The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-06-21
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
SWEDES AS DRINKERS.
A System for the Regulation of the Sale
aAd Use of Drink.

A System for the Regulation of the Sale
aAd Use of Drink.
1t is the element of gain in the saloon
business which makes it so persistent,
which causes it to enter politics in order
that 1t may protect and perpetuate
itself. Remove the element of profit
FROM the saloon business; render it
merely self-supporting, and you have
dealt the saloon its death-blow. Men
will not continue in an occupation which
pays no profit. They can not afford to,
Hence the great attention which is
given by temperance people everywhere
to the system in vogue in Sweden for
the regulation of the liquor traffic
"a system which removes the ele
ment OF profit, as far as possible,
and which destroys all the social
features of the saloon. 1t is the
Gothenburg system, so called from the
town wherein it was first tried, and
the result of years of trial vindicates
its right to be considered as a distinct
advance toward final solution of the
drinking problem.
The temperance people of Sweden
early recognized that to legislate the
saloon out of existence was impossible.
But it was deemed practicable that
laws could be devised to fit conditions
as they We're, and that the enforcement
of legal provisions would prove a rem
edy for most of the ills flowing from in
temperance. Laws We're enacted. They
provided for strict control of the
manufacture of spirits Next, they
gave to every community the right
of selling liquor, either to Ii
censed dealers or to company
who would have a monopoly of
the business. That law was passed in
1855 as measure of relief from the
evil of intemperance, which appeared
to be spread all over Sweden in a way
that appalled, those interested in the
uplifting of the people.
These reformers had a gigantic task
on their hands, for the governmental
reports showed that Sweden had be-
come the land of drunkards. No fewer
than 30. 342 stills We're in operation as
late as the sos, or one still to each 100
inhabitants, and the annual per capita
consumption of liquor was 2S15 quarts
or double that of any nation at the
present time. The Swedes were the
heaviest drinkers in the world when
their first liquor law was passed. The
chief feature of reform in this
w-granting monopoly of the
business to an approved com
pany-was not given trial for ten
years, however and the many benefits
inherent in the system were DELAYED
till, in lSb5, company was organized
among the citizens of Gothenburg.
This company petitioned for ''conces-
sion OF all the retail liquor-licenses in
the town, pledging themselves to con-
duet the business without further profit
to themselves than q reasonable return
on the capital invested and to devote
the surplus to the welfare of the labor
ing classes
Despite the most virulent opposition,
the petition was granted. And its
issue was the redemption of not only
Sweden but Norway as well. City
AIT after city adopted the plan. 1t pro-
duced~ a. complete revolution in the
liquor traffic. In ten years the number
of saloons in all Sweden was reduced
CiiN- 't'l Iil' -Ail'l LII -NOINdN NutEt Ult
system was given a trial, the showing
was equally triumphant for since 1871
till the last census the number of sa-
looms was reduced from sol to 227. or
one saloon for each 59l inha bitants. At
the same time the per capita consump-
ton of distilled spirits fell off till to-
day the Swedes who once ranked as the
heaviest drinkers among civilized ma
TONS have dropped down to ninth
place.
The system which in few years has
accomplished this result aims directly
at the encouragement of drinking.
Fixed salaries are paid those who sell
liquor, but preferment is given to the
agents who sell least. Only one drink
in three hours is allowed the same pur-
chaser. And habitual drinkers, or
those under the Influence of liquor, are
not served at all. The net earnings are
divided between the state and munich
pal treasury, after a certain percentage
is paid the agricultural society We
should be glad to have fair trial given
by some state of this country to this
method, whereby it has proved posi-
BILE in Sweden to pulverize the rum
power--Toledo Blade.