviction than that
of having heard the honest and disinterested
1 Walker — The Commonwealth as Publican, pp. 32-3.
lyo FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
opinion of the speaker. Mr. Walker urges^
the further objection that " The evidence
of foreign observers who seem to have
a special brief for the Company must
also be accepted with reserve, but it is
interesting to note that both in Sweden,
Norway and Finland, impartial travellers who
write for the information of the general
reader, seldom express a high opinion of the
' Bolag ' as a reforming agency." Now if the
facts were as stated in this passage, they
ought to weigh with English readers, but the
evidence is directly contrary to Mr. Walker's
statement.
The evidence of Mr. Chamberlain, strongly
in favour of the system, has been so often
quoted that it need not be repeated here.
It will be found in the introduction which
he wrote in 1894 to Dr. Gould's book,
Popular Control of the Liquor Traffic."^
Mr. Chamberlain's view is that of a
i/6irf, p. 34.
^Cassell & Co., Limited. Price i/-
FOREIGN OBSERVERS. 171
keen-sighted observer, familiar with the
municipal Hfe of his own city. The system
has, however, been the subject of a most
systematic and thorough inquiry, made at the
instance of the Government of the United
States. The Fifth Special Report of the
Commissioner of Labour, Washington, was
devoted to the Gothenburg System of Liquor
Traffic. The report was prepared under the
direction of the Hon. Carroll D. Wright,
Commissioner of Labour, by E. R. L. Gould,
Ph.D. Mr. Carroll D. Wright, in forwarding
the report to the President, sent along with
it a "letter of transmittal," dated March,
1893, from which the following extracts may
be given : —
"The following pages represent a careful
investigation into the working of the so-called
Gothenburg System. . . . The figures have
been uniformly drawn from official sources,
while the remainder of the information has
been taken only from those universally
recognised as possessing the best means of
172 FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
understanding the system, and, indeed, those
whose authority is considered quite unim-
peachable. Even in such cases no individual
ipse dixit has been accepted without a
verification from official material where that
was possible, or, where it was not possible,
by comparison with other authorities. Every
effort was made to learn the views of parties
of all shades of opinion, and whether in
consultation with directors or employees of
brandy companies, with public officials, with
temperance leaders, or with those opposed to
the principles of the system, the most
courteous assistance was uniformly rendered.
. . , . Mr. John Koren, of Boston,
Massachusetts, who is thoroughly familiar
with the Scandinavian languages, has rendered
Dr. Gould most valuable assistance in the
preparation of this report."
Dr. Gould's report occupies 253 pages.
What the result of the inquiry was upon his
own mind can be best given in his own words.^
1 Preface to Popular Control of the Liquor Traffic, pp. xi., xii.
FOREIGN OBSERVERS. 173
" I went there absolutely without prejudice
of any sort ; I came away a convert to the
system. The testimony of facts and the
object-lessons afforded on every hand were
so conclusive that I could not help feeling
that the Scandinavian method is the only
really practical means of dealing with the
liquor evil in this generation. This opinion
is fortified by knowledge and observation of
other systems, gained from nearly five years'
experience as an investigator of social
problems in Great Britain and on the
continent of Europe. It is far in advance,
too, of any method which has been tried in
the United States. I do not regard the
Scandinavian plan as perfect, but I do
believe it to contain the ' promise and the
potency ' of higher things. It is a measure
of progressive reform, sound in principle,
operating harmoniously with w^ell-defined laws
of social advance, and is easily adaptable
to English and American conditions. Its
trial will do more than anything else yet
174 FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
suggested to mitigate an intolerable social
curse."
The investigation made by Dr. Gould was
supplemented in 1894 by one made at the
instigation of the State Legislature of
Massachusetts, and conducted by Mr. John
Koren. The Commissioners, in forwarding
Mr. Koren's report (extending over 180 pages)
to the Senate and House of Representatives
of Massachusetts, wrote as follows : —
*' The Commission appointed by His
Excellency the Governor, under chapter 86
of the Resolves of 1893, to investigate the
Gothenburg and Norwegian systems of
licensing the sale of intoxicating liquors, beg
leave to submit the following report : —
"Three separate investigations have been
made in Norway and Sweden, one by Dr.
E. R. L. Gould, of the Department of Labour
at Washington, embodied in an elaborate
report of 253 pages, and issued in 1893 under
the direction of Carroll D. Wright. A second
FOREIGN OBSERVERS. 175
investigation was made in 1893 by one
member of the Commission. As certain
difficulties yet remained as to the consumption
of liquors and the relation in several
particulars of the Norwegian to the Swedish
system, Mr. John Koren was sent by the
Commission to make a final thorough study
of the question both in Sweden and Norway.
Mr. Koren is a trained statistician, familiar
with the Scandinavian languages, and was
already prepared for such investigation by an
intimate knowledge of the system in both
countries. The extended account of the
system which follows is the result of Mr.
Koren's careful research. Every special
difficulty suggested by previous studies was
given to Mr. Koren, in order that he might,
upon the spot and with the help of the
officials, get every explanation of such
difficulties that the authorities could give.
All important data up to the year 1893 are
here presented."
176 FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
The Commissioners conclude their message
with the words : —
" Finally, the Commission, after its
investigation, may be allowed to express the
confident conviction that the evidence for
this system, if fairly weighed, abundantly
justifies in this Commonwealth such experi-
ment under the Norwegian method as might
be tried with entire safety under a permissive
bill."
Mr. Koren himself formed an opinion of
the Controlling System fully as favourable as
that which had been formed by Dr. Gould.
The foregoing evidence may be supple-
mented by the testimony of Mr. T. M.
Conradi, Norwegian Vice-Consul at Newcastle-
on-Tyne. Speaking at the Durham Diocesan
Conference of the Church of England
Temperance Society at Stockton, he said : —
"When I left my own native town,
Christiansand, some thirty years ago, it had
a bad reputation for drunkenness and
rowdyism. Christiansand is a seaport town
FOREIGN OBSERVERS. 177
in the south of Norway, with an excellent
harbour, which is much used by vessels
going to or coming from the Baltic. It is,
therefore, a town often full of foreign sailors,
of boatmen, porters, and hangers-on. The
boatmen in Christiansand had in particular
a bad name all over Norway — at all times
ready to support their arguments or presumed
rights with their fists, and were a terror to
peaceful travellers. In those days brawls
were not infrequent, and a drunken person
was a daily sight. Beggars were to be seen
in the streets, dirty and sickly-looking, with
disease and poverty stamped upon their
person. I have visited my native town almost
every year since the new licensing system
was introduced, and I have been particularly
struck by the rapid change for good which
has been brought about. The old topers
have died out, and a new generation of sober
people have sprung up under precepts and
teachings which their fathers did not enjoy.
As the moral tone improved, so did manliness
178 FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
and self-respect. No ragged child is now
seen in the streets, and the last beggar I saw
was a sickly remnant of bygone days."^
Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Bergen, cannot
be classed as a " foreign observer," as before
his death he had resided in Norway for
more than thirty years. He was, however,
British born, and had had a University
education in this country. His study of the
Norwegian System was of a singularly
thorough and searching character, and his
pamphlet entitled Local Option in Norway is
1 Mr. Walker, however, writes (p. 34) : — " As regards Norway,
the last Consular report on the subject — by Vice-Consul Franklin,
in 1897— describes the drunkenness caused in the outlying districts
both by the ' Samlag ' and the prohibitive laws in no measured
terms, and concludes : ' I take the liberty of reiterating what I have
previously written, that it is my opinion that British legislators
would be ill-advised if they attempted to introduce the ' Bolag '
system in England.' "
One of the present writers visited Mr. Franklin, at Porsgrund, on
June 23rd, 1898. In the course of conversation Mr. Franklin said: —
"There can be no question that for Norway it [the Company System]
was a good thing, and much better than private licence." This
is the opinion of a man who had been nearly thirty years in Norway.
Mr. Franklin's objection to the introduction of the Company System
into England seemed to be based partly on doubts as to its practicability
owing to the larger populations, and also because he anticipated
difficulty in connexion with the distribution of profits. When,
however, the proposals for the appropriation of profits, afterwards
embodied in The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, were explained
to him, he expressed approval of them, and said that they fully met
his objection.
FOREIGN OBSERVERS. 179
a classic from which almost all writers upon
the system have drawn. His opinion may
be quoted as the deliberate pronouncement
of a competent observer who at first was
opposed to the introduction of the Company
System, owing to fears which he tells us were
subsequently dispelled by close observation
of the Society's operations. Summing up,
nearly twenty years later, the result of his
investigations, he says : —
"In an English work before us the author
says, speaking of Bergen, * we did not see
a single drunken person, a single beggar, or
anyone in rags.' He had not such an
intimate experience of Bergen as we have,
or he would have qualified his statement a
little ; but still there is a world of truth in
what he has said in the words quoted. There
is, really, not a tithe of the wretchedness,
squalid misery and poverty, drunkenness and
beggary, so prevalent in English towns of
similar size. That the difference is due, to
no small extent, to the fact that in Bergen
i8o FOREIGN OBSERVERS.
the sale of ardent spirits is strictly controlled,
while in the English towns it is not, is
indubitable ; and it is a fact that quickly
impresses itself on the minds of those who
know the peoples and circumstances of both
countries intimately."
A few years before his death, Mr. Wilson
addressed direct inquiries to a number of
the most representative men in Bergen,
including, among others, the Governor of
the Province, the Mayor of Bergen, Members
of Parliament, the Chief of the Police, the
British, French, German, and American
Consuls, the Bishop and Clergy of the
City, etc., inviting their opinion upon the
results of the Controlling system in that
city. To these inquiries he received in reply
a remarkable series of letters, almost the
whole of them favourable to the Controlling
system.^
1 In a pamphlet entitled What I saw of the Gothenburg System in
Bergen, published in 1894, the writer (Rev. Henry B. Blogg, M.A.)
calls attention to the fact that "no less than twenty-two British
Vice-Consuls in Sweden, and twenty-eight in Norway, have from
their official knowledge reported most favourably on the Gothenburg
System."
CHAPTER IX.
The Company System in Scandinavia and
the Public^House Trust Company System
in Great Britain : A Comparison of the
Conditions under which each is carried on.
WE hope that what has already been
written will have prepared the
way for an appreciation of the broad and
fundamental differences between the Company
System as carried out in Scandinavia
(especially in Norway) and the Public-House
Trust Companies of this country. A
comparison between the conditions under
which the two systems are conducted will
show the enormous disadvantages under
which the latter labour.
Limitations of the Public-House
Trust Movement.
It is necessary that these should be known,
as the belief exists in some quarters that the
Public-House Trust movement will, of itself,
i82 COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS.
and without the aid of further legislation, go far
to solve the drink problem in this country.
This is certainly not the case. On the
contrary, the sphere of the Public-House Trust
Companies must be exceedingly restricted
unless they purchase licensed properties upon
a considerable scale, and such purchases can
only be made upon the basis of monopoly
profits. Companies launching out upon a
policy of this kind would soon cease to be
forces working for temperance. They would
come to dread any reduction in sales or
any legislation which would imperil their
monopoly or lessen the value of the licensed
premises which they had bought. Even the
limited number of houses which the Trust
Companies may acquire in new districts
will be carried on under conditions of
such difficulty as to make any decisive
success in connexion with them well nigh
impossible. This will be seen at once when
it is remembered that without a monopoly
of the licences of a district it is impossible
COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS. 183
to apply effectively either the restrictive
or the constructive agencies that work for
temperance. It would be of little use for the
Trust Houses to shorten the hours of sale,
to raise the age at which young persons
might be served, to refuse credit, to employ
no female bar-tenders, to dispense with
all adventitious attractions, if, in the near
neighbourhood, other licensed houses existed
in which none of these restrictions were
enforced ; neither could the constructive
agencies be brought into play with any
prospect of important success if such recreative
agencies as were established had to compete
with others associated with the sale of drink.
The Scandinavian experiment demonstrates
no point more clearly than the necessity of
obtaining and retaining a monopoly of the
retail sale of drink in a locality.
The Norwegian System essentially
ONE OF Control.
But these considerations, important as
they are, fail to bring out the essential
i84 COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS.
differences between the two systems. The
Norwegian System is in its very essence a
system of control. The Government and the
people of Norway frankly recognise that the
sale of drink is one that needs to be
controlled. The Company System will not
act as a charm. It will be efficient in so
far as it becomes, in fact as well as in name,
a controlling system ; and in order that this
end may be secured, the Companies are not
left to their own devices, but work under
the joint supervision of the Crown and of
the local authorities. It is in the wise
combination of central control and local
initiative that the singular excellence of the
Norwegian System consists.
John Stuart Mill expressed the opinion
that the reformed English Poor Law is a
happy illustration of the combination of State
action with local action, — the State determining
the principles upon which relief shall be given,
but leaving to the localities the administration
of the Act. A similar illustration is offered
COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS. 185
in the relation of the Central Government
to the Controlling Companies in Norway.
The management of these Companies is
not a matter which any citizens destitute
of experience, however honest and well-
intentioned, can undertake without guidance.
The results of a wide experience have been
garnered by the State, and the State wisely
refuses, in a matter where such great interests
are at stake, to permit crude and immature
experiments. At the same time it does not
enforce any cast-iron system ; so long as
certain broad lines of action which experience
has found to be essential to success are
adhered to, the Companies are left free from
harassing interference.
Leaving for a moment these general
principles, let us consider what happens in
Norway when a town wishes to establish the
Company System. The right of retailing
ardent spirits may only be granted to
societies whose articles of incorporation are
confirmed by a resolution of the magistracy
i86 COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS.
and municipal council, and are sanctioned
under the royal seal. This necessity at
once guards against the introduction of
ill-considered schemes conducted on principles
contrary to those which the State and the
Norwegian people have determined to be
necessary for the conduct of the trade.
Then the appropriation of the profits is
strictly defined by statutory law. Sixty-five
per cent, goes to the Central Government,
and of that portion (viz., twenty per cent.)
which is left to the administration of the
Company, none of it can be applied to objects
for which the nmnicipality itself , under the laws
in force, is responsible. It can only be applied
to objects of " public utility " not chargeable
to the rates. The balance of fifteen per
cent, which goes to the municipality is an
allowance in lieu of the much larger sums
previously derived from the licence tax now
abolished. It is also provided that the
" accounts of the Samlags shall be kept
according to the forms prepared by the
COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS. 187
department concerned, and shall be audited
each year by two auditors, one of whom
shall be elected by the Communal
Administration, the other by the Superior
Authorities." The representatives of the
Crown, of the magistracy, and of the
municipal council are entitled to inspect
the books and accounts of the Samlags at
all times. So thorough is the supervision
that even the choice of a manager for each
place of sale is subject to the approval of
the local magistracy and municipal council.
The association of the Companies with
the municipalities is also worthy of note.
The municipality is the ultimate licensing
authority ; ^ it determines the number of
licences that shall be issued, and (in Bergen)
while one half of the committee of
management is chosen by the shareholders,
the other half is chosen by the municipal
council. This association makes the Companies
responsive to public opinion. The transactions
^ See Appendix, p. 249.
i88 COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS.
of the Company are carried on subject to
full public scrutiny.
The Companies are worked, therefore,
under three powerful safeguards against
abuse : —
I. — There is the safeguard of statutory
law attaching to their constitution,
to their administration, and to the
general appropriation of their profits.
2. — There is the safeguard of supervision
by the licensing authority.
3. — There is the safeguard which attaches
to affairs carried on directly under
the public eye, and which are
subject ultimately to public control.
Yet, along with this efficient control there
is much local liberty ; there is a power of
local adaptation of means to ends to a degree
which cannot be predicated of any other
system. The localities are left free to work
out their deliverance from the drink curse by
' methods which they deem the best.
COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS. 189
Norwegian and Public-House Trust
Systems Compared.
Now, compare all this with the conditions
under which the Public-House Trust
Companies of the United Kingdom work.
There is in this country no statutory law
defining and limiting the sphere and character
of a Trust Company's operations. The control
exercised by the State over their articles of
association is similar in character to that
exercised over the articles of association of
a cycle company. The control goes no further,
and has no reference to the special danger
of the drink trade. There is no security
that the policy of a Trust Company will be
responsive to an advancing public opinion ;
nor are the transactions of the Company
conducted directly under the public eye in
the sense in which those of the Norwegian
Samlags are conducted. Over the vital
question of the appropriation of the profits
neither the State nor the local authority
has any control. The books are not kept
igo COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS.
upon a method determined by the State,
nor does the State or any local authority
share in a yearly audit. The central principle
which underlies the Trust Companies, namely,
the elimination of private profit from the sale
of drink, is unquestionably sound ; but its
practical application in the United Kingdom
is hindered by limitations which only legislation
can remove. The high-minded men who
have initiated the Trust movement are indeed
heavily handicapped in their efforts to
introduce, under safe and stable conditions,
a system that shall lessen the evils of
intemperance. They necessarily work under
adverse competitive conditions, the field of
their operations is severely restricted, and
they have not the support of strong statutory
law.
