if any such there be, whose living is taken away from him, should receive enough to let him end his days in honorable retirement. The bar-tender who is unemployed, the barmaid who is thrown on an over-stocked labor market, should be entitled to assistance and out-of-work benefit. Lastly, the widow or the orphan, or the elderly spinster whose little all has been invested in a public house should not be driven to despair and suicide. All such cases should be met fairly, and even liberally. But I would refuse one penny of compensation to brewery companies owning tied houses, to landlords who have already fattened on a law-created monopoly, to mortgagees, to jolly publicans in the prime of life, and to all and sundry who are quite well able to take care of themselves, and for whom a five years' warning is the very utmost that can be demanded.*

This, then, is the law. That it needs reform is generally admitted. The question at issue is the method to be chosen.

The teetotal party has long advocated Local Veto. Fabian Tract No. 86 will explain why this proposal must be unhesitatingly condemned, and what alternatives can be adopted.

This was the opinion of the writer. For the view of the subject adopted by the Society, see Fabian Tract No. 86," Municipal Drink Traffic."

0

LIST OF BOOKS.

The following are the best books on the Licensing Question :

The Temperance Problem and Social Reform. By J. ROWNTREE and A. SHERWELL. Hodder; ninth edition. 6s. This is by far the fullest compendium of information on the problem.

Other valuable volumes by the same writers are:

British Gothenburg Experiments and Public House Trusts. Hodder; second edn., 1901. 2s. 6d.

Public Control of the Liquor Traffic...1903. 2s. 6d. net.

The Case for Municipal Drink Trade. By E. R. PEASE. King; 1904. 2s. 6d. net. The History of Liquor Licensing in England, principally from 1700 to 1830. By SIDNEY and BEATRICE WEBB.. Longmans; 1903. 2s. 6d. net.

Drink, Temperance and Legislation. By ARTHUR SHADWELL, M.A M.D. Longmans; 1902. 2s. 6d. net. Å valuable criticism of current opinions.

Alcoholism: A Study in Heredity. By G. ARCHDALL REID. Unwin; 1901

.6s. net.

Final Report of the Royal Commission on the Operation and Administration of the Laws relating to the Sale of Intoxicating Liquors, C-9379. 1899. 35. 6d.

The above are all modern books of high value. ✨ A fuller Bibliography is given in The Case for Municipal Drink Trade.

''

ment of its Rules and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.) Paper cover, /-; plain cloth, 2/-, post free from the Secretary. FABIAN TRACTS and LEAFLETS.

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TRACTS.-121. Public Service versus Private Expenditure. By Sir OLIVER LODGE. 113. Communism. By WM. MORRIS. 107. Socialism for Millionaires. By BERNARD SHAW. 79. A Word of Remembrance and Caution to the Rich. By_JOHN WOOLMAN. 78. Socialism and the Teaching of Christ. By Dr. JOHN CLIFFORD. 87. The same in Welsh. 42. Christian Socialism. By Rev. S. D. HEADLAM. 75. Labor in the Longest Reign. By SIDNEY WEBB. 72. The Moral Aspects of Socialism. By SIDNEY BALL. 69. Difficulties of Individualism. By SIDNEY WEBB. 51. Socialism: True and False. By S. WEBB. 45. The Impossibilities of Anarchism. By BERNARD SHAW (price 2d.). 15. English Progress towards Social Democracy. By S. WEBB. 7. Capital and Land (6th edn. revised 1904). 5. Facts for Socialists (9th edn., revised 1904). LEAFLETS-13. What Socialism Is. 1. Why are the Many Poor? 38. The same in Welsh. II.-Applications of Socialism to Particular Problems. 122. Municipal

