The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-01-26
Temperance Reading.
NTEMPERANCE IN SWITzERLAND.
The Alarming Growth of Drunkenness
Since the Abolition of Laws Restricting
the Sale of Liquors.


The Geneva Switzerland correspond
ent OF the London Times writes, under
a recent date, to that paper as follows:
The vice of intemperance is growing so fast
in Switzerland as 10 occasion grave anxiety
among public men of all classes. So palpable
and portentous are the evils to which in some
districts, insobriety is giving rise that people
de-vie, the old term for cognac, as eau-de-
mort. even the public fortune is compro-
missed by the excessive drinking of the poprl-
lation," runs report on the subject lately adj
dressed by the Associated Mayors of Ajoie lin
the Bernese Jura) to the CantOnal Govern
ment. Failures, bankruptcies and forced
sales OF property are alarmlngly on the in
crease. The official Gazette can hardly con-
tam them. AS natural consequence, land is
uepfeclating in value,and mortgages, who are
compelled to foreclose, can often find neither
buyers nor tenants. The evil affects ali class
es, ana IS even rife among the other sex. We
could name several oommunes of AjOie in
wheh the consumption of schnapS is at the
Lrlg99tI q. rate of eight liters per month per
neau OF populauon. In one village, with
population of 600, asingle aubergiSte has sold
IN one month 200 literS of cognac Atone equal
10 daily sale of forty literS. 1t is essy to I'M
derStand in what a terrible ruin this drunken
ness must end. 1t is a whrlnoOl which sWal-
to 20 vs. up every year thousands and thousands
The Associated Mayors of Aioie are NOT
alone in their alarm and their denuncfstions .
Almost every church synod that meets passes
resolutions eondemnatOry of intemperance.
the Federal Department of the Interior il now
engaged. at the instance of the National AS
sembly, in making inquiries with q view to
combating 1.-The enemy" by restrictive leqis-
lation, and no subject more frequently en-
cages the attention of Societies of Public
Utility and the press than the ''war against
drunkenness"
The increase of intemperance, against which
all sober and thoughtful Switzers are up in
arms, dates only from 1874, when the Constitu-
ton now in force, by instituting what is called
complete liberty OF establishment deprived
the cantons of the power which they previous.
ly possessed of regulating the traffic in drinks.
Art. 81 of the Federal Constitution lays it down
that every Swiss citizen has the right to trade
without let or hindrance in any part of the
Confederation, and, according to a decision of
the Federal Tribunal, this right extends to
dealers in alcoholic beverages under whatever
denominat on they may come. The effect of
this decision was to sweep away every local re-
striction that had previously existed and make
the trade in strong drink as free as the trade
in bread and meat Before 1874 the checks i'm
posed by cantOns and communes on the ven-
derS of alcoholic beverages were numerous
and minute No publiC-hOuSe could be opened
without concession, or in excess of the sup
posed needs OF the population. In some dis
trcts publicanS had to give security for the
proper conduct of their houses. In all they
| had to be men of good character. Women
| were not allowed to Keep public-hOuseS.
| Buildings intended to be converted into tav-
| ernS or cafes had to answer to certain require
| mentS us to ventilation, size of rooms, and
tuation. In Obwalden, Neuchatel, St Call
| indeed, nearly neutrality-suspicious.
| were not permitted in the neighborhOOd of any
| church, school, orphan-hOuse, poor-hOuse, or
| like Institution" Licenses were only granted
| for a limited time. Publicans were forbidden,
| under penalties, to furnish young Peep e with
drink, or allow them to frequent their houses,
| which had to be closed the greater part OF
| Sundays and at d certain hour in the evening.
AS a consequence of the abolition of these
| restrictions, the number of public houses has
| increased from 1897 in 1870 to 2l;78S i'll 1881.
| In other words, while the population has in
! creased by six per cent, the 1aYerns nave in
! creased by % per cent The two extremes are
| Geneva, where there is public house to every
| 20 inhabitants, and TeSSin, which has one
| for every DBL Taking the Confederation
| throughout, the propoi ton is one to cry 10
Deducting women, children and the sick, that
| gives one tavern to every 80 persons. In
| Canton Thurgau there is a kneipe for every
| Is voters, men OF twenty and upwards. 1t
| does hot appear, however, that, judged by this
| test, some neighbOring countries are much
more abstemiOus than Switzerland. Thus
| Wurtemberg has one tavern to III inhab. t.
ants, Baden one to lab, HeSse one to 1885, AlsaCe
one to 10, but there are five Swiss cantOns-
SchWyz, GlaruS, the GriSOnS, Thurgau and
| Geneva-in which the proportion is less than
100 to one. In Geneva, moreover, and most
other towns, grOcers and cOnfectIOners Vend
wines and spirits, and, one way and another,
the establishments in which alcoholic beYer-
ages are sold are almost as numerous as all
other shops put together. 1t is a common say
ing that there is not single house IN al Gsne-
va Where people live in flats a house necessas
rlly comprises several dwellings, i'll which
tnere is not either cafe, an auberge, or O
VINE shop; and so far as my observation goes.
the saying is true. AccOs ding 10 tue author
of ''Das Nirthshaus' an interesting PAM
phlet on this subject, published at Bale, the in
crease OF public houses has been followed by
q marked increase of drunkenness and crime.