The evidence of Scandinavia is surely
decisive that public control of the liquor traffic,
whether exercised through municipalities or
through controlling companies, should always
be under the direct supervision of the Central
COMPANY SYSTEM AND TRUSTS. 191
Government and only within clearly defined
statutory limits. And especially that the
appropriation of the profits should be
determined by law, and be such that localities
can have no inducement either to stimulate or
to continue the traffic for the sake of the
profit which it yields.
CHAPTER X.
The Possibilities of Company Control
compared with the Possibilities of
Private Licence.
BEFORE bringing the possibilities of
the two systems into comparison, a
preUminary question awaits consideration.
What are the vital facts in connexion with
intemperance with which the social reformer
has to concern himself ? Are they the
number of arrests for drunkenness, or the
statistics of consumption ? This question
cannot be better introduced than by a
consideration of the remarkable results which
have been achieved in Liverpool through
the vigorous enforcement of the existing
licensing laws. The experiment has excited
much attention, and last year (1902) separate
deputations from the magistrates of Glasgow
and of Dundee visited Liverpool for the
PRIVATE LICENCE. 193
purpose of investigating the facts upon the
spot. The printed reports of these two
deputations are full of interest.
The extraordinary reduction in the
number of persons proceeded against for
drunkenness in Liverpool since 1889 will
be seen from the following figures : —
Liverpool.
Y Proceeded against
^^^' for Drunkenness.
1889 16,042
i8go 14,680
1891 11,343
1892 9,005
1893 7^936
1894 5,657
1895 5,305
1896 5,026
1897 5,105
1898 4,339
1899 4,069
1900 4,180
1901 4,327
1902 5,115
Both the present and the late Chief
Constables state that no change has been
194 PRIVATE LICENCE.
made in the tabulation of the arrests for
drunkenness, and that the figures given are
an actual index of the criminal drunkenness
to-day and in recent years, as compared with
an earlier period.
The question will natural^ be asked :
What has been the cause of this great
reduction ? Let us in the first instance see
to what it has not been due. The subjoined
table shows the reduction in the number of
" on " licence houses between 1889 and
1902, and the relation which the " on "
licences bore in each year to the popula-
tion : —
PRIVATE LICENCE.
195
II K!^ .
ided
; for
nne!
00
tion
02<JCSa5G<100r-(aDt>UOOt-lCOa3
¥.^^°-4
ooor^t-oooot^t-osbcbast-
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rHOOOOOt-Hi— It— 11— 10000
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Number
" On "
Beer Hou
XrHr-IU5t>©qC£)C5?OTtlrHtXMQO
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196 PRIVATE LICENCE.
It will be seen that during the years in
which there was the greatest reduction in
the number " proceeded against for drunken-
ness," the ratio of *' on " licences to
population remained practically the same.
Thus in 1889, when the number proceeded
against for drunkenness per 1,000 of the
population was 30, there were 249 persons
to each "on" licence, while in 1892, when
the ratio of those proceeded against for
drunkenness had sunk to 17, there were 250
persons to each *'on" licence. Or, to take
another set of figures, the number proceeded
against for drunkenness per 1,000 of the
population was in 1896 almost the same as
in 1902. In this period, however, the number
of persons to each "on" licence had increased
from 307 to 343. Whatever, then, may have
been the cause of the reduction in the
number of persons proceeded against for
drunkenness, that reduction cannot primarily
have been due to the diminution in the
number of public-houses.
PRIVATE LICENCE.
197
In the valuable pamphlet^ recently published
by Mr. Arthur Chamberlain, tables are given
showing the relation of licences to population
in various towns. From these tables we have
compiled the following, from which it will
be seen that, arranging the towns according
to the fewness of the "on" licences in
relation to population, Liverpool comes fifth
on the list. Its position is neither excep-
tionally good nor exceptionally bad, and we
are again thrown back upon some explanation
other than the ratio of public-houses to
population in attempting to account for
the lessened drunkenness of the city : —
Relation of " On " Licences to Population
IN Various Towns in the Year 1901.
TOWN.
Number of
Public
Houses.
Beer Houses
"On"
(including
Beer ana
Wine "On").
Total
"On"
Licences.
Number of
Inhabitants
to each
"On"
Licence.
Leeds
341
301
272
415
1,777
645
528
468
484
402
160
346
180
232
939
758
565
1.699
743
461
618
595
2,009
1.584
1.286
1.033
2,183
577
524
453
403
342
330
320
319
249
Hull
Bradford
Nottingham
Liverpool
Birmingham
Sheffield
Bristol
Manchester
1 Licensing in the City of Birmingham. Birmingham Surrender
Scheme. By Arthur Chamberlain. Cornish Brothers, Ltd.. 37, New
Street, Birmingham. Price Sixpence.
igS PRIVATE LICENCE.
The sub-committee of the Glasgow
magistrates who visited Liverpool last year
had, however, no difficulty in fastening upon
what they regarded as the true explanation of
the decrease in drunkenness. They say it
" has been largely accounted for, if not
entirely brought about, by : —
" I. — The action of the Watch Committee,
as represented by the police.
" 2. — The action of the licensing magistrates.
** 3. — The action of the general public, as
represented by the Citizens' Vigilance
Committee."
The report adds : — " The action of the
Watch Committee may be summarised as
follows : —
" (a) The very strict supervision of licensed
premises by the police.
*' {b) The rigid enforcement of the licensing
laws.
** (c) The issuing of ' caution notices ' to
licensees whose premises are badly
conducted, although no actual breach
of the licensing laws can be proved.
PRIVATE LICENCE. 199
" (d) The practice of objecting at the annual
licensing sessions to the renewal of
licences of all badly conducted premises."
Detailed information of the methods which
have been adopted for bringing the liquor
trade in Liverpool under effective control
and of the results that have been achieved is
given in two pamphlets — (i) "The Licensing
Problem and Magisterial Discretion,"^ by
Mr. Alfred T. Davies, a work invaluable to
magistrates and others who contemplate
reforms upon the Liverpool lines, and (2) a
useful pamphlet entitled " Licensing Adminis-
tration in Liverpool : Summary of Reforms
(1889-1898)."^ These publications enable us
clearly to see the character of the reforms
carried out by the Liverpool magistrates. The
more important of these reforms will be shortly
noticed, but the point which from the outset
^ Fourth and enlarged edition. The Licensing Laws Information
Bureau, 46, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham, 1903. Price yd. (post
free) .
^ The Licensing Laws Information Bureau. Price 2|d. (post free).
200 PRIVATE LICENCE.
should be kept steadily in mind is that the
leverage by means of which the magistrates have
worked has been the power of withholding
licences. This power, wherever necessary, has
been resolutely exercised.^ Licences have
been refused both on the ground of the houses
" not being required," and on the ground
that they were badly conducted. Many houses
which were unable to command an adequate
trade, except by resorting to irregular practices,
have voluntarily abandoned their licences.
The policy of the magistrates in the years
1 889- 1902 is strikingly shown in the following
table :—
1 It is to be noticed that Liverpool is in a more fortunate position
than some other places (notably Manchester), owing to the fact that
the number of ante-1869 beer-houses, in respect to which the
magistrates have no discretionary power, is small. The magisterial
control is therefore less fettered.
PRIVATE LICENCE.
20I
" On " Licences in Liverpool.
Additions and Reductions, 1889 — 1902.^
Number of "on"
licences, 1889
ADDITIONS.
Number of " on "
licences added at
the extension of the
city in 1895
Ditto ditto, 1902
Number of new "on"
licences granted by
magistrates between
1889 and 1902, both
inclusive
REDUCTIONS.
Number of existing
"on" licences the
renewal of which was
refused by the magis-
trates and which were
accordingly sup-
pressed during the
same period
Number of existing
"on" licences not
re-applied for
Numbe r of "on"
licences in 1902
Full
Licences.
1.859
'On" Beer-House
Licences.
140
21
139
85
234
42
17
Total.
2,093
.. 182
.. 38
6-.
8
2,321
Total.
18 ... 157
33 ... 118 ... 275
1,79s ... 248
... 2,046
1 As a result of the recent Annual Licensing Meeting (1903), the
number of " on " licences has been further reduced by sixty (fifty-one
full and nine beer-house) licences. No new liquor licences of any
kind were granted.
2 Of these six. four were really not new licences but merely a
fresh grant to reconstructed or altered premises to which an existing
beer-house licence (in three cases a.pre-i86g one) was already attached.
202 PRIVATE LICENCE.
The above figures (which are taken from
the Magistrates' Records) show the net
results after the appeals to Quarter Sessions.
It will be seen that in the period
covered by the table only 8 new '*on"
licences have been granted while 157 have
been suppressed, and in the case of 118
other ''on" licences no application for their
renewal was made.-'
In addition to this policy of refusing the
renewal of unnecessary licences and of closing
badly-conducted houses, the licensing justices
have in recent years committed themselves
to a series of stringent administrative reforms,
of which the following are the most important,
and it seems clear that it is to these that we
must chiefly look for the real explanation of
1 "No compensation was, of course, paid to any of these [157]
dispossessed licence-holders as a result of the justices' action. The
brewers and licence-holders in some of the areas covered by the
Liverpool justices' ' reduction-for-non-requirement ' operations during
the last three years may, of course, have arranged to ' pool ' their losses
by a private arrangement amongst themselves, but no details as to this
have been published." The total number of licences (both " off" and
"on") which have ceased to exist in Liverpool during the period
under review is 422.
PRIVATE LICENCE. 203
the remarkable reduction of drunkenness that
has taken place : —
Back Door and Side Entrances. — In its
report of the recent Sessions the Liverpool
Daily Post says that, "In an exceptionally-
large number of cases, licences were only
renewed upon an undertaking being given
to close objectionable back or side door
entrances, or to effect structural alterations in
accordance with the requirements of the
Bench." This is the carrying out of a policy
which was actively commenced in i8go. By
the year i8g8 the justices had effected the
total closing for trade purposes of 377 back
doors.
Music and Dancing Licences. — As a
result of the action of the Bench, the
number of these licences granted to public-
houses or beer-houses, which amounted to
348 in 1 89 1, had been reduced to 35 in 1902.
Serving of Children. — In 1896, the
justices passed a resolution which, as the
Watch Committee promptly agreed to give
204 PRIVATE LICENCE.
it effect, practically constituted a bar to the
continued serving of children below thirteen
years of age. The action of the Liverpool
magistrates was warmly commended by the
Home Secretary as "an example which was
well worthy of being followed."
Conduct of Licensed Houses. — " Promi-
nent among the steps taken by the
licensing justices to effect improvement has
been the putting down, with a firm hand,
of the practice of allowing licensed premises
to be the habitual resort of women of the
town."
In 1889 the number of drunken prostitutes
arrested was 2,009 ; in 1901 the number was
only 634.-^
Removal or Surrender of Licences. —
" The action of the Vigilance Committee
in offering a determined resistance, on every
occasion, to this worst form of the * traffic in
licences ' [i.e., the policy of exacting the
surrender of one or more old licences
1 The Licensing Problem and Magisterial Discretion, p. 49.
PRIVATE LICENCE. 205
for every new one that is granted^] has
practically led to the extinction of the practice
in Liverpool. The suburbs are no longer,
as in times past, made the ' dumping ground '
for the old and moribund licences of over-
supplied districts in the centre of the city,
and the views of the inhabitants of new and
growing districts are now inquired into by
the Bench, instead of being flouted and
disregarded as they too frequently were by
the licensing justices of an earlier, but yet
not remote, period."
Supervision of Licensed Houses. — The
methods employed for the supervision of
licensed houses have been thus described : —
In Liverpool, " for several years prior to
1890, supervision was entrusted to a
special public-house staff told off for the
purpose. The Chief Constable found that it
did not work satisfactorily, and, being aided
by a public agitation, changed it for a new
system, of which the following were the
1 The arguments against this policy are given in the Appendix,
p. 242.
2o6 PRIVATE LICENCE.
chief features : Each superintendent was held
responsible for the good conduct of the
houses in his own division. Every month
he detailed one sergeant and one constable
in plain clothes to visit all the licensed
houses in his division, report fully on them,
and lay informations if necessary. These
special officers were changed every month.
At the same time, the sergeant on each
section was held responsible for the houses
in his own area, and informed that if any
were shown to be irregularly conducted and
had not been previously reported, the fact
would be taken as evidence of his unfitness
for the position. The divisional inspectors
were also instructed to visit all licensed
houses in their divisions, and were held
responsible to the superintendent for seeing
that the inspection of the sergeants was real
and not merely superficial. When a house
was reported to the chief constable, it
became the duty of the superintendent, after
notice had been served on the licensee and the
PRIVATE LICENCE. 207
owner, to take measures to have the premises
regularly watched by special officers."^
The series of reforms outlined in the
above extracts could not have been carried
out without the support of a powerful and
intelligent public opinion. In reading of what
has been done, some may say : " The case
of Liverpool shows that what is wanted is
not new legislation, but the vigorous carrying
out of existing law. Nothing so sweeping as
the recommendations of Lord Peel's Report
can be necessary." Nevertheless, admirable
and worthy of imitation as are the reforms
which have been accomplished in Liverpool,
perhaps none know better than those who
have been instrumental in bringing them about
how limited is their utmost possible effect,
and how far short it falls of a full solution of
the problem which Temperance reformers
have to solve. Quiet streets and orderly
public-houses, an absence of the grosser forms
1 Drink, Temperance and Legislation, by Arthur Shadwell,
M.A., M.D., Oxon., pp. 186-187.
2o8 PRIVATE LICENCE.
of intemperance, together with a diminution
in serious crime,^ are the tangible results
that have been accomplished.
No doubt the refusal to give drink to
those verging on intoxication has been a main
cause of the diminished public drunkenness
in Liverpool, but the quantity of drink so
held back must have been insignificant in its
relation to the total consumption of the city.^
Dr. E. W. Hope, Medical Officer of
Health for Liverpool, in giving evidence in
March, igoi, before the Royal Commission
on Arsenical Poisoning, stated that ** he
believed that something like 750,000 gallons
of beer were consumed in Liverpool per week.
The population was about 680,000, so that
the consumption was over one gallon per week
1 This statement is made on the authority of a letter com-
municated by Mr. W. J. Stewart, Stipendiary Magistrate for Liverpool,
to the Liverpool Daily Post of January 31st, 1903.
2 The number of persons proceeded against for drunkenness in
Liverpool in 1889 (16,042) was only 3 per cent, of the total population,
so that the quantity of liquor which in recent years has been held back
from this 3 per cent., and from others verging on intoxication, must
have been an all but negligible quantity compared with the total
consunaption of the city.
PRIVATE LICENCE. 209
per head.^^^ It may be useful to add that
the average per capita consumption of beer for
England and Wales in the same year was
thirty-five gallons. In a subsequent com-
munication to ourselves (under date December
22nd, 1902), Dr. Hope wrote: — "My com-
putation was based upon the figures given
by brewers and publicans as to the quantities
delivered at the various houses per day. The
matter, as you know, formed the subject of
inquiry in a Court of Law, and was very
carefully and fully gone into. I feel quite
confident that the figures arrived at are
approximately correct. No one had any alter-
native suggestion to offer, and no one criticised
the accuracy of the statement."
It seems clear, therefore, that, notwith-
standing all that has been done in Liverpool,
the habits and ideals of the mass of the
people in the matter of the consumption
1 A consumption of 750,000 gallons per week would represent
39,000,000 gallons per jear. The census population of Liverpool in
igoi was 686,332, so that the consumption of beer per head of the
population for the year would amount to more than 56 gallons
2IO PRIVATE LICENCE.
of alcohol remain practically unchanged.
The poverty inseparable from a high drink
expenditure, and the resultant physical
deterioration, continue. There has apparently
been little or no progress in this vitally
important direction. Every thoughtful citizen
is agreed that a grave national peril will
exist so long as the working-class families
of the United Kingdom spend, upon an
average, six shillings per week, or one-sixth
of the family income, upon alcohol. Yet the
figures given above point to a drink expenditure
even greater than this as still continuing in
Liverpool.
Taking Liverpool as the place which
marks the high-water mark of what has been
accomplished under private licence, we may
now compare the possibilities of private
licence, as there administered, with the
possibilities of the Company System.