TRACTS.-126. The Abolition of Poor Law Guardians. Milk and Public Health. By Dr. F. LAWSON DODD. 120. "After Bread, Education." 125. Municipalization by Provinces. 119. Public Control of Electrical Power and Transit. 123. The Revival of Agriculture. 118. The Secret of Rural Depopulation. 115. State Aid to Agriculture: an Example. 112. Life in the Laundry. 110. Problems of Indian Poverty. 98. State Railways for Ireland. 124. State Control of Trusts. 86. Municipal Drink Traffic. 85. Liquor Licensing at Home and Abroad. 84. Economics of Direct Employment. 83. State Arbitration and the Living Wage. 73. Case for State Pensions in Old Age. 67. Women and the Factory Acts. 50. Sweating: its Cause and Remedy. 48. Eight Hours by Law. 23. Case for an Eight Hours Bill. 47. The Unemployed. By JOHN BURNS, M.P. LEAFLETS.-89. Old Age Pensions at Work. 19. What the Farm Laborer Wants. 104. How Trade Unions benefit Workmen. III.-Local Government Powers: How to use them. TRACTS.-117. The London Education Act, 1903: how to make the best of it. 114. The Education Act, 1902. 111. Reform of Reformatories and Industrial Schools. By H. T. HOLMES. 109. Cottage Plans and Common Sense. By RAYMOND UNWIN. 103. Overcrowding in London and its Remedy. By W. C. STEADMAN, L.C.C. 101. The House Famine and How to Relieve it. 52 pp. 76. Houses for the People. 100. Metropolitan Borough Councils. 99. Local Government in Ireland 82. Workmen's Compensation Act. 62. Parish and District Councils. 61. The London County Council. 54. The Humanizing of the Poor Law. By J. F. OAKESHOTT. LEAFLETS.-68. The Tenant's Sanitary Catechism. 71. Same for London. 63. Parish Council Cottages and how to get them. 58. Allotments and how to get them. FABIAN MUNICIPAL PROGRAM, FIRST SERIES (Nos. 32, 36, 37). Municipalization of the Gas Supply. The Scandal of London's Markets. A Labor Policy for Public Authorities. SECOND SERIES (Nos. go to 97). Municipalization of Milk Supply. Municipal Pawnshops. Municipal Slaughterhouses. Women as Councillors. Municipal Bakeries. Municipal Hospitals. Municipal Fire Insurance. Municipal Steamboats.— Second Series in a red cover for 1d. (9d. per doz.); separate leaflets, 1/- per 100, IV.-Books. 29. What to Read on social and economic subjects. 6d. net. V.-General Politics and Fabian Policy.

116. Fabianism and the Fiscal Question: an alternative policy. 108. Twentieth Century Politics. By SIDNEY WEBB. 70. Report on Fabian Policy. 41. The Fabian Society: its Early History. By BERNARD SHAW. VI.-Question Leaflets. Questions for Candidates: 20, Poor Law Guard

ians. 24, Parliament. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils.

BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 68. a year, or 2/6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring, 7 Finsbury St., London, E.C., and published by the Fabian Society,

3 Clement's Inn, Strand, London W.C.

MUNICIPAL DRINK TRAFFIC

WITH A CRITICISM OF LOCAL VETO
AND OTHER REFORM PROJECTS.

PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY

THE FABIAN SOCIETY.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

FOURTH EDITION. WITH POSTSCRIPT.

LONDON:

THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C.

PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1898. FOURTH EDITION SEPTEMBER 1905.

MUNICIPAL DRINK TRAFFIC.

FEW can be found to deny that the drinking customs and licensing laws of England need drastic reform. With the teetotal movement, so far as its methods are personal and moral, we have no quarrel and no present concern. Our subject is the political aspect of the drink question and the amendment of the law of licensing.

Neither of the great political parties has reason to be proud of its experiments in legislation for the regulation of the drink traffic. The Conservatives proposed a scheme of reduction of licences with compensation, which was swept out of existence by a storm of public anger; and now they venture on nothing more serious than a Royal Commission, destined to produce the same results as most other Royal Commissions. As for the Liberals, Sir William Harcourt, in preparing his ill-advised and badly planned measure, blindly followed the lead of the militant teetotal party, and ignored the views of his late chief, who, with his usual wisdom, had "but a poor opinion of mere limitation by reducing the number of licences," and favored the Gothenburg system, or, as an alternative, "free trade with.. adequate taxation."

11#

The Local Veto Bill.

