The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-10-20
And Occupies a Stronger Position Re-
cause of Tolerant Attitude of So
ciety and the Churches.
POSITION TAKEN BY THE LATTER
ONE-THIRD OF THOSE ARRESTED
FOR DRUNKENNESS ARE WOMEN.
Movement to Modify the Evil-The Ii
censing of Public HOuses-NOveI
Situation at Birmingham.
3rrespondenee of the Indianapolis Journal.

Correspondence Of the Indianapolis Journal
LONDON, Oct. 9-One of the Oldest,
ablest and least pessimistic of London's
clergymen declared from his pulpit last
Sunday evening that Sin the last five years
drunkenness, impurity and gambling have
sped along in England as at no time in the
last century" and akin to this statement
was that made in the House of Commons
by Sir Wilfred Lawson to the effect that
England is the most drunken nation on
earth The latter of these charges was
freshened and given new currency recently
by being flung out from the platform of
a greaS religious convention. The speaker
was an American. 1t was, perhaps, bad
manners to speak plainly. but. as the
orator explained, he was not giving them
his own opinion, but the opinion of one Of
themselves. English audiences are very
responsive. People shout hear, hear" when
they approve, and mo, no" to what they
challenge or deny, and so ii was that day
when, in an assembly in wnlcn ministers
preponderated, England was charged with
holding the record for drunkenness. There
were at first not a few cries of dissent, but
those of the other way Of thinking gave
such emphatic approval and varied the
usual hear, hear" with many cries of
That's right" Its quite true" as to
leave no doubt which side the weight
of opinion lay. Practically plea of guilty
was entered.
1t is a startling fact too. that of the to-
tai number arrested for drunkenness in
the United Kingdom, about one-third are
women. But one must not conclude from
IA re O
there are only two men who do so. The
ratio given is for arrests, and in this mat
ter women, as usual, gets the worst end
of the bargain. She is less able tnan man
to take care of herself when drunk. and
is more likely to be silly or violent. More
likely also TO attract a jeering crowd, and
not so likely as a drunken man 10 have
pals, less intoxicated than herself, to hold
her up and get her out of the way. Hence
she is relatively more likely than the man
20 become charge on the care of the po-
lice. who, by the way. never arrest anyone
for drunkenness unless they are obliged to.
One could give many illustrations, but the
latest will suffice. 1t was near Burlington
House, Picadilly. The man was sprawling
the busy and fashionable thoroughfare
in the early afternoon, hatless, unkempt,
helpless. But he had two men interested
in getting him away. Three times within
block he fell at full length, despite the
efforts of his friends, but was finally steer
ed and dragged into a side street At this
point the Picadilly policeman who had been
watching and following, turned back on his
beat, glad TO be relieved of responsibility,
with the remark 10 an inquiring onlooker
that they nabbed such cases only when
there was nobody else to take care of
them"
STRONGLY INTRENCHED.
The drink traffic here is a bigger thing
than in the United States, more strongly
intrenched in the long-standing habits of
society and more favored by the tolerant
| not to say approving, attitude of the
churches. From the taxation of alcoholic
beverages Great Britain gets SO per cent.
of its national revenue, against the % per
cent of the United States from this source
Not great difference, to be sure, nor is
there much difference in the quantity Of
Wine and spirits consumed per capita in
the two countries. But in beer the per cap
ita is enormously to the Americans credit
being 1873 per head in the United States
against 32.7 per head in the United King
dom. In Great Britain there are about
1861 600 places licensed for the sale of in
tOxicants, and 1t is estimated that the
! number Of people directly interested in
the traffic, financially or in the way of
labor, is 10000 At a rough calculation
100000 of these are interested as share
holders in breweries and dstilleries Five
OF the best known companies show a share
list numbering about 5000 names, and when
one examines these names one gets a
revelation, if not shock, as to the intimate
connection between the English Church
and the English public house for in the
share list OF those five companies alone
there are no less than 800 who put the
prefix of Rev" to their names-bishops,
deans, canons and ministers Of lesser de-
gree.
To clearly realize the differences in the
two countries. and especially the different
attitude of England and American churches
toward this traffic. one has only to take
note of how the Methodists stand over
here. There has been great progress
amongst them in score of years. but in
comparison with their advanced brethren
in America they are such laggards in tenn
perance reform as TO be almost out of the
race. The largest Methodist body is the
BRUSH w eSleyan Cnurch. 1t Is about as
large as all the other Methodist churches
put together Annually this church meets
in large delegated conference. Annually,
too, for many years it has had a resolution
brought before it declaring that men en-
gagged in the liquor traffic shall no longer
be kept in office as stewards, trustees, etc
This is not proposition to disqualify such
men for church membership. Ii simply
proposes to disqualify them from holding
church Offices Annually this comes UP.
and annually, by a large majority, it is
voted down. Such a resolution met this
fate only last July, and action Of this kind
shows very clearly not only how different
in this respect English Methodlsm is from
American, but on what a very different
footing the liquor traffic stands in the two
countries.
ATTITUDE OF MINISTER'S.
Just as the Methodist Ecumenical Con-
ference was closing one of the London
dailies had the following item: Some of
the American delegates have expressed
great surprise at the smoking and drink
ing habits prevalent among English Meth
odist ministers. In America il is almost an
unknown thing for a minister 70 smoke
or drink. and American visitors have been