In towns where the Company System has
been carried out with thoroughness, a
reduction in the consumption of spirits has
PRIVATE LICENCE. 211
followed to which we have no parallel in
this country. The figures for Gothenburg have
already been given. In Bergen, the per capita
bar sale^ of spirits declined from 2 '45 litres
in 1877 (the first year of the Company) to -87
in 1901. To ascertain, however, the actual
reduction brought about by the Company, the
comparison should be made not with the
sales in the first year of the new system, but
with the sales in the last year of the
old. If we take as a basis of comparison
the advance-estimate of probable consumption
in 1877, an estimate made by the Excise
Authorities and based upon the figures for
1876, there must have been a total reduction
of consumption of no less than forty-three per
cent, as the result of the Society's operations
in the first year of its existence.
^ Bergen is the distributing centre for a wide Prohibition
area, and it is extremely difficult in the case of the "off" sale
to divide it rightly between residents and non-residents. The
figures of bar sale are unquestioned, and whatever be the estimate
formed of the proportion of the "off" sale which would represent
consumption in the city, the fact of an enormous per capita
reduction since 1877 upon the "on" and "off" sales taken
together cannot be doubted.
212 PRIVATE LICENCE.
Again, under the Company System, both
the restrictive and the constructive agencies
that tend to reduce consumption can be
brought to bear with a power impossible
under private licence.
In Liverpool, if the community wished to
shorten the hours of sale, they could not do
so without a change in the statutory law
which it might take years of laborious
agitation to bring about. In the towns of
Sweden and Norway such changes, if deemed
wise, would probably be decided upon after
one or two sittings of the Bolag Board.
In Liverpool, if the community desired
to reduce the number of licences even
by one-half, the task would be obviously
impossible. In Gothenburg, where the
Company controls the whole of the retail
spirit licences, they have found no difficulty
in carrying out the remarkable reductions
that we have described.
Between the controlling system and private
licence there is the deep underlying diff"erence
PRIVATE LICENCE. 213
that in the one case the object is to control
and restrict, whereas in the other the object
is to stimulate and extend sales. To quote
Sir Wilfrid Lawson : " If you license a man
to a trade, of course it is only in human
nature that he will do as much trade as he
can, and you would set yourselves an impossible
task if you were to say ' thus far you shall
go, but no further.' It is only natural that
the Licensed Victuallers will do what they
can to make money and push trade." ^
At the time when the Company System
was introduced into Sweden, the thought of
counter-attractions to the public-house had
not taken hold of the public mind, and the
profits of the Bolags have not been used for
these purposes, except to a small extent, by
any of the Companies in Sweden.^ Gothenburg,
as will be shown, has now become alive to
the need of these agencies, and in all
countries the conviction is rapidly acquiring
1 Speech in the House, June i8th, 1880.
^ In Norway, and especially in Bergen, progress has been made
in the establishment of counteracting a'^encies.
214 PRIVATE LICENCE.
strength that in the struggle with intemperance,
constructive as well as restrictive influences
must be called into play, and that without
both of these, temperance effort is not likely
to achieve any great success.
In some of the large towns of Russia
the provision of counter-attractions has
recently been carried out upon a scale
and with a thoroughness hitherto unexampled.
The story of what has been accomplished
is told by Miss Edith Sellers in an
article of great interest which appeared
in The Contemporary Review for December,
igo2, and from which, by permission, we
extract the following. Referring to the intro-
duction of the Russian Spirit Monopoly in
Moscow, she tells us that on June ist, 1901,
the only public-houses to which large bodies
of the working men could resort were
practically drink shops, and these were
doomed, as July ist was the date fixed
for the Monopoly to come into force in
Moscow. Miss Sellers writes: — "The Moscow
PRIVATE LICENCE. 215
committee began its work in June, 1901,
and within a year it bad already opened
twelve huge Narodny Doms, or People's
Houses. It hopes to open eight more before
many months have passed. A Narodny
Dom, as the term is understood in Moscow,
is a working-men's restaurant, club, library,
and much besides, all combined in one.
The restaurants are fine, large rooms, well
lighted, well ventilated, and beautifully clean ;
and in most of them at the entrance there are
marble basins in which all who choose may
wash their hands — they are supplied with soap,
water and towels gratis. They are open from
early morning until late at night, for the
workers resort there for their breakfast, which
consists as a rule of a cauldron of weak tea
and a hunch of bread ; they resort there also
for their supper — tea and a snack of fish, or
anything else they can afford. During the
dinner hour the restaurants are always crowded,
and with a motley company, strictly teetotal
institutions though they be." The restaurants,
2i6 PRIVATE LICENCE.
however, are but the nucleus of the work,
which extends itself in all directions. " In
one of the Narodny Doms there is a labour
bureau, where what can be done is done that
men may not stand idle in the market place
because no man hireth them, while work is
waiting to be done. In the other eleven
there are reading-rooms where all comers may
pass their whole day if they choose. These
are charming resorts, prettily painted and
decorated, with quite the air of a gentleman's
study ; for Madame Sabaschnikoff, the member
of the Council under whose special care they
are, is keenly alive to the civilising influence
clean, well-ordered surroundings may have on
even the dullest of Mujiks. The reading-rooms
are well supplied with newspapers and have
lending libraries attached ; for the committee
is just as bent on providing its clients with
food for their minds as for their bodies,
holding that one of its most important duties
is to educate. The energy with which it
throws itself into educational work of all
PRIVATE LICENCE. 217
kinds indeed, is perhaps its most distinctive
feature. It arranges lectures not only on
temperance but on all subjects of general
interest ; it arranges lime-light demonstrations
too, debates and concerts." Then it uses the
drama, and very skilfully, as an educational
force.
Equally suggestive is the information
respecting the work of the Temperance
Committee in St, Petersburg,^ which began
its work three and a half years before
the Moscow Committee was formed. The
Temperance Committee there hold that " It
is not the love of Vodka, as a rule, that
leads a man to drink, but the dull, leaden
monotony of his life. He drinks, especially
on Sundays and holidays when he has no
work, because he feels that he must have a
change of some sort, and the only change he
can procure for himself is to get drunk. The
special work to which they have from the
first devoted themselves, therefore, is that of
1 Population in 1900 — 1,439.375
2i8 PRIVATE LICENCE.
bringing some sort of recreation within the
reach of even the most poverty-stricken,
providing them with cheap food, of course,
the while. . . . For Enghsh people special
interest is attached to the Dom Nicholas II.,
for it is exactly what our People's Palace was
intended to be, and is not. It is a pleasure
resort for the poor ; a place where they may
betake themselves whenever on enjoyment
bent. The Dom itself — it is the old Nijni-
Novgorod exhibition building renovated — is a
huge place, painted blue, white and gold.
It stands close to the Neva, in the midst of
a beautiful park, with great trees all around
it, and flower-beds, aglow with bright flowers
in summer, dotted about here and there.
Among the trees there are prettily-arranged
little grottoes for those who wish to avoid the
throng. The building is divided into five
parts — a great entrance hall, which serves as
a general promenade, a restaurant, a concert-
hall, a theatre, and a reading-room. The
charge for admission is 2|d., and the only
PRIVATE LICENCE. 219
extra charge ever made is for a seat in the
theatre." The St. Petersburg Committee "has
opened twelve reading-rooms, as well as two
libraries, and it intends before long to open
many more ; and during the winter months it
organises classes and arranges for lectures to
be given."
The profits of the retail sale of spirits
are in Russia taken by the State. The
localities are, therefore, dependent upon the
State for the grants necessary to carry on
the work. Moscow, with its population of
1,000,000,^ receives through its committee an
annual allowance of 300,000 roubles (;f 3 1,250).
The St. Petersburg committee received for
the erection and organisation of the Dom
Nicholas II. alone more than a million
roubles, and has besides an annual allowance
of nearly 300,000 roubles. Warsaw has an
annual allowance of 100,000 roubles.
The experiments in St. Petersburg and
Moscow, of which the foregoing extracts
1 In 1900, 1,035,664.
220 PRIVATE LICENCE.
give so vivid a picture, are of extreme
interest and value. They tell of what has
been actually accomplished. Perhaps for the
first time in modern history we have here
an attempt to meet the social needs of great
town populations upon something approaching
an adequate scale. A vista is opened out
of the almost incalculable advance in national
tastes and habits that might be effected
were a community, when furnished with the
necessary funds, to awake to a full under-
standing both of the urgency of these social
needs and of the ways by which they might
be adequately met.
In the United States the need for counter-
attractions has been so fully recognised
that, at the request of the "Committee of
Fifty" (a body including some of the
foremost social writers and thinkers in the
States), Mr. Raymond Calkins published in
I go I a volume of 400 pages devoted to this
aspect of the question. It is entitled
PRIVATE LICENCE. 221
Substitutes fay the Saloon,^ and treats of the
progress made by lunch rooms and coffee
houses, social clubs and athletic associations,
settlements, reading-rooms, gymnasia, etc.
The Committee appointed by the Town
Council of Gothenburg, in 1899, to find out
the real cause of the increase in drunkenness,
and to propose means for bringing about a
reduced consumption of alcoholic drinks,
submitted the questions before them to
various classes in the community, and among
others to the Trades Unions. It is a
suggestive fact that the great majority of
these Unions advocated, along with other
recommendations, " The institution of different
forms of recreation calculated to benefit the
public, and in particular the working classes."
In this connexion it was suggested that
the city should provide the following : —
Cafes and restaurants where non-alcoholic
drinks only would be supplied.
1 Houghton, Mifflin &. Company, Boston and New York.
222 PRIVATE LICENCE.
Concert rooms and other means of supplying
musical entertainment to the working
classes at times when they are at
liberty.
Libraries and reading rooms.
Open places for games and sports.
Large halls for meetings and fetes.
Grounds for ninepins and croquet, dancing
rinks, etc.
Zoological gardens.
Public parks.
Theatres.
Gymnasia with capable instructors.
Large and cheap public baths and com-
pulsory baths for board school children.
The Committee of the Town Council, in
their Report, accepted and laid emphasis
upon these suggestions and urged the need of
recreative counter-attractions to the public-
house.
Constructive agencies have hitherto largely
failed because they have not been carried out
upon a sufficient scale. We have estimated^
1 The Temperance rroblem and Social Reform.
PRIVATE LICENCE. 223
that an annual sum of not less than ;^i,ooo
for every 10,000 of the population would be
required for the establishment and efficient
maintenance of counter-attractions to the
public-house. Upon this scale, Liverpool
would require ^^68,500 annually. A penny
municipal rate in Liverpool, prior to its
enlargement in 1902 by the inclusion of the
district and port of Garston, yielded ;^i3,58o;
so that if ^'68,500 had been granted from the
municipal treasury, the sum would have been
more than the yield of a fivepenny rate.
That rate aid upon this scale is impossible
is perfectly clear, and it is not less clear if
we consider the figures for other towns. The
following table shows the annual sum which
would be required for the maintenance of
counter-attractions to the public-house upon
the scale indicated above, and which represents
probably the minimum expenditure upon which
they could be effectively maintained. Fuller
details are given elsewhere : — ^
^ See Appendix, pp. 271-273.
224 PRIVATE LICENCE.
Annual sum
required for counter- Equal to a
attractions on basis Municipal
of ;^i,ooo per 10,000 Rate of
of population.
Birmingham 52,218 \\
Leeds 42,895 5I
Bristol 32,884 5*
Hull 24,062 6
Newcastle 21,480 \\
West Ham 26,731 6
Bethnal Green 12,968 6
Lambeth 30,189 3I
Glasgow 76,042 4
Edinburgh 31,648 3
Dublin 28,910 8
Cork 7,598 \o\
It needs only a glance at the above
figures to see that it would be idle to look
to the rates for the necessary funds ; nor, in
the present state of the national finances,
could they be obtained by national taxation ;
while they are quite beyond the resources of
private philanthropy. Unless, therefore, we
are altogether mistaken in our estimate of
the sums that would be required for the
efficient conduct of these counter-attractions
PRIVATE LICENCE. 225
(and so far as we know the estimate has
not been questioned), the conclusion is in-
evitable that, either the establishment of counter-
attractions to the public-house upon an adequate
scale must be abandoned^ or else they must be
paid for out of the profits of the retail trade.
These profits we have shown elsewhere^ to be
nearly ;f 20, 000, 000 per annum. To provide
counteracting agencies upon the scale named
above for the whole of the United Kingdom
would cost ;/^4,ooo,ooo per annum ; so that
even if these powerful agencies resulted, as no
doubt they would, in a great reduction of
the national drink bill, there would still be
ample funds to defray their cost, and in
addition a large balance to hand over to the
national exchequer.
To sum up, the further the comparison
between a town under a well-considered
scheme of Company control and a town
under private licence is followed, the more
clearly is it seen that the fundamental
1 The Temperance Problem and Social Reform.
226 PRIVATE LICENCE.
difference which separates them consists in
this : that in the former case the community
is free to work out its salvation from the
drink curse according to local requirements
and with a prompt adaptation of means to
ends, while in a city under private licence
the community works in fetters. At every
point its action is checked by the real or
assumed rights of the licence-holders. The
interest of a community to lessen the con-
sumption of alcohol, and the interest of a
licence-holder to sell as much as possible,
are in direct antagonism, and so long as a
city hands over the sale of drink to private
individuals stimulated by the motive of private
gain, so long will its efforts to reach a higher
level of sobriety be seriously neutralised.
CHAPTER XL
Conclusion.
AT the close of the chapter upon the
mjl. Scandinavian experiments in The
Temperance Problem and Social Reform, the
advantages of the Company System were
summed up under eleven heads. An examina-
tion of the system in the light of the experience
of the past four years strongly confirms the
soundness of the positions thus summarised.
The eleven advantages which were claimed
are repeated below. The majority of them
have not been questioned ; in the case of the
others a few words will indicate the challenge
which recent criticism of a hostile character
has offered, criticism which, as will be seen,
leaves the origmal propositions undisturbed.
'^ (1 .) Alone of all the systems that have been
adopted, it secures a divorce betiveen politics and
the drink traffic. Drink-selling once divorced from
228 CONCLUSION.
politics can no longer serve as an instrument of
corruption, and one of the greatest obstacles to
social reforms is thus overcome.''
An attempt was made to answer this
proposition by the assertion that in Sweden
there had been no alhance between the Trade
and pohtics, and therefore could be no divorce.
This statement, as we have shown, was based
upon ignorance of the remarkable struggle
between the distillers, led by Lars O. Smith,
and the supporters of the Bolag System.
The position holds that in Scandinavia the
distiller is without exceptional political influence,
because the sale of spirits is under Company
control. The brewer, on the other hand, has
a powerful and mischievous influence, because
the sale of beer is uncontrolled. In this
country, as we have shown, the menace of
the Trade is growing, and eff"orts are being
made to organise the shareholders in brewery
companies with a view to their more effective
opposition to legislation calculated to lessen
the sale of drink.
CONCLUSION. 229
' ' (2.) When no political party is fettered by
Trade support, and the vested interests now
associated with it are destroyed, a large body of
Temperance sentiment is set free, and the way
made easy for progressive Temperance reforms^
^^(3.) A trade universally recognised as
dangerous is taken out of the hands of the private
dealer, who naturally seeks to extend it, and is
brought under effective restriction and control.'"
In opposition to this it was contended
that, however effective the restriction and
control had been in the early days of the
system, it had since " gradually slowed
down until the last decade, when there has
been a return towards the former state of
degradation."
By a detailed examination of the recent
policy and administration of the Swedish
Companies, against whom, in particular, the
charges were made, this statement has been
shown to be altogether incorrect, and collateral
evidence of the truth of our proposition has
been afforded in the estimation in which the
230 CONCLUSION.
Company System is held by the Temperance
organisations of Sweden. We pointed out
that as recently as last year (1902), the
organised Temperance workers of Sweden, in
a representative Conference at Stockholm,
declared themselves, by a unanimous vote, in
favour of placing malt liquors under the same
control as spirits.
Four years earlier a petition to the same
effect had been addressed to the Governor of
the Province by the Bishop and the Dean
of Gothenburg and by thirty clergy of the
district, asking that the beer-houses of the
town *' should come under the control of
the Gothenburg Public-House Licensing
Company, conducted according to the
Gothenburg System."
^^(4.) This restriction, being locally applied
under local representative authority, keeps pace
with the Temperance sentiment of the locality.
' The end sought is the reformation of popular
habits, and it is reached by a series of evolutionary
stages, each of which finds its sanction in advanc-
ing public sentiment.' "
CONCLUSION. 231
''^(5.) If^ as seems clear, prohibition is at present
impossible in large towns, the Controlling System
provides what is incomparably the least hartn/ul
safety-valve. In Scandinavian towns there is 710
club difficulty, and no driving of the traffic below
the surface.'''
