The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-30
CANNOT CURB
 DRUNKENNESS Scotland Is Troubled
 With Problem. REFORMS MAKE IT WORSE Remarkable Statistics Provided by
 Officials.
REFORMS MAKE IT WORSE
Evil Increases Despite the Most Ex- treme Repressive Legislation And Authorities Seem Power
 less To Control It.
BY THoMAs MARR.

Glasgow, Aug. s-Notwithstanding repressive legislation of the most ex- trema type, drunkenness in Glasgow and other cities of Scotland is increasing with startling rapidity.
 If a people could be made exception ally temperate by Parliamentary ex- periments. the people of Scotland ought to excel all their neighbors, but noto- rfousiy this is far from being the case. The American speakers at an Inter national Council of Congregationalists held in Edinburgh a few days ago. said they had seen more. drunkenness one. night lin that city than could be witnessed in an American city of simi- lar size in a month.
 Sir Andrew Reed late Inspector-Gen- eral of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Is equally emphatic. He visited Glasgow in August. 1908, and walked about the brincipal streets at night to see for himself what was to be seen.
 '1 found" he says. towards the clos ing hour of the public-houses. some of the street crowded with drunken men. In no city in Europe, the United States. or Canada, have ever visited. did I sec such pumher of drunken Dersohs. I thought the scene witnessed was most disgraceful to. any civilized place"
 Eronn Bad to Worses
 The facts submitted by the Chief Con- stables of Scottish towns and countries. and by the Prison Commissioners. year after year, represent a condition of things which is not only startling, but is going from bad to worse. Tn the year 1904. Scottish temperance reformers of the CO., ercive type obtain ed the latest of their cherished schemes the closing of all licensed houses at 10 D. ra.---and since that date, surprising though 1t appears, the official statistics of arrest for drunkenness in all the large towns. show a large and contin- uous increase.
 oIasgow affords the most striking H. fustration of this growing demoraliza- ton. In his latest annual report. is- sued in May last Chief Constable Stew enson stated that the number of appre- hensions in Glasgow for drunkenness in 1907 was 21.055. or 26.1 per 1000 of the estimated population. For an equal proportion Of apprehensions. we must. says Mfr. Stevenson. go back to the years previous to 1900. Of the 21,05s arrests. 1,706 were effected on Sunday ->aad that too, in city where com pIete Sunday closing" has been en- forced since 1853.
 "Ten o'clock closing" has been in op- eration in Glasgow since May. 1904. The movement was heralded by Sir Samuel Chisholm, the leader of that group of reforrners, as the tnauKura- ton of a new era in temperance reform Saint Rungo was to be transformed in- to a sober. God-fearing, 5abbath-lovins community.
 provided each year by the Chief Con- stable7 In 1903. with II o'clock clos- ing" 1l.s per 1000 of Glasgow's pop; ulation were convicted on charges oi drunkenness. In 1905. under the "1c o'clock closing" the convictions repre- sented 12.3 per 1,000-the arrests be-
 
 when the "10 o'clock closing" was ad- mitted by all fair-minder persons to nave had a fair trial. 1t was found that the arrests on account of drunkenness ran up to 19,344. against 14.309 in 1905. an increase from l8.3 to 24.2 per 1000 of the population. t
 reports. candidly confessed his inability to account for the deplorable state of things which his reports disclosed.
 Promise of RefOFmers.
 Very soon public demands began to be raised for some inquiry into. or ex- plantation of. result so disquieting and opposed to the confident promises of the reformers. In Glasgow. a. ooH- mittee of sixteen members of the Town Council was reluctantly appointed. and in Edinburgh the subject was as re- luctantly referred to the Chief Consta- bIe for report; still the question hung fire for many months.
 The chairman of the Glasgow com- mittee was asked what was being done. and he had to confess that the mem bers were too busy to get together since January last, and he candidly ad- mitted that many members would like the inquiry to drop altogether, so inc different were they to any further in- vestigation.
 Incredible though this may seem. it was amply confirmed when a few days later the minutes of the committee were published, together with reports by the Chief Constable, the Deputy Town Clerk. and the Police Prosecutor. to whom the subject had been submitted by the committee. as the best way of shelving the business.
 The chairman of the committee. Bai- 1te Bruce Murray. one of the magis- trates. submitted certain notes in which he said that 1t was clear they could neither concur in nor deal adequately with the conclusions or recommenda- tions of the report, which were mainly