The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1891-01-29
LIQUOR LAWS IN NORWAY

God help us shun that one!
C Leslie Owen. in Toledo Blade.
LIQUOR LAWS IN NORWAY
An Object Lesson in tho Handling Of .
Dimcult Problem.
The other day we set forth the method
of controlling iquor-selling in Sweden
which is called the Gothenburg system.
1t has obvious and great merit, but the
Norwegian system, which differs from
the Swedish in one important particu-
lar, is the one which comes nearer to
being an ideal plan for regulating the
traffic in intoxicating liquors. The
municipal council in Norwegian towns,
either alone or in the association of the
magistracy, is the licensing authority,
and determines the number of licenses
required and the time to which they
should extend. No single person can
hold more than one license, and socie-
ties which bind themselves to apply the
possible profit of their trading in aid of
objects OF. general public benefit and
utility, and whose authority is con-
frmed by the municipal council, under
the royal seal, may hold one or several,
or all the licenses issued in given To-
cality. The point in the Norwegian
system is that the society must spend
the surplus profits of it's business upon
voluntary objects of general public ben
eft and utility, while the Swedish sys-
tenn turns the surplus profits into the
local treasury, to be used in reducing
the rates, SO that they are direct in
ducement to encourage drinking. The
Norwegian system is as effective as the
other in the control of the sales of liq-
uor, but it uses it's profits for better
purpose.
Norway in 1876 consumed 2.612, $50
gallons of spirits, and this amount was
reduced in 1887 to ,1S9, 40 gallons. The
working of the system by which this
lessened consumption of liquors has
been reached is best illustrated in the
large seaport town of Bergen. II has
population of SO, 600, and when the new
law went into operation fourteen years
ago it had fourteen bars with popular
ton of A, ZOO, while under the new sys-
tenn, with q population at the present
time of 10, 600 more, it has only thirteen.
It had at first to contend with perpetual
licenses granted by the town, and has
used part of it's surplus profits to buy
up these licenses as they have come into
the market SO that it might have the
regulation of the liquor traffic entirely
in it's own hands. The result of the
operation of the system in fourteen
years has been notable, first in the re-
duction of the amount of spirits COD
nd IN
equal increase in the consumption of
wine and ale. The amount of drains
sold has fallen from 20 quarts per head
of the whole population in 1887 to 1.3
quarts in 1889. In the second place,
though the wine and ale-houses have
done more business, the arrests and
summonses for drunkenness and SINH
lar offenses, which were 1885 in
1876, were only 100 in 1889, and
the charges of the illegal sale of
spirits fell from Is to S. The third
item is an instructive comment upon
the value of the system in nipping
habits of drinking in the bud. The
statistics are that the applications for
spirits from persons of tender age, or in
an inebriated condition. fell from L., S12
II
the whole of 1889.
A word IS important as to the method
of keeping the bars and the use of the
surplus profits for objects of public
utility. The bars were placed in the
most frequented streets. and the bar
keepers were men Of character and in
tegrity, whose right to Office depended
upon their prevention of excess in
drinking. They were paid fixed sala-
ries, and had no interest in the amount
of sales. The bar-rooms were clean,
and the attendants were males, dressed
in uniform and courteous to their Gus
toners: but there were no seats, no
corners for lettering, and no staying on
the premises after the liquor had been
consumed. The bartender was made
judge of how much drink a man
was able to carry away without in
toxication. and children were not al
lowed to enter the premises. The bars
were opened on every working day
from 8 a. IN. until p. M, with the
exception of an hour and a half at
noon, closed at five p. m. on Saturdays
and on the day before holy festivals,
and not opened at all on holidays or
Sundays. The results in public utility
are stated to have been the improve
ment of the public parks, the museums,
the theaters, the institutions for social
and industrial relief, and the placing of
all the Temperance societies in Bergen
in a condition where they could do
their work to the best advantage
1t is as an object lesson in the hand
ling of very difficult problem that
this statement of the principles and
operation Of the Norwegian system has
Importance for us. It shows how, with
a comparatively fixed population, it is
possible to deal through the state with
an evil which is found to be more cor
rupting than any other, and to be close
~ connected with criminal conditions.
Negatively the city of Bergen, though a
seaport community, has illustrated,
during the years that this system has
been enforced, the natural thrift of
people who are relieved of the worse
forms of intemperance. To-day ex-
treme restitution among its citizens is
almost unknown, and the social condi-
tion of the people is vastly improved
from what it was fourteen years ago.
Boston Herald.