'''(6.) The number of licensed houses can be
reduced to the lowest limits which public opinion
will support, while the difficuUy that exists under
private ownership in singling out any particular
house to be closed is avoided.''
" (7.) Sales 07i credit and all the adventitious
attractions of the ptiblic-house are done away
with.''
''^(8.) Gambling and all the immoral accessories
of the public-house arx abolished."
''(9.) Bye-laws for the regulation of the Trade
can be readily enforced and quickly adapted to
the special needs of the locality."
Mr. Walker attempts to meet this position
by the assertion that '* when the benefits of
the profits have once been felt, the temptation
to extend the business as much as possible
232 CONCLUSION.
is such that neither the original principles
nor the original reforms are adhered to, and
no movement is made to initiate new reforms."
The answer already given to the criticism
upon proposition 3 covers this objection. As
a matter of fact, we have shown that
Mr. Walker's contention is not only incorrect,
but that the very opposite of it is true. Few
things are more remarkable in the history
of the temperance movement than the ease
with which, in Norway, progressive legislation
of an advanced character has been carried out ;
while in Gothenburg the history of the Bolag
is, as we have shown, a history of restriction
steadily and progressively enforced. The
seventh chapter of the present volume gives
ample evidence that the movement as a
whole is unmistakably progressive.
''(10.) The Controlling System secures for the
community the vast monopoly profits which now
go to those interested in the Trade, and makes
it possible to use them for the establishment
nf adequate counteracting agencies. ^^
CONCLUSION. 233
Perhaps the nearest approach to a reply
to the above position is contained in the
following passage in Mr. Walker's book : —
" It is generally assumed that if the Gothen-
burg System were introduced, not only should
we still have all the previous profits from the
drink traffic, but a new source of revenue
would be secured for the State or the
municipality. In considering whether this
would result, we must at once contradict a
delusion fostered, perhaps unwittingly, by the
supporters of the Gothenburg System. The
Scandinavian 'Bolag' is not an additional
source of revenue, but simply a different and
less effective method of doing the work at
present efficiently performed by our excise.
We go to the fountain-head ; we levy a duty
of eleven shillings per gallon on spirits before
they leave the distillery ; and we obtain a
heavy licence-duty from every drink shop.
From direct taxation, such as this, the Swede
only obtains about two shillings per gallon,
and he attempts to make up the difference by
taking the retail traffic into his own hands and
pocketing the total profit derived from it."
The above passage gives expression to an
extraordinary misconception. It is assumed
by Mr. Walker that if the Company System
were introduced into this country we should
234 CONCLUSION.
get the retail profits of the trade instead of
excise duties and licence duties ; whereas,
of course, these latter would continue to be
levied, and we should get the retail profits
in addition .
In The Temperance Problem and Social Reform
it is shown that the net profits of the
public-house trade of the United Kingdom
probably amount to nearly ;^20, 000,000 per
annum, and no attempt has been made
in any quarter to contest these figures,
which indeed are probably under-estimated.
Under the Company System, when the trade
of a locality is concentrated in a limited
number of houses, and conducted without
any cost of advertising or display, the rate
of profit is likely to be considerably higher
than when carried on as a private competitive
trade.
'''■ (11 .) The system enlists the active co-operation
of good citizens, and is responsive to an
enlightened public opinion.''*
CONCLUSION. 235
A renewed examination of the Scandinavian
experiments confirms the view which the present
writers have previously expressed, namely,
that they point to two practical conclusions
of far-reaching import to this country. The
first is, that the fundamental principle upon
which an}' fabric of effective licensing reform
must be built is the elimination of private
profit from the retail liquor trade. The
interest of the private seller is to stimulate
sales, while the interest of the State is to
restrict them ; these conflicting aims are
incapable of reconciliation. The second
conclusion is, that the trade, when taken
out of private hands, should be worked
locally, but under strict statutory control ;
especially that the appropriation of the
profits should be determined by law, and
be such that localities could have no
inducement either to stimulate or continue
the traffic for the sake of the profit which
it yields.
236 CONCLUSION.
The preceding pages have shown that
when the trade is taken out of private
hands and placed under Company control,
both the restrictive and constructive agencies
working for temperance act with an
enormously added power. These agencies,
as we have pointed out, often appeal to
different orders of mind. Broadly, the
restrictive agencies appeal most strongly to
those who are occupied with direct
temperance work ; while the constructive
agencies hold the first place with those who
are concerned with the wider aspects of
society as a whole, the general conditions
of city life, the wretchedness of the highly-
rented room, and the dreariness of existence
to multitudes of workers.
The representatives of the two schools
have not as yet entered into an effective
alliance. Yet such an alliance is an
essential condition of success. Happily,
signs are not wanting that a working union
may be near at hand. Should this be
CONCLUSION. 237
realised, and unity mark the counsels of
temperance reformers in the period upon
which they are enterin<^, they will at last
see the portents of victory and begin to
gather the rewards of long years of toil.
APPENDICES.
Compensation.
THE passages in Mr. Walker's book
dealing with compensation are apt to
convey a mistaken impression of what actually
took place in Sweden and Norway with
regard to it. Thus on page 7, referring to
the Swedish Law of 1855, Mr. Walker says: —
" The already existing licences were not
interfered with, as the legislature considered
that it would be unjust to tamper with such
legally-acquired rights. In the country' where
previously no licences were required, and
consequently no interests existed to compensate,
a power to veto all retail sale was conferred."
And on pages 9 and 10 Mr. Walker
states : —
"In 1 87 1 a law was passed [in Norwa}-^]
legalising the grant of licences to companies
similar to those in Sweden, called ' Samlags.'
By 1877 these had spread to all the principal
240 APPENDICES.
towns ; and this tendency was facilitated by a
law passed in 1880, whereby ' Samlags ' were
empowered to acquire all licences by equitable
compensation. In many cases licensees were
fairly compensated, receiving an annuity equal
to their average yearly profits for the preceding
three years."
Now, in both Sweden and Norway, two
classes of licences existed. The great
majority were those granted only for a short
term of years, — in Norway for five years
and in Sweden for three years. But in
addition to these there were "privileged"
licences which had been granted either in
perpetuity or upon the continuance of one
or more lives. The essential fact to remember
in relation to compensation in both Sweden
and Norway is that the compejtsation was
confined to the ^^ privileged ^^ licences , and was
in no case given to the holders of ordinary
licences. These facts are not disputed, but
two authorities may be given. Dr. Wieselgren,
in a recent letter to the present writers, says
emphatically : — " In Sweden no compensation
was given except to the holders of privileged
APPENDICES. 241
licences " ; and, referring to Norway, Mr.
Thomas M. Wilson says: — ^ " The pubHcans
were ousted from the licences without a
farthing of compensation for the refusal to
renew their licences." In neither country,
however, was there any disposition to deal
harshly with the old licence holders. In
Bergen they received a notice of practically
five and a half years,^ while the Controlling
Companies purchased the unsold stocks of
spirits, subject to approval of the quality.
Referring to the action of the Russian
Government in regard to compensation when
establishing the Spirit Monopoly, Mr. Walker
says : —
"It is suggestive of the methods of the
Russian Government that the liquor dealers in
Russia, although they carried on a recognised
trade and were not under annual licence, as in
the case of our licensees, got no compensation.
In Poland, however, where there is still the
1 Local Option in Norway, p. 17.
^ "The passing of the Act of 3rd May, 1871, admitting a
society to compete for licences and to hold more than one, sounded
the death-knell of the publicans in Bergen, and they soon began to
set their houses in order in view of their demise as spirit dealers ;
but, as the demise was not to take place till ist January, 1877, they
had five and a half years' grace given them to prepare for the
event."— Local Option %n Norway, p. 54.
242 APPENDICES.
relics of a former civilisation, and where there
were very old licensed rights, the holders of
these received fair compensation, i.e., twenty
years' purchase on the average annual profits."
Now, although the liquor dealers in Russia
were not under annual licence, we have it from
an authority quoted in a Foreign Office
Report ^ that the licence they were granted
had " always been considered by the legisla-
ture, the administration, the public, and by
themselves as a permission liable to be
withdrawn without explanation or comment."
In parts of Russia, however, as in Scandinavia,
there were, in addition to the ordinary licences,
privileged rights. These existed in Poland,
the Baltic provinces, and some of the Western
provinces. The holders of these rights received
compensation.
The Policy of Exacting the Surrender of
Old Licences for New Ones.
This policy has been carefully discussed
by Mr. Alexander Guthrie.^ The following are
1 Miscellaneous Series, No. 465, 1898.
2 New Licences for Old. The Licensing Laws Information Bureau,
46, Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham. Price id.
APPENDICES. 243
among other important considerations which
he brings forward in opposition to it : —
These superfluous licences ought not
to be in existence at all ; that is to say,
had the letter of the law, to say nothing
of its spirit, been put into operation in
respect to them, they would long ago
have disappeared. Yet it is these licences,
whose existence is only perpetuated
because of the unwillingness or assumed
inability of the magistrates to bring
them to an end, which are offered by
the Trade as consideration for new and
valuable concessions !
Any encouragement given by licensing
justices to proposals of the kind now
under consideration must inevitably tend
to prolong artificially the existence of
many of these superfluous licences, which
otherwise would die a natural death.
For example, in Liverpool, since 1891,
as many as 117 old licences have ceased
to exist, 110 application having been made
244 APPENDICES.
for their renewal. Either the houses were
not paying their way, or, objection having
been offered to their renewal, they were
not considered worth fighting for. Is it
to be supposed that this process of natural
reduction will continue if such licences are
to have a new value conferred upon them ?
Again, in Birmingham, during the last
two years, at the expressed wish of the
Bench, the Brewers have relinquished
fifty-five old licences and indicated their
intention of giving up a further number —
and this without suggestion of payment
or consideration of any kind.
It has been hoped that this example
would be followed in other boroughs ;
but could any greater check to such a
movement be conceived than that licensing
justices should give countenance to the
idea that a class of licences which " the
Trade " has begun voluntarily to relinquish
may yet prove worth keeping as a
means of procuring new and valuable
concessions ?
APPENDICES. 245
The acceptance by a licensing bench
from an applicant for a licence of any-
thing in the nature of a bribe (it in
no way affects the case that such
acceptance may be conscientiously, how-
ever erroneously, believed to be in the
public interest) must be both wrong in
principle and dangerous in practice. For
a licence thus obtained it will hereafter
be claimed that payment has been made ;
and, if so, what becomes of the "absolute,
unfettered discretion " of the Bench ?
A privileged licence will have been
created, different from all others around
it in that for it alone was consideration
given, a situation never of course
contemplated by the law, and surely
involving new and most undesirable
issues.
Substantially the same position is taken by
the Central Public-House Trust Association.
In their Second Annual Report, just issued, it
is pointed out that the custom of exacting
246 APPENDICES.
the surrender of one or more old licences
for every new one that is granted leads to
a " strengthening of the claim put forward
by the ' Trade ' for compensation, and if
persevered in, will make that claim not only
equitable, but legally unassailable. To exact
a surrender in exchange for a new licence
is nothing else than to exact a payment in
kind, and often a very heavy one, because
the surrender policy, where it exists,
enormously increases the value of the small
and superfluous houses, there being so keen
a competition among brewers to buy them,
as possessing in their licences useful quid
pro quos to offer to the bench when applying
for some coveted new licence.^ Where
1 It may be of interest in this connexion to mention that in
a circular recently addressed by the Scarborough justices to the
owners and occupiers of licensed premises in that town, the
justices intimate that " they desire, before themselves objecting
to the renewal of licences, to give to persons interested in licenstd
premises in the two wards ample opportunity of meeting together
and formulating schemes for the reduction of the number of
licences. Any such scheme, if submitted within a reasonable time,
will receive careful attention, so long as tt is confined to the districts
in which it is proposed that reduction shall take place.
" No scheme which includes any proposal for the grant of new
licences in other parts of the town will be entertained. Applications for
new licences are always dealt with by the Licensing Committee at Brewster
Sessions on their merits and with reference to the requirements only of
the district proposed to be served by the licence."
APPENDICES. 247
magistrates have thus sold a licence for
value in kind, the position of the new
licensee in respect of future questions of
withdrawal of licence and compensation is
greatly strengthened ; for, even in a case of
suspension of licence on grounds of mis-
conduct, any fair-minded bench would hesitate
to enforce the penalty after having exacted
a valuable equivalent when the licence was
granted in the first instance."
Foreign Moneys and Measures.
Foreign Moneys. English Equivalents.
1 Krone (Norwegian) 1
1 x^ ,„,.,, = 100 ore = Is. l^d.
1 Krona (Swedish) j ^
18 Kroner ... ... = One Sovereign.
90 ore = One Shilling.
1 Rouble (Russian) -= 100 copecks = 2s. IGd.
Foreign Measures. English Equivalents.
1 Hectolitre = 100 Litres = 22 Imperial Gallons.
1 Litre = 1,000 c.c. = 022 Imperial Gallon.
1 Cubic Centimetre (1 c.c.) =^ 0-035 Fluid Ounce.
28-4 c.c. = One Fluid Ounce.
248 APPENDICES.
Method of Granting Licences in Sweden
and Norway.
Mr. Walker says (p. lo) : — "The licences
in both countries are granted by the
magistrates acting with the advice of the
Town Council and the Government." This
sentence fails to bring out certain important
differences between the licensing laws of
Sweden and Norway. In Sweden, while the
magistrates suggest what in the case of any
town they consider the right number of
licences to allot, the Town Cotincil has the
power, which cannot be challenged or overruled,
of reducing the nwnber suggested by the
magistrates to any extent. The regulations
bearing upon the point are contained in
clauses (b) and (c), section 8, of the law
of May 24, 1895. They provide that the
magistracy shall send an opinion to the
governor, stating whether the privilege to
sell brandy at 'off' sale or over the bar
ought to be granted to any persons, and, if
so, the number of places to be licensed, as
APPENDICES. 249
well as the district in which each place shall
be located, if a special provision regarding
the latter point be deemed necessary. " The
governor shall then form his resolution
regarding the matter and make it known to
the magistracy ; but it shall not be resolved that
such licence be granted contrary to the opinion of
the town council, or [where there is no town council,
of] the town meeting, nor shall their number
be fixed in such a manner as to exceed that
determined upon by the magistracy and town
council or town meeting."
It will thus be seen that while the
magistracy take the initiative in regard to
licensing in the towns, suggesting the number
of licences that ought to be granted, the
town council or town meeting, while they
cannot add to the number of licences
determined upon by the magistracy, may
reduce the number at their discretion.
In Norway the power of the town council
is more absolute,^ as it is able to add to
^ See Section 5 of the Norwegian Law, of Tulv 24, 1894,
which provides that "The communal organisation shall determine
the number of places at which spirits shall be sold and retailed.'
250 APPENDICES.
the number of licences suggested to it.
The following information, supplied to us
by Mr. Jorgen Irgens, of Bergen, will make
the relative powers of the magistrates, of
the aldermen and of the town councillors,
in relation to licensing, better understood.
The method of procedure in the granting
of licences is the same in all the towns
of Norway : —
(i) The Town Council of Bergen
consists of seventy-six members elected
by the citizens.^ The council from
its own number elects nineteen (one-
fourth), who constitute what is called
the " Formandskab," a body to some
extent comparable with our aldermen.
The remaining fifty-seven members of
the council, comparable with our
town councillors, are called the
" representatives."
1 In Norway, the size of a town council is in proportion
to the number of its ratepayers, but with a maximum of eighty-
four. Thus, in Christiania, which has a population of more than
225,000, the town council numbers only eighty-four. The
population of Bergen (1902) is about 75,000.
APPENDICES.
2=;i
(2) The magistrates (three in number),
men of legal training, appointed to
the post by the Government, and for
Ufe, unite with the nineteen aldermen
(Formandskab) in making propositions
respecting the licences to submit to
the councillors (representatives).
(3) The nineteen aldermen and the fifty-
seven councillors, as in the case of
our own town councils, sit and vote
together on all propositions, including,
of course, the number of licences.
(4) The magistrates sit, along with the
aldermen and the councillors, when
the question of licences is under
consideration, and may take part in
the discussion, but they may not vote.
At the earlier stage, however, when
they unite with the nineteen aldermen
in preparing the suggestions to submit
to the councillors, they may vote.
(5) Women are eligible for election to the
town council, and now (1903) ^^^ ^f
252 APPENDICES.
its members are women. They are
eligible to be appointed as members
of the Formandskab, but at present
all of them are councillors.'
