The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-02-03
Temperance Reading.
NTEMPERANCE IN SWITZERLAND.

The Geneva( Switzerland) correspond
ent of the London Times writes, under
recent date, to that paper as follows:
The vice of intemperance is growing so fast
IN switzerland as TO 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
speak of alcohol as 1.-The enemy" and of eau
de-vie, the old term for cognac as eau-de-
mort. even the public fortune is compro-
missed by the excessive drinking of the popu-
lation, runs report on the subject lately ad-
dressed by the Associated Mayors of Ajoie lin
the Bernese Jural to the Cantonal Govern
ment Failures, bankruptcies and forced
sales OF property are alarmingly on the in
crease. The official Gazette can hardly con-
IAN them. AS a natural consequence, land is
deprecatlng in value,and mortgages, who are
compelled to forecose, can often find neither
buyers nor tenants. The evil affects all class
es, and is even rife among the other sex. We
could name several commune5 of Ajoie in
which the consumption of schnaps is at the
frghtful rate of eight liters per month per
head of population. In one village, with a
population of COO, asingle aubergiste has sold
in one month 200 liters of cognac alone, equal
to daily sale of forty liters 1t is easy to UNI
derstand in what terrible ruin this drunken
ness must end 1t is whirlpool which swal-
Lows up every year thousands and thousands
of francs"
The Associated Mayors of AioIe are not
alone in their alarm and their denunciations.
Almost every church synod that meets passes
resolutions condemnatory of intemperance
the Federal Department of the Interior is now
engaged, at the instance of the National AS
sembly, in making inquiries with q view to
combating 'the enemy" by restrictive leyis-
lation, and no subject more. frequently en-
Utility and the press than the war against
drunkenness"
The increase of intemperance, against which
all sober and thoughtful Swtzers are up in
arms, dates only from 1874, when the Constitu-
tiol now in force, by instituting what is called
complete liberty of establishment" deprived
nj
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 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 We're 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
tricts publicans bad to give security for the
proper conduct of their houses. In all they
had to be men OF good character. Women
We're not allowed to keep public-houses.
Buildings intended to be converted into tav-
erns or cafes had to answer to certain require
ments as to ventilation, size of rooms, and
tuation. In Obwalden Neuchatel, st, Call
were not permitted in the neighborhood of any
church, school, Orphan-house, poor-house, or
like institution" Licenses We're only granted
for a limited time. Pubicans were forb idden
under penalties, to furnish young poop o with
drink, or allow them TO FREQUENT their houses,
which had to be closed the greater part of
Sundays and at a certain hour in the evening.
As a consequence of the abolition of these
restrictions, the number of public houses mas
increased from 1887 in 1915 to 2l,735 in 1880
In other words, while the population has in
Gn6 hNrg inf fb.A huxrg,
creased by 22 per cent The two extremes are
Geneva, where there is public house to every
20 inhabitants, and Tessin, Which has one
for every 23l. Taking the Confederat on
throughout, the proportion is one to very 10.
Deducting women, children and the sick, that
gives one tavern to every 30 persons. In
Canton Thurgau there is kneipe for every
u voters, men of twenty and upwards. 1t
does not 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 143, HeSse one to 1866 Alsace
one to 12O, but there are five swiss cantons-
SchWyZ, Giarus, the Grlsons, Ihursau and
Geneya-in which the proportion is less than
lOO TO one. In Geneva, moreover, and most
other towns, grocers and confectloners vend
| wines and spirits and, one way and another
Ine estapnsnments IN which alcoholic bever
| ages are sold are almost as numerous as al
| other shops put together. 1t is common say
| ing tnat there is not single house IN all Gene
| va where people live in flats house necessa
-
| there is not either cafe, an auberge, or q
| VINE shop; and, so far as my observation goes
the saying is true. According TO the author
| OF Das Wirthshaus," an interesting pam
pnlet on this subject, published at Bale, the III
crease OF public houses has been followed by
marked increase of drunkenness and crime.
IN 1884, out OF 80 cases of assault. out age
and attempt to murder, adjudged in the lit
tie dem-canton of Bale-the-Country, 50 were
ascertained to have arisen in taverns, or to
nave Deen committed by persons who had
got drunk IN tavern -. and of ~ nf a r
| tacks on the police, II had like origin. For
| ~ to W per cent of all the crimes committed
! in that part of the country can be traced to
| eXce ssive indulgence i'll drink.
But almost greater evil than actual drunk
| ennesS ana. the known offenseS to which it
gives rise are the time lost and the money
| spent Dy working men in public houses, and
the untold suffering thereby inflicted on their
Iamllles. On this point the author of " Das
Wlrthshaus gives some curious information,
| procured from the Schuldenbucher of certain
| 1nnkeepers whose customers are mostly work
| ing m N. Among the instances he gives is that
| ora Wagoner, with wife and children, VINO
February last drink score of 55f; another
workman S "chalK' for the month was g.: a
| third figured for 81. and one thirsty soul had
| swallowed at single sitting four cen glasses
1 or beer and four glasses of rum. The daily con-
| sumption of another guest, who appears to
have settled his account quarterly, averaged
| hve glasses Of beer and three glasses of
| spirits; and still another was in the aot of
| taking with his dinner five beers and four
| little glasses of spirits. Herr Siegfried the
| author OF the pamphlet in question, has had
| access to the bookSo of a contractor who kept a
| public house, and he was thus enabled to COM
| pare the earnings of the workmen with their
| expenditure in drink. One man, whom he
| calls A, in the week ended January 7, 1881,
| earned 23f. &C.,. and spent 20f. &C. He thus
| took home with him as the fruits of his labor
| Of. 55c.-not quite 3s b earned 29f., and
spent 2f.; PSF, and spent 49,; d
| ST. and spent 10f.; f 20f., and spent 16.;
| 2lf., and spent 20f.; and a masons Iaborer,
! wages, left balance of At. to the bad One
| week when the men worked less OF drank
more than usual-perhaps both-the inn
| keeper-contractOr had no money at all to paw,
| and 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 Obtainable, but
they probably do not form as much as is gem
orally supposed. man may drink a great
| deal without becoming visibiy drunk, and the
| topper who goes staggering about the streets
must be very far gone, indeed. Judging by
| the quantity of drink consumed-t1O per
brandy may be procured in the country for
| Sd.)-Genevai is about the most drunken city
In Europe; yet the apprehensions for drunk
| enness are relatively few, and though those ar
rested for this offense are almost invariably
| either peasants or workmen, it is probable
| through more Drink in the course of year
| than his poorer neighbor. After breakfast he
takes nip of cognac pour s'ecldircir; toward
| noon glass OF vermOuth or abSinthe pour sc
| fare 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 II small glass of coynac.
| AbO1t fOur O'clock the hO1rUnOis uanaralIv