The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-26


 ment is scarcely a year old. It Is
 happy fact, too, that the older and the r newer organizations are working in perfect harmony. The one Just started
 on such vigorous lines is really the out
 come of the other. Having shown that reformed houses can be conducted with credit and profit, the Peoples Refresh
 ment House association is very glad to have it's scheme more widely extended, and is giving the Public House Trust
 company the full benefit of all its eXpe-
 rience.
 If temperance people generally could only work in such harmony as this, they would succeed better. It must be kept in mind, however, that the dis tinguished men who are going ln for this new reform are not temperance
 men in the American sense, only in the Scriptural sense. At both headkuar-
 ters my curiosity led me to make par ticular inquiries upon this point, and the answers l received were emphatic.
 The central office of the Public House
 Trust company is over the Carnegie
 Steel office in King William street, and
 it is operated on pure philanthropy.
 
 the affable secretary, lis not kept up
 as our reformed public houses will be,
 at five per cent. upon what you invest People invest here and get notnlng' At this head-oenter hundreds of pounds are being spent in missionary work. We are pulling strings in every countr
 to try to effect local organizations. Why were they doing it, asked-Were they all strong temperance men?
 "Why were they doing it, l asked
 were they all strong temperance men?
 Not one of them" he said, lis total abstainer if that's what you mean, and none would have anything to do with temperance movements of the or dinary kind. But the public house, as it is, they believe to be curse. It IS run for personal gain, when it ought to be run in the interests of the public.
 It is mere drinking bar, and we want to convert it into a respectable place of refreshment, giving as good chance l to -intoxicants as to intoXicants, and associating drinking more general | ly with eating"
 | The inspiring leader of this Public | House Trust movement Is Earl Grey, one of the finest noblemen In the realm, and the story of how he pe- came 50 enthusiastic in the cause Will l throw a flood of light on the public 1 house business of England. He applied 1 for a license on one of his own estates. | The people in the neighborhood insist | ed that they needed an additional drinking place, and as he owned all the property he applied for license. The | magistrates granted it. The cost was | trifiing comparatively But l found, | he said. that what had cost only | nominal sum was worth small for l tune. was at once offered ten thou sand pounds for it. It was a vested | interest practically, almost certain of perpetual renewal, and the magistrates under the law had granted me that 1 valuable interest for an outlay that was farcical." This was an eye-open- | er,' said Earl Grey, and he so wrote | to the Times and from that day he threw himself with all his talents ana great influence into the work or con vincing magistrates and the general public that such valuable financial trusts ought not to be given to people for their own profit, but aught to be intrusted to those who will use them | for the public good. Earl Grey IS now president of the Public House Trust company and with him are associated, in addition to those already named, the l Duke of Norfolk. the Bishop of Roches- ter. Earl Stamford, Cardinal Vaughan, head of the Roman Catholic church in England. the Duke of Northumberland, I prI Ayebury. known to the philanthropic world as Sir John Lubbock, the Mar
 quis of Ripon and many others equal ly distinguished.
 MT. Williams, the secretary, thought it q happy circumstance that the Pub lie House Trust company had started vigorously just at this time Tn the next five years" he said, there will be in England a great shifting of popnla- tion, caused by the rapid development of our electric tram and electric un- derground systems. This will cause new settlements to spring up. Then new public houses will be needed, and you can depend upon 1t our companies will go before the magistrates every where, and try to get control of these
 new places with the object of conduct ing them on reformed lines" Doubt less. too many old licenses will fall | into the hands of the vigorous organi- zation. Some might cheerfully be re- l linqusl ed by their owners on the ground that the houses concerned do not pay. There are said to be no less than eight hundred of this kind in London alone. But there are other houses, which will never be acquired | excepting at a great bonus, and neces- sarily the work of getting these will | be slow. Yet it will be done in time if 1 this movement shall fulfil the promise I of it's present vigor. In Scotland alrea- | dy the Public House Trust has bought