It should be added that the decision of
the municipal council is theoretically subject
to the veto of the State Governor, but in
reference to this, Mr. Irgens informs us that
if the decision of the municipality does not
receive the support of two-thirds of the
members present, the vote must be taken
again at the next meeting of the council,
and if then the decision does not receive
the support of two-thirds of the members
present, the minority may appeal to the
State Governor, who may refuse to accept
the decision. Mr. Irgens adds : — " Whether
the minority of the municipality ever has
availed itself of such a right of appeal to
^ In Norway married women whose husbands are taxed, and all
single women who have an annual income of 400 kr. {£11 4s. 5d )
and pay a tax upon the same, have a communal vote. Women
vote also upon the question of the continuance or otherwise of a
Samlag, but have no vote for the election of Members of Parliament.
APPENDICES. 253
the Governor I do not know, but I do not
believe that it has done so. "
It will be seen from the above that the
licensing power of the magistrates in Norway
is one of an advisory character only, the real
authority resting with the town council.
In Sweden, also, the power of the magistrates
is mainly advisory, but in Sweden the number
of licences which the magistrates, in con-
junction with the Governor, propose, may in
no case be exceeded by the municipality.
254
APPENDICES.
England and Wales.
Yearly Average Number of Persons proceeded against
for Drunkenness (including Drunk and Disorderly) in
the Quinquennial Period 1897' 1901 (the number
including both Apprehensions and Summonses).
Place.
London^
Liverpool ...
Manchester..
Birmingham
Leeds
Sheffield
Bristol
Bradford
Nottingham
Hull
Newcastle
Salford
Leicester
Portsmouth
Cardiff
Bolton
Sunderland
Blackburn
Birkenhead
Preston
Norwich
Gateshead
Plymouth
Derby
Swansea
Wolverhampton.
Middlesbrough .
Average
Population.
6,549,845
673,867
538,119
514,572
416,674
369,301
322,968
246,839
237.195
233.717
223,713
216,517
204,189
190,832
157,410
144,520
144,410
126,447
111.939
111,900
109.145
106,659
103,921
103,451
93,672
91,298
87.340
Average Number
of Persons
Proceedeci Against
for Drunkenness.
51,659
4,404
6,237
3,659
1,757
1,492
1,210
512
1,346
1,718
4,530
2,712
419
664
1,180
566
1,195
715
844
489
131
1,125
394
714
690
461
728
Ratio per 1,000 of
the Population.
7-9
6-5
11-6
7-1
4-2
4-0
3-7
2-1
5-7
7-3
20-3
12-5
2-1
35
7-5
39
8-3
5-7
7-5
4-4
1-2
10-5
3-8
6-9
7-4
60
8-3
(.\verae;e
of 4 years
1897-1900)
(Average
of 4 years
18971900)
1 Figures for the different London boroughs are not available.
APPENDICES.
England and ^dXts— continued.
255
Place.
Average
Population.
Average Number
of Persons
Proceeded Against
for Drunkenness.
Ratio per 1,000 of
the Population.
Northampton
York
84,034
74,084
61,824
66,882
50,867
50,528
49,518
48,679
38,337
36,901
22,094
232
398
662
677
307
1,695
273
140
38
216
304
2-8 (Average
of 4 years
1 897- 1 900)
5-4
Grimsby
10-7
Barrow-in-
Kurness
11-9
Great Yarmouth..
Tynemouth (in-
cluding North
Shields)
6-0
33-5
Burton -on -Trent
Oxford
5-5
2-9
Cambrido^e
1-0
Scarborough
Hartlepool
5-9
18-8
Average ratio for the above 38 towns taken as a
whole {i.e., on the aggregates of the populations and
oflfences), 7*4.
Ireland.
Place.
Average
Population.
Average Number
of Persons
Proceeded Against
for Drunkenness.
Ratio per i.oco of
the Population.
Dublin (Metro-
politan Police
District)
382,605
333,723
99,210
38,538
37,277
27,899
13,491
8,968
5.735
2,498
1,746
1,827
1,491
853
23-4
Belfast
17-2
Cork
25-2
IvOndonderry
Limerick
45-3
49-0
Waterford
58-4
Gal way
63-2
Average ratio for the above towns taken as a
whole {i.e., on the aggregates of the populations and
offences), 24'8.
256
APPENDICES.
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APPENDICES. 257
The Alleged Drunkenness of Finland.
Among the statements made by Mr.
Walker is the following : —
" On the other hand, Finland — one of the
homes of a ' Gothenburg ' system of the strictest
kind — consumes the least alcohol per head of
an)' European country, while we have it on
the authority of travellers that the natives are
very drunken."
Observing that the article upon Finland
in the new volumes of the Encydopcedia
Britannica was written by Prince Kropotkin,
we submitted to him Mr. Walker's statement.
Writing under date December 2nd, 1902,
Prince Kropotkin replied : —
" The statement by Mr. John Walker con-
cerning drunkenness in Finland is absolutely
untrue. There is very little drunkenness in
Finland, as a rule, as compared with other
northern countries : surely much less than
here [England]. I remember that some three
years ago a book was published by an English-
man, in which there was such a statement.
But (1) the author was known for his
untrustworthiness, and (2) he had only
258 APPENDICES.
travelled from Tornea to Varanger Fjord, and
having had trouble with the post-keepers,
accused them of wholesale drunkenness."
If any corroborative evidence were wanted,
it would be found in a work published in
igoi, by Mr. Harry De Windt, Finland as
it IS, from which we subjoin the following.
After alluding to the opinion commonly held
in this country that the sobriety of the
Finnish peasantry is something on a par
with that of the Muscovite Moujik, and
giving reasons to show that this opinion is
mistaken, Mr. De Windt adds : —
" In face of these facts I refuse to believe
that the Finns are an intemperate race, for
in all my wanderings throughout the country
I never once saw a drunken man until I
reached TorneS. And he was a Swede from
South Africa."^
And, again, after leaving Finland, Mr.
De Windt writes : —
" I crossed Finland without once en-
countering an inebriate of either sex, while
1 p. 48.
APPENDICES. 259
one day in Haparanda I met a dozen drunken
men in the course of a short walk."^
The South Carolina State Monopoly.
The Dispensary System of South CaroHna
has little in common with the Gothenburg
System, except that in both the liquor trade
is taken out of private hands. The Dispensary
System is, however, of special interest as
showing that, even under a system defective
in many ways, the political power of the
Trade is practically destroyed when private
profit is dissociated from the sale of drink.
Mr. Walker supposes the contrary to be
the fact. He writes : —
" The Committee of Fifty — the impartiaUty
of whose opinions may be vouched for — say
in their first Report upon the Liquor Problem
{2nd ed., p. 166), that 'Underneath the
opposition lies the feeling that in furtherance
of an ostensibly purely moral object the
advocates of the Dispensary System have grasped
the opportunity of entrenching themselves in
power, and abrogated the rights of local self-
government in a manner at variance with all
the political traditions of South Carolina.
1 p. 27S.
26o APPENDICES.
That the State control of the sale of liquor cannot
be dissociated from, politics is admitted by its
Prom-oters to be an inhere7it defect of the system.' "
The words which we have italicised
certainly appear to support Mr. Walker's
view, and it was only after one of the present
writers had visited South Carolina that their
real meaning was understood by us. In the
7th and subsequent editions of The Temperance
Problem and Social Reform^ we say^ : — *' In his
recent visit, one of the present writers was
assured by State officials and influential
citizens representing widely different points
of view, that the liquor interest had been
predominant in municipal elections prior to
the establishment of the Dispensary System,
but that since its introduction this influence
had been destroyed. These assurances accord
with the declaration of a former Governor
of the State, who, in his message of November,
1893, said : —
1 In the earlier editions (i to 6), the writers attributed to the
italicised words the same meaning that Mr. Walker attaches to
them. He, however, quotes throughout from the 7th edition, which
contains the true interpretation of the words as subsequently
ascertained by the present writers.
APPENDICES. 261
"'The local whisky rings, which have
been the curse of every municipality in the
State, and have always controlled municipal
elections, have been torn up root and branch,
and the influence of the bar-keeper as a
political manipulator is absolutely destroyed.'
" This strong statement is quite consistent
with the words employed by the present
Governor (January loth, 1899) : — * The new
system,' he said, ' has now been in force
three years, and, in my opinion, it has failed
to accomplish the purposes of its advocates.
The idea was to divorce the Dispensary
System from politics and to put it under a
strictly business management. No such result
has followed. It is notorious that the Dis-
pensary is as much or more in politics than
it ever was.' The apparent contradiction is
such for an English reader only. The
reference is simply to the notorious ' spoils
system ' of American party politics. The
Dispensary System is * in politics ' merely in
the sense in which any municipal undertaking
262 APPENDICES.
— gas or waterworks or tramways — would be
* in politics ' if the posts in connexion with
these undertakings were given by preference
to the adherents of one political party, instead
of to the fittest men irrespective of party.
In other words, the Dispensary System shares
in that which is so often the bane of municipal
government in the United States. In a better
sense, too, the system is * in politics,' as the
discussion upon its merits is not yet closed,
public opinion being divided between the
relative merits of the Dispensary System, High
Licence and Prohibition. As a matter of fact,
in South Carolina, as in Scandinavia, the
taking of the trade out of private hands has
destroyed its electoral power."
Mr. Walker justly says that the impartiality
of the opinions of the Committee of Fifty
may be vouched for. This is certainly the
case, and therefore to set at rest all doubt
as to the actual fact, we submitted to Mr.
John Koren, who wrote the Report of the
Committee of Fifty which Mr. Walker quotes,
APPENDICES. 263
the extracts from The Tempermtce Problem and
Social Reform^ and those from Mr. Walker's
book given above. Mr. Koren, writing under
date 6th August, 1902, says (the itahcs are
ours) : —
" In reply to yours of July 11, let me say
that I agree with the statement embodied in
the clipping you sent me, to the effect that,
as a result of the Dispensary System, the
local whiskey rings in South Carolina have
been destroyed, and with them the influence
of the bar-keeper as a political manipulator.
Nevertheless, the Governor of South Carolina,
whom you quote, was quite right in saying
' It is notorious that the Dispensary is
as much or more in politics than it ever
was.' But he refers to the spoils system in
our political life. Where that exists — and it
flourishes in South Carolina — all undertakings
of the State become so many political 'jobs.'
Thus, adherents of the party that established
the Dispensary System were selected to conduct
all Dispensary affairs. It was their reward
264 APPENDICES.
for political services in the past, and the
condition of further ' party work ' in the future.
The evils of the spoils system are, however,
quite distinct from the nefarious activity of
the liquor dealers in politics. But the latter
has been destroyed for all time in South Carolina^
and if the Dispeftsary System had accomplished
nothing else, it would have been worth the
experiment.
" What I have said is perfectly consistent
with the statement made by the Committee
of Fifty in their first Report (2nd ed., p. 166),
and which Mr. John Walker quotes in his
book. It is one thing to say that the ' State
control of the sale of liquor cannot be dis-
sociated from politics,' and quite another that
by taking the trade out of private hands the
political influence of the trade has been
destroyed. If Mr, Walker had understood
American politics, he would not have made
the mistake of using the quotation in question
to support his position. Since the report of
the Committee of Fifty was written, things
APPENDICES. 265
have changed for the better in South CaroHna.
Many of the political abuses under the
Dispensary System have been corrected :
affairs are managed more on a business basis
than with an eye to political advantage ; and
I look forward to the time when it only can
be said in a very restricted sense that the
Dispensary System is a part of the political
machine of South Carolina. At present the
point to be remembered is that Soiith Carolina
is the only State in the Union without a
pernicious saloon element in control of public
affairs. Surely this is a great gain."
Are the Statistics of the
Consumption of Spirits in Gothenburg,
Stockholm, and Bergen trustworthy ?
Mr. Walker not only questions the statistics
of the national consumption of spirits in
Scandinavia, but also those of the individual
Companies. Thus (p. 24), referring to
our table showing the bar sale of spirits
in Gothenburg from 1875 to 1899,^ he
writes : —
" Such a statement can only be prepared by-
inquiring at the different sources of retail
supply, and adding the results together."
1 The Temperance Problem and Social Reform, 7th edition, p. 457.
266 APPENDICES.
He then considers what an inquiry of this
kind would entail in such a city as Edinburgh,
and concludes : —
" Consequently, among the hundreds of
different channels of supply, it would be
impossible to arrive at a true estimate of the
sale in any of our towns or in any one locality ;
ajid the Stvedes arc less well provided tvith the
vieajis of doing so than oicrselves. Yet Dr. Gould,
Messrs. Rowutree and Sherwell, Mr. Whitiaker
in his ' Memorandum on the Royal Commission
Report,' and almost every other writer treat
these figures as if they were wholly trustworthy,
and accept them as completely refuting such
judicially recorded statistics as arrests."
Mr. Walker, in this passage, draws no
distinction between statistics of consumption
and estimates of consumption. The writers
whom he quotes, so far as we are aware,
always differentiate between the two. The
figures given in The Temperance Problem and
Social Reform are statistics of consumption,
and are wholly trustworthy. The difficulty
which Mr. Walker imagines to attach to
the obtaining of these figures is, in fact,
non-existent. Mr. Andree, the Manager of
the Gothenburg Bolag, in a letter dated
July 31st, igo2, writes: — "You are perfectly
APPENDICES. 267
right in thinking that we know the consumption
of spirits to the very litre at our retail [off]
and bar shops." The method adopted for
supplying the various Bolag establishments
is of course entirely different from that which
obtains in Scotland or England. As Mr.
Andree says, " Our managers send their
requisition to the office, and we order from
the different wholesale dealers the quantity
of spirits required. The casks, large and
small, are marked by the Government, so
we order cask number so-and-so to be filled."
As the clubs, hotels, and restaurants are all
supplied from the Bolag, their sales are knoivn
equally with those in the Bolag shops, and are
included in the published returns.
In Bergen, the check upon sales is equally
complete. Mr. Wilson writes : —
"The stewards indent upon the Society's
warehouse for what liquors they require to
maintain the stocks of the bar under their
charge, and they are held responsible for the
value. The cash received at the bars is
paid daily to the cashier at the head office.
268
APPENDICES.
and the stewards render a statement of
unsold stocks once a week ; while an
inspector checks the stocks and sees that
they correspond with the accounts kept at
the head office. The cash received at the
head office and the value of the unsold
stock must balance the account of the bar
kept at the head office." ^
The statistics of consumption given by us
are thus shown to be altogether trustworthy.
The estimates of consumption made by the
writers whom Mr. Walker quotes are the
estimates of trained experts, and their con-
clusions cannot be set aside by his ipse dixit.
Results of Voting
of Norwegian Towns upon the Retention
or Suppression of Samlags.
Number of Towns
in which a Vote
was taken.
Number of Towns
in which Samlag
was retained.
Number of Towns
in which Samlag
was abolished.
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
13
9
11
12
6
2
4
8
8
3
11
5
3
4
3
51 25
26
1 Local Option in Norway, by Thomas M. Wilson, pp. 68, 69.
APPENDICES. 269
It will be seen that the vote taken in
1895 (operating for five years) led to the
suppression of the Samlag in eleven towns,
and to its continuance in two towns — the
suppression of the Samlag carrying with it
the establishment of prohibition. The wisdom
of this policy was questioned at the time
by many friends of temperance, and it may
be of interest to note that, in 1900, twelve^
out of the same thirteen towns voted again,
with the result that the two towns which
had in 1895 retained the Samlag, once more
voted for its continuance, while six towns
which had in 1895 voted against the
Samlag, i.e., for prohibition, now voted for
the re-establishment of the Samlags. The
return of the six towns from prohibition to
the Samlag is the more remarkable as in
these elections those who have the right to
vote but do not exercise it are counted as
1 In the case of the remaining town (Skien) where the abolition
of the Samlag in 1895 led, not to Prohibition, but to the re-establish-
ment of one of the very few privileged licences still existing, the
Chief of the Government Statistical Department, Christiania, writes
that "no new voting has been required."
270 APPENDICES.
voting for the status quo. In 1895 this
regulation gave the vote of the indifferent
to the retention of the Samlags, but in
1900 it gave their vote (in the case of
the eleven towns which had adopted
prohibition) to the retention of prohibition.
The nine towns which had voted in 1896
voted again in 1901, and the eleven towns
which had voted in 1897 voted again in 1902,
but in neither case were the earlier decisions
disturbed. It should, however, be noted that
in Bergen, since the ist of January, 1902, all
' on ' sale of spirits in the town has been
abolished, and since the beginning of 1903 the
* on ' sale has also been abolished in Larvik.