The Government Bill of 1895 was crude local veto, a plan workable perhaps in the Australian bush, but quite unsuited to Lancashire and London. It gave a majority of two-thirds of the voters the power of veto, and a bare majority power to reduce by one-fourth the number of licences issued. The area selected was the smallest possible, namely, the ward of any parish or borough where wards existed. Sir William seems to have read parts of Mr. Fanshaw's American Report, and a tract or two on the Gothenburg system, and with this mental equipment he set up as the leader of the Liberal Party on its new teetotal crusade. The House of Commons did not reject the bill, and the country in consequence rejected the House of Commons.

Prohibition a Failure.

The fatal objection to any scheme permitting the prohibition of the sale of liquor is that wherever it has been tried it has proved a failure, unless the prohibitive district contains only a thin rural population. In such districts, and in a few exceptional places, it may occasionally be enforced; but it has never succeeded in any large town other than a place such as Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is practically a suburb of Boston. Attempts to enforce prohibition result in immediate reaction and repeal of the law, as in

* Letter from Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone to Mr. Snape, quoted in Pall Mall Gazette, 4th October, 1895.

Iowa and ten other American States, and in Canada under the Scott Act, or else in an enormous expansion of illicit trade. In Portland, the chief town of Maine, during twenty-one years, from 1872 to 1892, there were only two years (1874 and 1892) in which less than 1,000 persons were arrested for drunkenness, and, in 1875, as many as 2,400 such arrests were made. The population increased from 31,413 in 1870 to 36,425 in 1890, and, on the average, less arrests were made in the later years. But the fact remains that prohibition in Portland does not prevent drunkenness. In Bangor (Maine) the law is openly defied, and there are said to be 300 drink shops for a population of 20,000. Kansas is a prohibition State, but in its largest town, Kansas City, the law is a dead letter. In Leavensworth, with 21,000 inhabitants, there are 125 saloons which are regularly fined once a month. In Iowa, in 1885, under prohibition, according to a special report by Senator Sutton, there were 1,837 open saloons; and Mr. Fanshaw, author of an admirable report on American liquor legislation, from which much of our information has been derived, found that liquor was sold there in 1893 without any sort of concealment, and a "grand masquerade ball given by the saloon-keepers and bar-tenders of Davenport" was billed on all the hoardings. In Fulton County, Georgia, which under local option had strict prohibition, 57 persons took out Federal licences to sell liquor in 1887. This is but one example of a very common practice in America. The Federal licence law is strictly enforced, and is obeyed even where obedience is ipso facto evidence accessible to all of disobedience to the State law. In Des Moines, another prohibition town, the visitor can get liquor freely at his hotel, but the card on which he writes his order is headed "pharmacy" instead of "wine list."*

The Report of the Committee of Fifty,† issued last year, on the results of Prohibition in the United States, is almost conclusive.

PROHIBITION.

Prohibitory legislation has succeeded in abolishing and preventing the manufacture on a large scale of distilled and malt liquors within the areas covered by it. In districts where public sentiment has been strongly in its favor it has made it hard to obtain intoxicants, thereby removing temptation from the young and from persons disposed to alcoholic excesses.

But prohibitory legislation has failed to exclude intoxicants completely even from districts where public sentiment has been favorable. In districts where public sentiment has been adverse or strongly divided, the traffic in alcoholic beverages has been sometimes repressed or harassed, but never exterminated or rendered unprofitable. In Maine and Iowa there have always been counties and municipalities in complete and successful rebellion against the law.

• Liquor Legislation in the United States and Canada. By E. L. Fanshaw. (Cassell, 1895); pp. 112, 137, 153, 325, etc.

This Committee, formed in 1893, includes the leading economists and sociologists of the United States. The Liquor Problem Sub-Committee (Charles W. Eliot, Seth Low, and James C. Carter) employed Messrs. F. H. Wines and J. Koren to make the investigation embodied in the book, The Liquor Problem in its Legislative Aspects (Boston: Houghton, 1897; and Gay, London-6s.). The passage quoted above is from the introduction (pp. 4, 5 and 6), and is signed by the sub-committee of three already named.