The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-01-21
LIQUOR TRAFFIC In NORWAY
SYSTEM eYwHlcH TITS CONTROLLED.
The Gatllsnburg and Norwegian systems
And How They work-The Latter Said
TO BE the Ideal Pian-IlIustrations
OF How It Is Done.
boston Herald.l

Boston Herald
The other day we set forth the method
Of controlling liquor 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 particular, is
the one which comes nearer 10 being an
ideal plan for regulating the traffic in in.
toxicating liquors. The municipal
council in Norwegian towns, either
alone or in the association of the
magistracy, is the licensing authori-
ty, 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 societies
which bind themselves TO apply the pos
sibe profit OF their trading in aid of OBJ
jects OF general public benefit and utility.
and whose authority is confirmed by the
municipal council, under the royal SEAL
may hold one or several, or all the licenses
in a given locality. The point in the Nor
wegian system is that the society must
spend the surplus profits OF its business
upon voluntary objects of general public
benefit 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 inducement
to encourage drinking. The Norwegian
system is rs effective as the other in the
control OF the sales Of liquor, but il uses
| its profits for a better purpose.
Norway in 1876 consumed 2,6l2, $50 gall
Ions of spirits, and this amount was re-
duced in 1887 to 1,lS9, 440 gallons. The
working of the system by which this les
sened consumption of liquors has been
reached is best illustrated in the large
town of Bergen. 1t has a population of
| $4,000, and when the new law went into
operation fourteen years ago it had four
teen bars with a population OF 10000,
while under the new system, with popu-
! lation at the present time of 10000 more,
| it has only thirteen. 1t had at first to
contend with perpetual licenses as granted
| by the town, and has used part of its
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 its own
| hands. The result of the operation
| OF the system in fourteen years has
been notable, first, in the reduction in the
amount OF spirits consumed. and in a con-
| siderable, but not equal, increase In the
consumption of wine and ale. The
amount of drains sold hasffallen from ID
| quarts per head of the whole population
! in 1877 to l.3 quarts in 1889. In the sec
ond place, though the wine and ale
| houses have done more business, the ar
| rests and summonses for drunkenness and
! similar offenses which were ,lS5 In 1876,
were only 729 in 1889, and the charges OF
the illegal sale of spirits fell from 10 10 ..
| The third item is an instructive comment
| upon the value OF the system in nipplng
habits of drinking in the bud. The sta
tistics are that the applications for spirits
from persons of tender age. or in an in
ebriated condition, fell from 1852 in the
| single quarter OF 1877 10 l2,6lO IN 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 fire.
quented streets, and the barkeepers were
! men OF character and integrity, whose
| right to Office depended upon their pre-
vention of excess in drinking. They were
paid fixed salaries, 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
customers; 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 a Judge of how
much drink a man was able TO carry away
without intoxication, and children were
not allowed to enter the premises. The
| bars were opened on every working day
| from s q. IN. to s p. m, with the exception
of an hour and half at noon, closed at
| p. IN. on Saturdays and on the day be-
fore holiday festivals, and not opened at
all on holidays or Sundays. The results
in public utility are stated to have been
the improvement 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 an object lesson in the handing OF a
very difficult problem that this statement
of the principles and operation OF the
| Norwegian system has importance for US.
1t shows how, with a comparatively fixed
| population, it is possible to deal through
the state with an evil which is found to be
more corrupting than any other, and TO be
closely connected with criminal condi-
tions. Negatively the City of Bergen,
though a seaport community, has illus
trated, during the years that this system
has been enforced, the natural thrift or
people who are relieved OF the worst
| forms of intemperance. Today extreme
destitution among its citizens is almost
unknown, and the social condition OF the
people is vastly improved from what IL
was fourteen years ago.
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