In neither Bergen nor Larvik, however, are
the native spirits sold in sealed bottles, as in
Russia and South CaroHna, but the purchaser
usually brings his own bottle.
APPENDICES.
271
Rate that would be Required
to Meet the Estimated Cost of Counteracting
Agencies if borne by the Rates.
BOROUGH.
Population.
1901.
Yearly sum
that would be
required for
Counteracting
Agencies.
Yield of a
Penny
Municipal
Rate.i
II.
Rate that would
be required
to meet the
cost of
Counteracting
Agencies.
III.
London —
Bermondsej'
130,760
129,680
168,822
298,600
206,180
137,289
81,942
176,628
143,976
133,301
235,317
183,011
168,907
259,339
112,239
232,034
301,895
101,463
334,991
219,272
26,923
£
13,076
12,968
16,882
29,860
20,618
13,729
8,194
17,663
14,398
13,330
23,532
18,301
16.891
25,934
11,224
23 203
£
1,893
2,159
3,287
5,833
5,182
3,197
3,994
9,308
6,050
7.034
7,508
22,805
4,216
5,288
2,863
d.
7
Bethnal Green
Poplar
6
5
Stepney
South wark
4
Fulham
4i
2
Hampstead
Kensington
2
Paddington
St. Marylebone ...
St. Pancras
2^
2
4
4
Westminster
Battersea
Camberwell
5
Hammersmith
Wandsworth
4
3J
3^
Lambeth
30 189 7 7Q.*;
Finsbur}'
10,146
33,499
21,927
2.692
3,986
7,970
4.854
20,368
"-'4
2^
Islington
Hackney
4^
City of London ...
^2
Administrative
County of London
4,536,541
453,654
167,027
2f
1 The yield of a penny rate is only a rough indication of the
rateable value of a town, as some places deliberately adopt a low
rate of valuations. For the purposes of this table, however, these
variations are immaterial.
TOWN.
Population.
1901.
England & Wales —
Iviverpool
Manchester
Birmingham
Leeds
Sheffield
Bristol
West Ham
Bradford
Nottingham
Hull
Newcastle
Salford
lyeicester
Portsmouth
Cardiff
Bolton
Sunderland
Blackburn
Birkenhead
Preston
Norwich
Gateshead
Plymouth
Derby
Swansea
Wolverhampton ...
Middlesbrough
Northampton
York
Grimsby
Barrow-in-Furness
Great Yarmouth ...
Tynemouth
Burton-on-Trent . . .
Oxford
Cambridge
Scarborough
Hartlepool
684,947
543,969
522,182
428.958
380,717
328,842
267,308
279,809
239,753
240,618
214,803
220,956
211,574
189,160
164,420
168,205
146,565
127,527
110,926
112,982
111,728
109,887
107.509
105,785
94,514
94,179
91,317
87,021
77.793
63,138
57,584
51,260
51,514
50,386
49 413
38,393
38.160
22,737
Yearly sum
that would be
required for
Counteracting
Agencies.
I.
Yield of a
Penny
Municipal
Rate.i
II.
Kate that would
be required
to meet the
cost of
Counteracting
Agencies.
III.
£
68.495
54.397
52,218
42.895
38,072
32,884
26,731
27,981
23,975
24,062
21,480
22.096
21,157
18.916
16.442
16,820
14,656
12,753
11,093
11,298
11,173
10,989
10.751
10,578
9,451
9,418
9.182
8.702
7,780
6,314
6,759
5.125
5.151
5,039
4,941
3,840
3,816
2,274
i
13,580
18,210
11,495
7,518
6,560
6,100
4,500
5,322
3,750
3,948
5,000
3,718
3,860
3,325
4,023
2,916
2,384
2,031
2,300
1.500
1,600
1,416
1,880
2,067
1,462
1,389
1,285
1,470
1,603
964
987
755
934
1,300
1,460
1,038
880
306
Average
1 See footnote on previous page.
272
APPENDICES.
273
TOWN.
Population.
1901.
Scotland—
Glasgow
Edinburgh
Dundee
Aberdeen ...
Paisley
Govan
Leith
Greenock ...
Kilmarnock
Kirkcaldy ...
Hamilton ...
Perth
Ayr
Falkirk
Dumbarton
Stirling
Dunfermline
760,423
816,479
160.871
163,108
79,355
76,351
76.667
67,645
34.161
35.000
32.775
32.872
28.624
29,271
18,836
18,403
25,250
Yearly sum
that would be
required for
Counteracting
Agencies.
I.
Yield of a
Penny
Municipal
Rate.^
11.
76.042
31,648
16.087
15,311
7,935
7.635
7.667
6,764
3,416
3,500
3,277
3,287
2,862
2,927
1,884
1,840
2.525
Rate that would
be required
to meet the
cost of
Counteracting
Agencies.
III.
£
19,000
10,636
3,093
3,280
1,367
1,200
2,036
1,2.50
537
500
526
700
657
460
290
395
390
Average
d.
4
3
5i
4^
5J
6i
3f
5h
6i
7
6i
4f
4i
6i
6^
4f
6^
5i
Ireland—
Dublin
Belfast
Cork
Londonderry
Limerick ....
Galway
289,108
348,965
75,978
39,873
38,085
13.414
£
28.910
34,896
7.598
3,987
3,808
1.341
£
3,630
4,500
716
400
280
110
Average!
d.
8
7f
10^
10
13i
I2I
i_
101
1 See footnote, p. 271.
Index.
Aarestad, Mr., quoted,
122, 147.
Aberdeen, drunkenness
in, 13, 20, 256; rate
required to meet cost
of counter-attractions
in, 273.
Absolute Alcohoi., see
2uiderh\Q.o\iQ>\2i\\6. Spirits.
Age lyiMiT, see U7ider
Children.
AiR-GuN Clubs, in Bir-
mingham, 132.
Alcohoe, excessive con-
sumption of in United
Kingdom, i; expenditure
upon, I, 2 ; consumption
of in United States of
America compared with
United Kingdom, 2 ;
alcoholic strength of
spirits in Stockholm. 52,
54. 58, 59 ; in Gothen-
burg, 32 (footnote), 52,
54,58,59; in Christiania,
52, 54, 60 ; in Bergen, 52,
54. 59, 60.
Alcoholic Strength of
Spirits, see binder K\Q.oh.o\
and Spirits.
Allia7ice News, quoted, 40
(footnote).
Alh'mice Record, quoted,
137-
America, alleged illicit
distillation in, xii., xvi. ;
reliableness of statistics
of consumption in, xv. ;
consumption of spirits
in, XV., 2, 62 ; duty on
spirits in, 62 ; trade
menace in, 103, 259;
counter-attractions in,
220.
Andree, Mr. Ernst,
quoted, 33 (footnote),
35, 158, 266, 267.
Anson, Captain G. A.,
quoted, 15.
Arrests for Drunken-
ness, as an index of
intemperance, 14, 17 ;
in Gothenburg, not due
to Company system, 32 ;
in Liverpool, 40 (foot-
note) ; analysis of in
Gothenburg, 41. Seealso
zinder Drunkenness.
Atlatiiic Monthly, The,
quoted, 104.
Ayr, drunkenness in, 20,
256 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
276
INDEX.
Back-doors to Public-
houses, in Liverpool,
131, 203; not found
under Gothenburg sys-
tem, 131.
Barrow-in-Furness,
drunkenness in, 255 ;
rate required to meet
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 272.
Bass, Mr., quoted, 83
(footnote).
Battersea, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Beckman, Mr. Ernst,
quoted, 69.
Beer, no monopoly of
sale of, by Samlag, viii.,
33 ; sale of, in Sweden,
24, 33 ; in Gothenburg,
33. 35' 38. 40 (footnote),
44 (footnote) ; consump-
tion of, in England and
Wales, Ireland, Scotland
and United Kingdom,
35 (footnote); in Gothen-
burg, 35, 36 ; in Sweden
and Norway compared,
56 ; in Liverpool, 208 ;
price of, in Gothenburg,
36; number of beershops
in Gothenburg, 36 ;
police report upon sale
of, in Gothenburg,
quoted, 37 ; effect of sale
of upon intemperance
in Gothenburg, 41 ;
petition to bring sale of
under Company sj^stem,
49, 50, 230 ; relation of
taxation to consumption
of, 56 ; duty on, in
Norway, 57 ; in England,
57 (footnote) ; recom-
mendations of Tem-
perance party as to sale
of, 120, 121, 162, 230;
extra price charged for,
to Samlags, 123. Sec
also tinder Malt.
Beer Duty, in England,
57 (footnote). See also
tinder Malt.
Beer Trade, The, and the
Company system, viii.,
zz^ 147.
Belfast, drunkenness in,
255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Belgium, duty on spirits
in, 62 ; consumption of
spirits in, 62.
Benefits ofthe Company
System, 7, 227-237.
Bergen, drunkenness in,
13 ; price of spirits in,
52, 54, 58, 60 ; alcoholic
strength of spirits in,
52, 54, 59, 60 ; effect of
Company system in, 179 ;
consumption of spirits
in, 211 ; reduction of
sale of spirits in, under
Company system, 211 ;
constitution of Munici-
pal Council in, 250 ;
reliableness of statistics
in, 265 ; abolition of
" on" sales in, 270.
Bermondsey, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
INDEX.
277
Berner, Mr. H. E , quoted,
121, 146, 165.
Bethnal Green, esti-
mated cost of counter-
attractions in, 224, 271.
BiLLSON, Mr. a. a., quoted,
136.
Birkenhead, drunkenness
in, 254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter- .
attractions in, 272.
Birmingham, air-gun
clubs in, 132 ; estimated
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 224, 272 ;
number of "on" licences
to population in, 197 ;
drunkenness in, 254.
Bishop of Gothenburg,
quoted, 49, 50.
Blackburn, drunkenness
in, 254; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Blidberg, Mr. Figge,
quoted, 45.
Blogg, Rev. Henry, M. a.,
quoted, 180 (footnote).
Blomouist, Mr. M, G.,
quoted, 107.
BOLAG, sale of beer by, 33
(footnote); eating-houses
introduced by, 28 ; as a
reforming agency,
opinions upon, 170. See
also wider Company
System and Gothenburg.
Bolton, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Bradfield (Berks.),
pauperism in, 76.
Bradford, proportion of
"on" licences to popula-
tion in, 197; drunkenness
in, 254; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Branvin, definition of, 25
(footnote).
Breach of the Peace,
relation of, to drunken-
ness, in Scandinavia, 17 ;
in Scotland, 18, 19.
Brewers, political in-
fluence of, 83 (footnote),
98-102, 107 (footnote),
119, 121, 164, 228; control
of sale of beer, in hands
of. 1 21-124. See also
under Menace.
Brewers^ Almanack, The,
quoted, 80, 85.
Brewers' Jotiriial, The,
quoted, 100.
Brewery Shareholders,
political organisation of,
98, 228 ; power of, as
affected by controlling
system, 124. See also
U7ider Menace.
Brewery Shareholders'
Association, The
National, 100.
Bristol, number of " on "
licences to population
in, 197 ; estimated cost
of counter-attractions in,
224, 272 ; drunkenness
in, 254.
British Consuls, testi-
mony of, in favour of
278
INDEX.
controlling system, 166,
167, 180 (footnote).
British Gothenburg Experi-
■}ne7its and Public-House
Trusts, quoted, 4 (foot-
note), 128.
Brooks, Mr. J. Graham,
quoted, 8 (footnote).
Bruce, Mr., referred to, 79.
BuRTON-ON-TRENT,drunk- ^
euness in, 255 ; rate
required to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
272.
Cai^kins, Mr. Raymond,
quoted, 220.
Camberwell, rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter - attractions in,
271.
Cambridge, drunkenness
in, 255 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions, 272.
Caudelet, Mr. Geo.,
quoted, 92.
Cardiff, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Chamberlain, Mr.
Arthur, quoted, 132,197.
Chamberlain, Mr.Joseph,
quoted, 108, 170.
Children, sale of liquor
to, 28 ; in Gothenburg
and in United Kingdom,
28 ; in Liverpool, 203.
Christiania, drunkenness
in, 13 ; price of spirits
in, 52, 54, 60 ; alcoholic
strength of spirits in,
52, 54, 60.
Christiansand, Samlag's
action in restricting
sales, 141, 142; coffee
houses established by
Samlag in, 142 ; effect
of Company system in,
176.
City of London, rate
required to meet cost
of counter-attractions
in, 271.
Class Divisions in
Gothenburg, 26 (foot-
note).
Coffee Houses, estab-
lished by Christiansand
Samlag, 142.
"Committee of Fifty,"
quoted, 103, 139, 220,
259-
Cofunionwealth as Publica7i,
The, viii., 4, 169. See
also underWoXker, Mr. J.
Company System, The,
opposition to, 3, 121 ;
benefits of, 7, 227-237 ;
local control essential
to, 10 ; essentially a
controlling system, 24,
184; Gothenburg under,
24 ; restrictions under,
24-29, 58, 141 ; effect of,
upon drunkenness, 40
(footnote) ; not respon-
sible for drunkenness,
43 ; divorce of drink
trade from politics,
under, ix., 105 ; Dis-
pensary system distin-
guished from, 10, 126 ;
INDEX.
279
private licence con-
trasted with, 141 ; tem-
perance work carried
out under, 141 ; coffee
houses established
under, 142 ; progressive
character of, 144 ; evi-
dence of progress under,
145 ; temperance resolu-
tions favourable to, 146 ;
relation of, to the Beer
Traffic, viii., 147 ; tem-
perance support of, 147,
230; strength of system
evidenced, 148 ; improve-
ment in, since 1874, 148 ;
recent record of, 149 ;
corruption alleged, 151 ;
the allegation refuted,
153 ; number of share-
holders in Swedish
Bolags ( 1901), 156 ;
reforms in, asked for,
158 ; Sunday closing
under, 158, 159 (foot-
note) ; appropriation of
profits under, 157, 163-
168, 186; evidence of
foreign observers upon,
169-180; inquiries into,
reviewed, 171; Mr.
Carroll D. Wright's
testimony to, quoted,
171 ; Dr. Gould's opinion
of, 173; Mr. John
Koren's investigation of,
174; Mr. Conradi, quoted,
176 ; effect of, in Chris-
tiansand, 177; Mr.
Franklin (Vice-Consul),
quoted, 178; Mr. T. M.
Wilson's testimony to,
178, 179; effect of, in
Bergen, 179, 211; other
testimony in favour of,
166, 167, 180; compared
with Public-House
Trusts, 1 81-19 1 ; method
of establishment of, in
towns, 185 ; safeguards
against ill-considered
schemes of, 186-188;
association of Com-
panies with Municipali-
ties, 160-161, 185-1S7;
transactions under,
open to scrutiny, 188;
possibilities of, com-
pared with private
licence, 192-226; reforms
easily effected under,
212, 232 ; advantages of,
227-237. See also under
Gothenburg ayid Goth-
enburg System.
Compensation, to
dispossessed licence
holders, not paid in
Liverpool, 202 ; question
of, in Sweden and
Norway, 239; in Russia,
241.
Covipleat Efiglish Trades-
man, 7">^^(Defoe), quoted,
140.
Condemnation of pres-
ent lyiCENSiNG System,
2.
Conduct of Licensed
Houses, Liverpool, 204.
Conradi, Mr. T. M.,
quoted, 176.
Consular Report, quoted,
48, 137, 242.
28o
INDEX.
Consuls' Opinion op
Company System, i66,
176, 178, 180 (footnote).
Contempora7y Review, The,
quoted, 214.
Controlling System, see
under Company System.
Cork, estimated cost of
counter-attractions in,
224, 273 ; drunkenness
in. 255.
Corruption, alleged
against Companies, 151 ;
allegation refuted, 153.
Counter- Attractions,
need of, 9, 213 ; in Goth-
enburg, 149, 150, 164
(footnote), 213, 221; in
Russia, 214; in Moscow,
214; in St. Petersburg,
217; in Warsaw, 219 ; in
United States, 220;
"Substitutes for the
Saloon," 220; estimated
cost of, 223, 271 ; how
funds to be raised to
maintain, 225.
Credit, sales on, abolished,
in Gothenburg, 29, 138;
in Russia. 137.
Criminal Statistics for
England and Wales,
quoted, 133.
Dancing and Music
Licences, reduction of,
in Liverpool, 131, 203.
Davies, Mr. a. T., quoted,
197, 199, 204.
Dean op Gothenburg,
quoted, 49, 50.
Depoe, quoted, 140 (foot-
note).
Denmark, consumption of
spirits in, 61, 62 ; duty
on spirits in, 62.
Derby, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Dispensary System, dis-
tinguished from Com-
pany system, 10, 126 ;
menace eliminated
under, 259.
