Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-02-20

SINGLE COPIES TWO CENTS.
wednesday, February 20, 1854,
a GREAT REFORM,

'tThe Brandy King" of Sweden, who is
fighting what is known as "the Gothenburg
system " of dealing with the traffic in intoxi-
eating liquors, has not made much headway
against it yet, and the chances are that he
| will not be able to seriously impede it's prog.
| ress. This system has done so much for
Sweden and Norway that it will take more
than one ssbfandy king" to convince the
people that it is not good thing.
Before the Gothenburg system was invented
intemperanee had become alarming in Sweden
and Norway, and crime and misery increased
| SO that the city of Gothenburg in May, 1864,
| appointed commission to investigate the
causes of the evils and propose some remedial
measure. This commission came to the
conclusion that drunkenness was the chief
cause of the prevailing crime and misery,
and proposed a novel remedy-that the re-
failing of intoxicating liquors be given into
the hands of stock company, which should
be formed for the purpose, not of making
money, but of regulating their and pre-
venting their abuse. The scheme was
promptly put into operation. company
was formed, which consisted of number of
the most prominent respectable and public.
spirited business men and citizens. AS soon
as the licenses of forty of the sixty saloons
expired, the company bought them from the
city, paid the legal taxes and promised
to devote the entire net profits for
the benefit of the working classes.
A number of the saloons were at once closed,
and the company pledged itself to keep the
rest clean, we'll lighted and ventilated, and to
make them at the same time cosy and invit-
ing eating houses for working people, where
they might procure good, wholesome, warm
meals at a small price. reputable person
was put in charge of each saloon, who sold
the liquor under the supervision of the COM
pany's agents, and had no personal interest
whatever in the traffic, while be was given all
the profits from the sale Of eatables, coffee,
cigars, soda water and a weak kind of
beer.
This company was organized in 1865.
Three years afterwards it decided no longer
to bear the responsibility of oisbursing the
funds derived from the sale of intoxicating
liquors and thereafter it handed the whole
over to the municipal treasury. The income
from this source, which in 1866, the first full
year or the system, WIS plf,oo0, 1ncEeAseu To
$27,24O in 1868 and to $56.7O1 in 1872. In
1874 the company gained control of the
whole retail liquor trade of the city, and the
profits rose to $3.50, O,516, while in 1876 they
reached $19S, 262. Almost from the time that
the company secured this full control, how
ever, the profits have fallen off, for the
cheering reason that less liquor is
consumed from year to year. The
sale In 1876 reached 667, 1896 quarts,
while in 1881 it had sunk by steady dimin-
ution to only 523, 500 quarts-a falling off
of almost one quarter within six years,
though during this period the population
was rapidly increasing. The police statistics
show an equally encouraging change. The
number of arrests for drunkenness has dimin.
ished in the last twenty years by more than
one-half, despite the large growth of popula
tion, and the delirium tremens record sunk
from 11S in 1865 to 80 in 1875 and only A
in 1880
This is truly wonderful showing. And
the benefits of the system are not confined
to -Gothsnburg. 1t now prevails in every
city of any size in Sweden but one, as well as
in many in Norway. Long may it flourish.