In 1880, out of Sc cases of assault outrage
and attempt to murder adjudged in the lit
tie demI-cantoh of Bale-the-Country, 81 were
aAceTfaInp6 0Vid in faNrn IN
nave been committed by persons who had
got drunk in tavern3; and of 81 cases of at
Jacks on the police II had like origin. For
W TO 6O per cent. of all the crimes committed
in that part of the country can be traced to
excessive indulgence i'll drink
But almost a greater evil than actual drunk
ennesS and the known otfense5 to which it
gives rise are the time lost and the money
spent by working men in public houses, and
the untold suffering hereby in iictcd on their
Ianliies on this point tnc auth Of " Das
WlfthSnauS gives some curious Information,
procured from the schuldenbucher of certain
1nnkeepers whose GU TONERS are mostly work
ing m ~ Among the instances he gives is that
OF q wagner, With Wife and children. who
IN addition to money payments, ran ND in
FEBRUARY last a drink score of 55f.; another
WorkmanS chalk for the month was 3D.; q
tnlrd inquired for 81: and one thirsty soul had
swallowed at single sitting fourteen glasses
OF beer and four glasses ofrum. The daily con-
sumption of another guest, who appears to
nave settled his account quarterly, averaged
spirits; and still another was in the habit of
taking with his dinner five beers and four
little glasses of spirits. Herr Siegfred the
author OF the pamphlet in question, has had
access TO the books of a contractor who kept
public house, and he was thus enabled t. com
p ire the earnings of the Workm with their
expenditure IN drink. One man, whom he
calls A, in the week ended January 7, 1891
earned 23f GOc., and spent 20f. &c. He thus
took home with him as the fruits of his. labor
81. 22c0 oJf quite as s. earned f., and
29f., and spent 10f.; e 2Of., and spent 1G F
I'll. and spent 20f.; and a mason 5 labOrer
besides spending the whole of his weeks
wages, left balance of At. to the bad. One
week when the men worked less or drank
more THAN usual-perhaps both-the inn
keeper-contractor had no money at all to pay
ana every one of them began the following
week with balance against him.
Every canton having its own separate police
organization particulars of apprehension for
drunkenness are not easily obtanable, but
Iney propably 90 not form as much as is gem
orally supposed. A man may drink a great
deal without beco ming visibly drunk, and the
topper VINO goes staggering about the streets
must be very far gone, indeed. Judging by
the quantity OF drink consumed-tl0 per
head of population land a bottle of common
brandy may be procured in the country for
Sd.l-Geneva is about the most drunken city
in Europe; yetthe apprehensiOns for drunk
enness are relatively few, and though those ar
rested for this ofense are almost invariably
either peasants or W)rkmen, it is probable
through more drink in the course of a year
than his poorer neghbor. After breakfast he
takes nip OF cOgnac pour S'ectdfTctT: toward
noon glass of vermOuth or absinthe pour Sc
fd1e munger. Dinner is washed down with a
bottle of white or red wine. and the post
prandial coffee is never drunk without the ac-
compartment of a small glass of cOgnac.
About four O'Clock the bourgeois generally
finds it necessary to take another glass of
absinthe or canette of beer pour Sc fnire re-
fecit1r; the seven O'Clock supper entails the
consumption of at least another bottle of
Wine; and before he retlres to rest he takes q
sOupcon of brandy or of rum .DDltr Sc fGire
ehd1rmr And yet, if you were to hint that
our bourgeois is pOss bly, iniuring his health
or exceeding the strictest limits of modera..
ton, he would be very much offended.
All sor s of eXpedients have recently been
discussed for checking the excessive cJn-
them are, no doubt, valuable, and might, if
they could be put into practice, prove more
or less effective. But until the power former
~ possessed by the cantOns of regulating the
traffic in alcohol is rest )red to them-and that
can only be done by a revision of the Con-
StitutlOn-and The constituencies get RID of
the idea that wine, and a good deal of it. is
only less necessary to life than bread itself, no
efficient measures for the defeat of SwitZer-
land enemy are likely to be adopted.
How the British Parliament Received a
Petition.
1t is the custom to say that legislators
do not give due honor to the petitions of
citizens, that they are ignored by the
W-makerS who. "dreSSed in a LITTLE