Distillation, Free, in
Sweden, 112.
Distillers, struggle with,
in Sweden, 110-119 ;
political power of, non-
existent in Sweden, 119,
228. See also tinder
Menace.
Dix, Mr. J. W. G., quoted,
134-
Drink, expenditure on, see
2i7ider Expenditure.
Drink, Temperance and
Legislatio7i, quoted, 207.
Drink Trappic and
Politics, ix., in Scandi-
navia, no. III; divorce
secured by Company
system, 105, 227. See
also tinder Menace.
Drunkenness, in Gothen-
burg, 13 ; in Scandinavia,
13 ; in Scotland, 13, 20,
256 ; arrests for, as an
index of intemperance,
14 ; in Gothenburg due
to sale of beer, 32, 41, 43 ;
conditions requisite for
comparisons of, 14-17 ;
"breach of the peace"
INDEX.
281
included in statistics of,
in Scandinavia, 17 ; not
included in Scotland, 18,
19; effectof control upon,
40 (footnote), 192-210;
decline in, in Liverpool,
193, 194, 254 ; arrests for,
in England and Wales,
254 ; in Ireland, 255 ;
alleged in Finland, 257.
Dublin, estimated cost of
counter-attractions in,
224, 273 ; drunkenness
in, 255.
Dumbarton, drunkenness
in, 20, 256 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273-
Dundee, drunkenness in,
13, 20, 256 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Dtnidee Advertiser, quoted,
135-
Dunfermline, drunken-
ness in, 20, 256 ; rate
required to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
273-
Duty on Spirits, in
Sweden and Norwaj^ 55,
233 ; in principal
European countries, 62.
See also tender Beer and
Spirits.
Eating-houses, intro-
duced by Bolag, 28 ;
sale of spirits in, 28.
Edinburgh, drunkenness
in, 13, 20, 256 ; estimated
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 224, 273.
Elberfeld System in
Gefle, 73.
Electors, number of in
Norway, ix.
Elimination of Private
Profit, 5, 109 ; destroys
political power of Trade,
126.
E7icyclop(Bdia Britannica,
quoted, 75, 76.
England and Wales, age
limit in, compared with
Gothenburg, 28 ; con-
sumption of beer in, 35
(footnote) ; duty on beer
in, 57 (footnote); pauper-
ism in, 74 ; drunkenness
in, 195 (footnote), 254;
rate required to meet cost
of counter - attractions
in towns in, 272.
Essential Principles of
Company System, 5.
Evidence of Foreign
Observers on working
of Company System.
169-180.
Excise Duties, sec tinder
Duties.
Expenditure of Work-
ing Classes on Drink
in United Kingdom,
I, 2, 210.
Falkirk, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Fiery Cross, The, quoted, 94.
Finland, Gothenburg sys-
tem in, 74 ; decreased
282
INDEX.
pauperism in, 74; alleged
drunkenness in, 257.
Finla7id as it is, quoted,
258.
Fiyiland, its Piiblic a7id
Private Economy , quoted,
74-
FiNSBURY, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Food, sold by Bolag in
Gothenburg, 149.
Food and Drugs Act,
referred to, xviii.
Foreign Moneys and
Measures, 247.
Foreign Observers, evi-
dence of, concerning
Company system, 169.
Foreig7i Office Report,
quoted, 137, 242.
FoRSTER, Mr. W. E., Bill
introduced by, 88.
Foriim, 77/6', quoted, 8 (foot-
note).
Fowler, Rt. Hon. H. H.,
Local Government Act
of, used by Trade, 93.
France, duty on spirits
in, 62 ; consumption of
spirits in, 62.
Franchise in Norway,
The, ix., X.
Franklin, Mr. (Vice-
Consul), quoted, 178
(footnote).
Frederiksen, N. C,
quoted, 74.
FuLHAM, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Galway, drunkenness in,
255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Gateshead, drunkenness
in, 254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Gefle, Elberfeld system
^"'73; pauperism in, 73.
Germany, duty on spirits
in, 62 ; consumption of
spirits in, 62.
Glasgow, drunkenness in,
20, 256 ; estimated cost
of counter - attractions
in, 224, 273.
Glasgow Magistrates,
report of, on Liverpool,
129, 19S.
Goteborgs Utskanknings
Aktiebolag, The, quoted,
138.
Gothenburg, drunken-
ness in, 13-50; contrasted
with Scotland, 13; causes
of, 22, 23, 32-50 ; under
Company system, 24 ;
number of spirit shops
in, 24; hours of sale in,
25,37; eating-houses in-
troduced b}'^ Bolag in, 28,
149 ; sale of liquor to
children in, 28 ; com-
pared with England, 28 ;
sales on credit abolished
in, 29, 13S ; effect of
controlling system in,
29-32 ; class divisions
in, 26 (footnote) ; sale of
spirits in, 30 ; price of
spirits in, 23, 52, 54, 58,
INDEX.
283
59; alcoholic strength of
spirits in, 32 (footnote),
52, 54, 58, 59; sale of
spirits by wine mer-
chants in, 32 (footnote) ;
sale of beer in, 33, 35-38,
40 (footnote), 44 (foot-
note) ; price of beer in,
36; number of beershops
in, 36 ; drunkenness in,
due to sale of beer, 32,
41, 43 ; police report,
quoted, 37 ; advance in
wages in, 45, 46 ; Bishop
of, quoted, 50; pauperism
in, 63 ; improvement in
condition of working
classes in, 77 ; food sold
byBolagin, 149; Sunday
closingin, 15S, 159; need
for counter-attractions
in, recognised, 149, 150,
164, 213, 221 ; reliable-
ness of statistics in, 265.
See also tinder Gothen-
burg system.
Gothenburg Bolag, The,
progressive action of,
149. See also lender
Gothenburg and Com-
pany system.
Gothenburg System,
The, objections to, vii. ;
reduction in consump-
tion of spirits under, xi.,
30; criticism of, 3 ; elimi-
nation of private profit
under, 5 ; essential prin-
ciples of, 5 ; benefits
of, 7, 227 ; government
monopoly distinguished
from, 10 ; dispensary
system distinguished
from, 10, 126; applies to
spirits only, 23 ; two
systems contrasted, 40 ;
evidence in favour of, 49,
166-167, 171, 173, 176-
180; petition to bring
beer trade under, 5 ;
pauperism not attribu-
table to, 69 ; effect of,
in Finland, 74 ; attitude
of temperance part}-
towards, 120-122, 145,
161 ; pushing of sales
prior to establishment
of, 138 ; evidence of pro-
gressive character of,
144 ; Norwegian system
compared with Swedish,
160 ; law drafted b}'
temperance leaders, 161 ;
system no bar to further
legislation, 163 ; public
opinion not hindered by
public-house influence,
163 ; except as to beer,
164; profits, how appro-
priated, 164 ; inquiry
into, by Massachusetts
Commissioners, 106, 174;
b}' U.S. Commissioners.
171. See also U7ider
Gothenburg a7id Com-
pany system.
Gothenburg Town
Council, Report of
Committee of. 221.
Gould, Dr. E. R. L.,
quoted, 105, iii, iiS,
161, 170, 172.
GovAN, drunkenness in.
20, 256 ; rate required to
284
INDEX.
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Government Monopoly,
distinguished from Com-
pany system, 10 ; con-
trasted with previous
system in Russia, 137.
Grayshott Association,
Committee of, quoted,
xviii. (footnote).
Grayshott Inn, The,
xvii.
Great Yarmouth, drunk-
enness in, 255; rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter - attractions in,
272.
Greenock, drunkenness
in, 20, 256; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Grimsby, drunkenness in,
255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Guthrie, Mr. Alex-
ander, quoted, 242.
Hackney, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Hamilton, drunkenness
in, 20, 256 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Hammersmith, rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
271.
Hampstead, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Hansard, quoted, 109.
Harcourt. Sir William
v., Ivocal Veto Bill of,
81, 87.
Harstrom, J. F., quoted,
46.
Hartlepool, drunkenness
in, 255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Hartley, Mr. W., quoted,
96.
High Licence, political
corruption under, 103,
104.
Historical and Philosophical
Essays, quoted, 74.
Holland, duty on spirits
in, 62 ; consumption of
spirits in, 62.
Hope, Dr. E. W., quoted,
208, 209.
Houldsworth, Sir
William, quoted, i, 2.
Hours of Sale, in Gothen-
burg, 25 ; in Norway,
159-
Hull, number of " on "
licences in, 197 ; esti-
mated cost of counter-
attractions in, 224, 272 ;
drunkenness in, 254.
HuNGERFORD ( Berks. ) ,
pauperism in, 76.
Illicit Distillation in
Scandinavia, xiii., xiv. ;
alleged in America, xii.,
xvi.
Intemperance, arrests for
drunkenness as an index
INDEX.
285
of, 14. See also wider
Drunkenness.
Ireland, consumption of
beer in, 35 (footnote) ;
drunkenness in, 255 ;
rate required to meet
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in principal towns
in, 273.
Irgens, Mr. Jorgen,
quoted, viii., 250.
Islington, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Jensen, Mr. Lars O.,
quoted, 107 ; referred to,
146.
Jerome, Mr. William
TravERS, quoted, 139.
Kensington, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Ki^R, Mr. a. N., quoted,
xiv.
Kilmarnock, drunkenness
in, 20, 256 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Kirkcaldy, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
KoREN, Mr. John, quoted,
106 ; referred to, 172 ;
inquiry into Company
system by, 174. 263.
Kropotkin, Prince,
quoted, 257.
Lambeth, estimated cost
of counter-attractions
in, 224, 271.
lyARViK, abolition of " on "
sales in, 270.
Lawson, Sir W., quoted,
90, 91, 213.
Leeds, number of "on"
licences in, 197 ; esti-
mated cost of counter-
attractions in, 224, 272 ;
drunkenness in, 254.
Leicester, drunkenness
in, 254; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Leith, drunkenness in,
20, 256 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Licence, private, defects
of, I, 2; contrasted with
Company system, 6, 141,
192 ; pushing of sales
under, 127-143 ; com-
munities fettered by,
226. See also tender
Private Licence.
Licences, method of
granting, in Sweden and
Norwa3% 248.
Licensed Premises, in
United Kingdom, num-
ber of, 84, 231 : super-
vision of, in Liverpool,
204, 205 ; reduction of,
in Liverpool, 194; sur-
render of, 204, 242, 246
(footnote).
Licensed Victuallers'
Defence League,
National, quoted, 91,
93. 94-
Lie C7i sing Adniimsirahon
in Liverpool, quoted, 199.
286
INDEX.
Lice?ising in the City of
Birtningham, quoted, 197.
Licensing Problem and
Magisterial Discretion,
The, quoted, 199, 204.
Licensing System, con-
demnation of present, 2.
Licensing Wo rid, Th e ,
quoted, 83 (footnote), 96.
Limerick, drunkenness
in, 255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
lyiNDBERG, K., quoted,
xiii.
Liq2wr P7vble}}i i7i its
Legislative Aspects, The,
quoted, 104, 139.
Liquor Trade (The) and
P01.1TICS, 140, 259.
See also binder Brewer,
Distiller, Drink Traffic
and Politics, Menace
and Shareholders.
Liquor Trade, profits of,
see under Profits.
Liverpool, arrests for
drunkenness in, 40 (foot-
note), 254 ; objections to
renewals of licences in,
129 ; Vigilance Com-
mittee, quoted, 130, 204 ;
reduction of music and
dancing licences in, 131,
203 ; closing of back-
doors in, 131, 203 ; effect
of enforcement of licens-
ing laws in, 192 ; reduc-
tion of drunkenness in,
193, 194 ; reduction of
licensed premises in,
194; number of "on"
licences to population
in, 197 ; Glasgow Magi-
strates' report on, 198 ;
additions to, and reduc-
tions of, "on" licences
in, 201 ; serving children
in, 203 ; conduct of
licensed houses in. 204 ;
removal or surrender of
licences in, 204, 242 ;
police supervision in,
205 ; limited result of
reforms in, 207 ; con-
sumption of beer in,
208 ; compared with
England and Wales,
209 ; cost of counter-
attractions in, 223, 272.
Liverpool Daily Post,
quoted, 203, 208.
Local Control essen-
tial TO Company
System, 10.
Local Government
Board, 30/// Aymnal
Report of, quoted, 63
(footnote).
Local Option in Noi"ivay
(Wilson), quoted, 161.
Local Veto, opposition of
Trade to, 81, 87 ; power
of Brewery Shareholders
on, 125 (footnote).
London, drunkenness in,
254 ; estimated cost of
counter-attractions in
boroughs of, 224, 271.
Londonderry, drunken-
ness in, 255 ; rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter - attractions in,
273-
INDEX.
287
Lords' Committee on
Intemperance, Report
of, quoted, 151.
Malt, duty on, in Norway,
57-
Manchester, number of
"on" licences in, 197;
drunkenness in, 254 ;
rate required to meet
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 272.
Massachusetts State
Commissioners, inquiry
by, 106, 174; opinion of,
on Company system, 176.
McHardy, Colonel,
quoted, 18.
Menace, to Municipal
and Political Life,
The, elimination of,
under Company system,
8, 78, 105, 109, 110-119,
163, 227, 228 ; under
Dispensary s^-stem, 259 ;
evidence of existence of,
in United Kingdom. 80 ;
unlimited Trade funds
promised, 83 (footnote) ;
number of " local instru-
ments," 84 ; the influence
of publicans, 85 ; how
exercised, 85 ; labelling
Members of Parliament,
86 ; political power of
Trade questioned by Mr.
Walker, 87 ; evidence of
the power and its exer-
cise, 87 ; opposition of
Trade to Local Veto Bill,
87 ; to Mr. W. E. Forster's
Bill (1868), 88 ; attempt
to capture parish coun-
cils, 93 ; '■ Our Trade,
Our Politics," 96 ; a new
danger. 97 ; the public
as brewery shareholders,
98 ; Brewery Share-
holders' League, 100,
228; existence of menace
in America, 103 ; dis-
turbing influence of the
" drink question " on
local politics, 109 ; rise
and overthrow of menace
in Sweden, 110-119 ;
growth of, in England,
228. See also 7inder
Brewers, Brewery Share-
holders, Distillers, Drink
Traffic and Politics, and
Political Influence of
the Liquor Trade.
MicHELL, Mr. (Consul),
quoted, 165.
Middlesbrough, drunk-
enness in, 254 ; rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
272.
Mill, John Stuart,
quoted, 184.
Minority Report of
THE Committee of
Revision, 122 (footnote).
Monopoly, essential to
success, 182.
Mornijig Advertiser, The,
quoted, 88, 89, 95.
Moscow, counter-attrac-
tions in, 214.
Municipal Affairs, quoted,
139-
288
INDEX.
MuNiciPAi, AND Political,
lyiFE, danger to, seeujider
Menace, Brewers, Dis-
tillers, Drink Traffic
and Politics, Political
Influence of the Liquor
Trade, Brewery Share-
holders.
Municipal Councils, re-
lation of, to controlling
companies, i6o, i6i,
185-187.
Music and Dancing
Licences, reduction of,
in Liverpool, 131, 203.
National Trade De-
fence Fund, Manager
of, quoted, 80, 94.
Newcastle, estimated
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 224, 272 ;
drunkenness in, 254.
New York, Raines Law
in, effect of, 139.
Northampton, drunken-
ness in 255; raterequired
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Norway, suffrage in, ix.,
X. ; statistics of con-
sumption in, reliableness
of, xii., 265 ; drunken-
ness in, 13 ; increase of
wages in, 48 ; prices of,
and duty on, spirits in,
51; consumption of
beer in, 56 ; consump-
tion of spirits in, 53, 62
duty on malt in, 57
duty on spirits in, 62
divorce of liquor traffic
from politics in, 106;
the Act of 1894, 146 ;
Act of 1871, quoted, 160 ;
hours of sale in, 159 ;
appropriation of profits
in, 163-168, 186; question
of compensation in, 239 ;
method of granting
licences in, 248.
Norwegian System, com-
pared with Swedish, 160;
progressive character of,
160 ; essentially one of
control, 183 ; contrasted
with public-house trusts,
189.
Norwegian Towns,
voting in, 268.
Norwich, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Nottingham, number of
"on" licences in, 197;
drunkenness in, 254 ;
rate required to meet
cost of counter-attrac-
tions in, 272.
Oliver's, Limited, 134.
"On" Licences, number
of, in various towns, 197;
reduction of, in Liver-
pool, 194, 201.
Opposition to Company
System, 3, 121.
Oxford, drunkenness in,
255 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
INDEX.
