The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-02-05
RUSSIAN LIaURo MONOPOLY.
How the Cars Government Rum
the Liquor Business.

In the official bulletin of statistics Of the
empire of the car there has just been pub
lfshed an outline Of the first results of the
creation OF the liquor monopoly in the four
governments of PERM Oofa, Sarnara and Or
enboog-agrdcultural provinces of East Rus
s1a, having population of about LOCO, 600.
Here the government took the liquor business
into its own hands on Jan. 1, 1895. The aver
age annual consumption of the preceding
four years had been about 3,245 000 or a lit
tie over three gallons a head of the popua-
ton, according to writer in the Boston
Herald In the last twenty years con-
sumption in the United States has never ex-
ceeded Isl gallons a head, and the average
has been about 1.33, so that, compared with
the East Russians, we must pass for a very
temperate people. 1t was the benevolent pur-
pose OF the government in organizing the
monopoly in spirits to satisfy the thirst Of it's
subjects with better liquor than they had been
drinking, and to place the sale Of it in more
respectable hands. 1t is said that vile as is
the liquor usually dispensed in the dram
shops OF agricultural Russia, the people who
sell it are of a character still more vile.
Under the old system, the internal revenue
TAX, or excise duty on spirits was 81 a gallon,
and the annual average revenue derived from
this source in the four provinces in ques-
ton was $500, 000 In the first year of the
application of the system of government mon
opoly the income was $S,S70,0OO. This is a
good deal more than was expected, for the
primary purpose of the monopoly was not to
make an immediate and direct addition to the
revenue, but to use it as means to accom-
to exclude from consumption all unrectif1ed
spirits. to suppress the giving of credit to the
purchasers of alcoholic beverages, to extir-
pate the whole tribe of keepers of country
drinking shops, and to reduce the number
or barrooms In the towns. The government
was prepared for a considerable reduction In
the amount of liquor consumed, and therefore
1t made the price high enough to cover by
an ample margin Of profit the probable
shrinkage in revenue. In short the price
had been so adjusted that consumption might
remain stationary, and even be reduced, with
out affecting the receipts for which the tax
ON alcohol used to figure. AS the price to the
purchaser of half pint is in exact proportion
TO the price charged, the purchaser Of five
purchaser of the larger quantity who suffers
under the regime OF governmental monopoly,
while the purchaser at retail gets his tipple
somewhat cheaper than he did before.
1h1s latter fact may have had something
to do with the apparent increase of consump-
uon In the four provinces selected for the
flrst trial of the monopoly. The official bull
leun does not give any reurns of the amount
consumed, but it is safe to infer that an in
crease of IS per cent in the revenue means
considerable Increase in the amount of spir-
its 1mbibed. The drinking shops and their
highly Objectionable keepers have been abol-
1shed. for the government only sells by the
flask. and allows no cork to be drawn on the
premises; but the drinking habits of the peo-
pie evidently remain unimpaired. The result
is curious and students of sociology will
watch with interest the further development
OF the system. Meanwhile, 1T may be noted
that the Russian bureaucracy which we have
been led to believe was hopelessly corrupt and
incapable, has been able to accomplish what
the state of South Carolina has essayed In
ya1n-the getting of a fairly honest accounting
from those whom it employed to superintend
the state monopoly in liquor. On July last
the Russian system was further extended to
another eleven provinces, having population
of about 10000, 600, and by July next it will
comprehend about half the population of the
European division Of the empire.