The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-03-20
LIQUOR MONOPOLY OF RussIA.
How the Czar's Government Runs
the Liquor Business.

In the official bulletin of statistics of
the empire of the car there has just been
published an outline Of the first results
the four governments of Perm, Oofa,
Samara and orenboorg- agricultural pro-
Vinees of east Russia. having a population
of about 100000. Here the government
took the liquor business into it's own
hands on January 1, 1885. The average
annual consumption of the preceding four
years had been about 3,245,O00, or a little
over three gallons a head of the popula-
ton, according to a writer in the Boston
Herald. In the last rs years consumption
in the United States has never exceeded
Isl gallons a head, and the average has
been about 1.SS so that, compared with
the east Russians, we must pass for
very temperate people. 1t was the be-
nevolent purpose of the government in or
ganizing the monopoly in spirits to salts
fly the thirst of it's subjects with better
liquor than they had been drinking, and
to place the sale OF 1t 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 gollon, and the annual average
annual revenue derived from this source
in the four provinces in question was &c.
100000. In the first year of the application
Of the system of government monopoly
the income was $8,S7O,OOO This is a good
deal more than was expected, for the
NJ M
to make an immediate and direct addition
to the revenue, but to use 1t as a means
to accomplish certain reforms. 1t was in
tended to exclude from consumption all
unrectihed spirits, to suppress the giving
of credit to the purchasers of alcoholic
beverages, to appropriate the whole tribe
Of keepers Of country drinking shops and
to reduce the number of bar rooms in
the towns. The government was prcpar-
ed for 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 stationery, and even be re-
duced, without affecting the receipts for
which the tax on alcohol used to figure
As the price to the purchaser of half q
pint is in exact proportion to the price
charged the purchaser of five gallons, i
may be inferred that it is the purchase
Of tine larger quantity who suffers unde
the regime of governmental monopoly
| while the purchaser at retail gets tippl
somewhat cheaper than he did before.
This latter fact may have had some
thing to do with the apparent increase o
consumption in the four provinces select
ed for the first trial Of the monopoly. TIL
official bulletin does not give any return
of the amount consumed but it is SAT
to infer that an increase of IS per cen
in the revenue means a considerable
Increase in the amount of spirits i'm
bibed. The drinking shops and thei
highly Objectionable keepers have beel
abolished for the government sells onl!
by the flask, and allows no cork to b
drawn on the premises; but the drinking
habits of the people evidently remain un
impaired. The result is curious, an
studentsof sociology will watch with in
terest the further development of tn
system. Meanwhile, it may be noted tina
the Russian bureaucracy, which we hav
been led to believe was hopelessly corrup
and incapable, has been able to accom-
plish what the state of South Carolini
has essayed in vain-the getting of fair
ly honest accounting from those whom
employed to superintend the stat
monopoly in liquor. On July last tn
Russian system was further extended t
another II provinces, having a populatio
of about 10000, 900, and by July next it wi
comprehend about half the population Q
the European division of the empire.