289
Paddington, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Paisley, drunkenness in,
20, 256 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Parish Councils, Trade
attempt to capture, 93.
Src also under Menace.
Parsons, Mr. G. F., quoted,
104.
Pauperism, in Gothen-
burg, 63 ; proportion to
population in Gothen-
burg, 62 ; in Sweden, 67 ;
causes of, 6g ; amount
of, in Gefle, 73 ; in
Finland, 74 ; in White-
chapel (1870 and 1899),
76; in St. Olave's (1870
and 1899), 76; in Brad-
field, Berks. (1870 and
1899), 76 ; in Hungerford,
Berks. (1870 and 1899),
76 ; effect of methods of
administration upon, 74;
statistics of, as evidence
of poverty, 75, 76.
Peel's Report, I,ord,
quoted, 109.
Perth, drunkenness in,
13, 20, 256 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Plymouth, drunkenness
in, 254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Police, Chief of, Gothen-
burg, referred to, 169.
Political Influence of
THE lyiQuoR Trade, 78,
104 ; the drink traffic
and politics, ix. ; re-
forms staved off, 79 ;
opposition to Mr. Bruce's
Bill, 79 ; to lyocal Veto
Bill, 87 ; to Mr. Forster's
Bill, 88 ; in Scandinavia,
no, III ; the distiller in
Sweden, 112, 119, 228;
the brewer in Sweden,
119; on elections, 121;
opposition to Company-
system, 121 ; destroyed
b}^ elimination of private
profit, 126, 259. See also
uyidcr Menace.
Poor Law, principles of,
referred to, 184. See also
under Pauperism.
Poplar, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Popular Control of the
Liquor Traffic, quoted,
161, 170, 172.
Portsmouth, drunkenness
in, 254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Poverty, see Pauperism.
Preston, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Price, see under Beer,
Spirits.
Pripp & Son, J. A., quoted,
45-
Prison Commissioners op
Scotland, quoted, 18,
290
INDEX.
Private Interest in
IviQuoR Trade Con-
demned, 2.
Private I,icence, defects
of, 1,2; contrasted with
Company system, 6, 141,
192-226; pushing of sales
under, 127-143. See also
render Licence, private.
Profits, elimination of
private, 5, 109, 235 ;
private profit encourages
intemperance, 127, 235 ;
appropriation of, in
Sweden, 157, 163 ; in
Norwa)^ 163-168, 186 ;
under Public - House
Trusts, 189, 190 ; of
Government Monopoh^
in Russia, 219; suggested
appropriation of, for
counter-attractions, 9,
225 ; secured for com-
munity under Company
system, 232 ; amount of,
per annum, in United
Kingdom, 225, 234.
Progress under Com-
pany System, 145.
Prohibition, in large
towns, 231 ; menace not
destroyed under, 103.
Public -House Trusts,
conditions of success,
4 ; comparison of, with
Compan)^ system, 181-
191 ; appropriation of
profits hy, 189-191.
Public-House Trust
Association, Central,
Report of, quoted, 245.
Pushing of Sales, 127 ;
definition of, 128 ; illus-
trations of, 129-136;
prevented under Com-
pany system, 130-13 1 ;
in Russia, under old
system, 137 ; in Gothen-
burg, prior to control,
138 ; under Raines L,aw
in New York, 139 ; Defoe,
quoted, 140 (footnote) ;
private licence and
company control con-
trasted, 141, 213.
Raines Law (New York),
effect of, 139.
Ramsbury and Hunger-
ford, pauperism in, 76.
Rate required to meet
cost of counter-
attractions, 224, 271.
Reading - Rooms, estab-
lished by Bolag in
Gothenburg, 149, 150 ;
established in Russia,
216.
Recreation Centres,
see under Counter-attrac-
tions.
Report on the Gothenburg
System of Liqtcor Traffic
(Gould), quoted, 118.
Report of the Massachusetts
State Commissioners,
quoted, 143.
Report on the Norwegian
System (Koren), quoted,
106.
Restaurants, in Russia,
215 ; in Gothenburg,
see U7ider Kating-Houses.
INDEX.
291
Royal Commission on
Liquor Laws, Report
of, quoted, 80.
Russia, duty on spirits
in, 62 ; consumption of
spirits in, 62 ; counter-
attractions in, 214 ; work
of temperance com-
mittees in, 216, 217; res-
taurants established in,
215 ; reading-rooms es-
tablished in, 216 ; profits
in, how appropriated,
219 ; question of com-
pensation in, 241.
Russian Spirit Monop-
oly DISTINCT from
Gothenburg System,
10; defects of, 11 ; con-
trast of, with former
system, 137.
Safeguards under Com-
pany System, 186, 188.
St. Marylebone, rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
271.
St. Olave's (South
London), pauperism in,
76.
St. Pancras, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
vSt. Petersburg, work of
temperance committee
in, 217 ; counter-attrac-
tions in, 217.
Sale, see under Consump-
tion, Beer, Spirits.
Sales, the pushing of, see
under Pushing of Sales.
Salpord, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Saloon in Politics, The,
104. See also under
Menace.
Samlags, voting for re-
tention of, 268.
Scandinavia, consump-
tion of spirits in, xii.,
xiii., xiv. ; illicit dis-
tillation in, xiii., xiv.;
drunkenness in, com-
pared with Scotland, 13,
16, 17-21 ; menace de-
stroyed by Company
system, 78. See also
under Gothenburg,
Bergen, Sweden, ajid
Norway.
Scarborough, drunken-
ness in, 255 ; rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter - attractions in,
272.
Scarborough Justices,
circular of, 246 (foot-
note).
Scotland, consumption of
beer in, 35 (footnote) ;
drunkenness in, com-
pared with Scandinavia,
13, 16, 17-21 ; Prison
Commissioners of,
quoted, 18 ; drunken-
ness, statistics of, ex-
amined, iS, 19, 256 ; esti-
mated cost of counter-
attractions in, 224, 273.
Sellers, Miss Edith,
quoted, 214.
292
INDEX.
Senior, Mr. Nassau W.,
quoted, 74, 75.
Shadwell, Dr. Arthur,
quoted, 205-207.
Shareholders, number
of, in Swedish Bolags,
156. See also under
Brewery Shareholders.
Sheffield, number of
"on" licences in, 197;
drunkenness in, 254 ;
rate required to meet cost
of counter - attractions
in, 272.
Smith, Lars Olssen,
efforts of, to suppress
Bolags, III, 114-iig.
South Carolina, Dis-
pensary system, distinct
from Gothenburg sys-
tem, 10, 126; elimina-
tion of menace under
Dispensary system in,
259-
Southwark, rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Spirits, illicit distillation
of, xiii., xiv. ; cheap-
ness of, a cause of
drunkenness, 22, 51 ;
sale of, in Gothenburg,
24, 27, 30-32 ; number of
spirit shops in Gothen-
burg, 24 ; hours of sale
of, in Gothenburg, 25 ;
sale of in eating-houses,
Gothenburg, 28 ; sale of,
to children, in Gothen-
burg, 28 ; abolition of
credit sales of, in
Gothenburg, 29 ; price
of, in Gothenburg, 23 ;
in United Kingdom, 23 ;
size of dram of, in
United Kingdom, 23 ; in
Sweden and Norway, 52 ;
sale of, under Acts of
1855 and 1874, 30
( footnote ) ; reduction
of consumption of, in"
Sweden and Norway,
xi., xii., xiii., 31 ; in
Gothenburg under Com-
pany system, 30 ; in
Bergen, 211 ; prices of,
and duties on, in Sweden
and Norway, 51 ; duties
on, in other countries,
62 ; comparison of duties
on, in Sweden and
Norway, 55 ; effect of
duty upon consumption
of, 55, 61 ; prices of,
in Bergen, Christiania,
Gothenburg, Stockholm,
52-60; alcoholic strength
of, in Stockholm, 52, 54,
58 ; in Gothenburg, 32
(footnote), 52, 54, 58,
59 ; in Christiania, 52,
54, 60; in Bergen, 52,
54, 59, 60 ; restriction of
sale of, in Christiansand,
141, 142 ; sale of, in
Bergen, per capita, 211 ;
consumption of, in chief
European countries, 62 ;
in United States of
America. 62.
Spirit Duties, effect of,
upon consumption, 55,
61. Sec also under
Spirits.
INDEX.
293
Statesman's Year Book, The,
quoted, x.
Statistical Depart-
ments, quoted, Stock-
holm, xiii. ; Christiania,
xiv.
Statistics op Consump-
tion IN Norway and
Sweden, reliableness of,
xi.
Statistics, Tables of,
see jnider Tables of
Statistics.
Stepney, rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 271.
Stewart, Mr. J. W.,
quoted, 208.
Stirling, drunkenness in,
20, 256 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 273.
Stockholm, drunkenness
in, 30 ; price of spirits
in, 52 - 58 ; alcoholic
strength of spirits in,
52, 54, 58, 59.
Substitutes for the
Saloon, 221. See also
under Counter - attrac-
tions.
Suffrage in Norway,
ix., X.
Sunday Closing, in
Sweden, 158; in Nor-
way, 159 (footnote).
"Sunday Closing by
Statute," quoted. 139.
SuNDBARG, Mr. Gustav,
quoted, 71.
Sunderland, drunken-
ness in, 254 ; rate
required to meet cost
of counter-attractions
in, 272.
Surrender of Licences,
204, 242, 246 (footnote).
Swansea, drunkenness in,
254 ; rate required to
meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Sweden, statistics of con-
sumption, reliableness
of, xii., 265 ; drunken-
ness in, 13 ; causes of,
22 ; spirit and beer sales
in, 34 ; consumption of
spirits in, 34, 62 ; in-
creased prosperity in.
48 (footnote) ; prices and
duties on spirits in, 51 ;
consumption of beer in,
56 ; duty on spirits in,
62 ; pauperism in, 67 ;
causes of, 69 ; strictness
of Poor Law statistics in,
70 : divorce of liquor
traffic from politics in,
107 : struggle with dis-
tillers in, no; rise of
menace in, 112; free dis-
tillation in, 112; Act of
1895, quoted, 15S, 159 ;
appropriation of profits
in, 157, 163 ; question of
compensation in, 239 ;
method of granting
licences in, 248. See also
tinder Gothenburg and
Compan}^ System.
Sweden and Norway,
consumption of spirits
in, xii., xiii. ; con-
sumption of beer in,
294
INDEX.
compared, 56. See also
U7ider Sweden and Nor-
way separatel3\
Swedish System, com-
pared with Norwegian,
160.
Swedish Temperance
Union, quoted, 157.
Tables of Statistics :
Beer, consumption of, in
Sweden, 34.
Beer, comparative con-
sumption of,in Sweden
and Norway, 56.
Beer, tax on, in Norway,
57-
Counter-attractions,
amount of grant re-
quired in various
towns, 224, 271.
Drunkenness in Scandi-
navia compared with
Scotland: Mr. Walker's
table, 13.
Drunkenness in fifteen
representative Scotch
towns, 20.
Drunkenness in Gothen-
burg (1875-1902), 21.
Drunkenness in Gothen-
burg, analysis of, 41.
Drunkenness in Liver-
pool, 193, 195-
Drunkenness in prin-
cipal English cities,
254-
Drunkenness in prin-
cipal Irish cities, 255.
Drunkenness in prin-
cipal Scotch cities,
256.
Tables of Statistics :
Duties, spirit, in various
countries, 62.
Foreign moneys and
measures, 247.
Licences, proportion of,
to population in Liver-
pool, 195.
Licences, proportion of,
to population in
various towns, 197.
Licences, additions and
reductions, in Liver-
pool, 201.
Licensed Premises,
number of, in United
Kingdom, 64.
Malt Tax in Norway
(1871-1895), 57.
Pauperism in Gothen-
burg (1892-1902), 65.
Pauperism, ratio of, to
population in Gothen-
burg, 66.
Pauperism in towns and
cotcntry districts in
Sweden, 68.
Pauperism in Gefle, 73
(footnote).
Pauperism in English
Unions, 76.
Rate required for
counter-attractions in
various towns, 224,
271.
Shareholders, number
of, in Swedish Bolags,
156 (footnote).
Spirits, sale of, in Goth-
enburg, 30.
Spirits, consumption of,
in Sweden, 34.
INDEX.
295
Tables of Statistics :
Spirits, consumption of,
in various countries,
62.
Spirits, price of, in
largest towns in
Sweden and Norway,
52, 54-
Spirits, advances in
selling price of, in
Sweden and Norway,
58, 59, 60.
Wages in Gothenburg
(1865 and 1902), 47.
Taxation, relation of to
consumption, spirits, 52,
61 ; beer, 56.
Temperance, attitude of
temperance party to
Controlling system, 120-
122, 145, 146, 147, 161,
162, 230 ; work done by
Companies, 141, 142 ;
Company Laws, drafted
bj^ leaders of, 161 ;
St. Petersburg com-
mittee, quoted, 217.
Temperance Party, see
wider Temperance.
Temperayice Py'oblem and
Social Reforvi, The,
quoted, xii., xiv. (foot-
note), 2, 10 (footnote),
78, 80, 147, 152, 164
(footnote), 222, 225, 234.
Temperance Record, The,
quoted, 112.
Tied Houses, in Norway,
121- 1 23 ; effect of, in
United Kingdom, in
stimulating sales, 128;
evils of, in Victoria, 136.
Times, The, quoted, 92,
128.
Trade, The, as a political
organisation, 80-83. ►S"*?*?
also tinder Menace.
"Trade Electoral
Organisation," 80.
Trade Organisation,
new development in, 97.
Treasury Department,
Washington. United
States of America,
quoted, xvi.
Trevelyan, Sir G. O.,
quoted, 83 (footnote).
Tynemouth, drunkenness
in, 255 ; rate required
to meet cost of counter-
attractions in, 272.
Union, need for, among
temperance workers, 236.
United Kingdo7n Alliance
Vindicated, The, quoted,
33 (footnote), 40 (foot-
note).
United Kingdom, ex-
cessive consumption of
alcohol in, i , consump-
tion of beer in, 35 (foot-
note) ; price of spirits in,
compared with Sweden
and Norwa}^ 52 ; duty
on spirits in, 62 ; con-
sumption of spirits in,
62 ; number of licensed
premises in, 84 ; duty on
beer in, 57 (footnote).
United States, sec tinder
America.
Vigilance Committee of
Liverpool, quoted, 130
204.
296
INDEX.
ViNCE, Mr. T. Jeffrey,
quoted, 100.
Voting, on Samlags, in
Norwegian towns, 26S.
Wages, in Gothenburg,
advance in, 45, 46 ; com-
parative table of, 47.
Wai^ker, Mr. John, M.A.,
quoted, vii., ix., xii.,
xiu., xvu., 4, 10 (foot-
note), 13, 14, 17, 19, 41
footnote), 42, 44, 63, 66
(footnote), 67, 78, 79, 87,
99, no, 127, 144, 151,
152, 153, 154, 156, 158,
159, 165, 169, 170, 178
(footnote), 231, 233, 239,
241, 248, 257, 259, 265.
Wandsworth, rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
271.
Warsaw, grant for
counter - attractions in,
219.
Waterford, drunkenness
in. 255-
West Ham, estimated cost
of counter - attractions
in, 224, 272.
Westminster, rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter-attractions in,
271.
Whaf I saw of the Go f hen-
burg System in Bergeji,
quoted, 180 (footnote).
What is the Gothe^iburg
System ? quoted, 30
(footnote).
Whitechapei, (East
lyoudon), pauperism in,
76.
Whittaker, Mr. T. P.,
quoted, 109 (footnote).
Whyte, Mr. James,
quoted, 33 (footnote), 40
(footnote).
WiESELGREN, Dr., quoted,
17 (footnote), 42 (foot-
note), 77, III, 112, 113,
119, 120, 148, 154, 240.
Wilson, Mr. Thomas M.,
quoted, 48, 161, 167, 178,
179, 241, 267.
WiNDT, Mr. Harry De,
quoted, 258.
Wi7ie Trade Review, The,
quoted, 135.
Wolverhampton, drunk-
enness in, 254; rate re-
quired to meet cost of
counter - attractions in,
272.
Working Classes, im-
provement in condition
of, in Gothenburg, 45,
46, 47, 77 ; excessive ex-
penditure b}', on alcohol,
I, 210.
Workman, Rev. H. W..
quoted, 31 (footnote).
Wright, Mr. Carroll D.^
quoted, 171.
Yarmouth, see under Great
Yarmouth.
Yerkes, Mr. J. W., quoted,
xvi. \
York, drunkenness in,
255 ; rate /required to
meet Qost of counter-
attracti-ons in, 272.
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