The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-01-21
ENORMOUS QUANTITY
OF LIQUOR CONSUMED
Despite Alleged Slump on Account of
Prohibition, 1t Is Said That the
Sales for 1908 Were as Large as in
Previous Years.


laws, as a check to the wave of pro-
hibition and local option that is now
sweeping over the country, is the OBJ
iect of the National Model License
League, which commenced a three
day session in Louisville today.
Leaders in the movement inaugu-
rated by the league say radical i'm
provement in the methods of dispens-
ing alcoholic beverages is to remain
legalized institution in many states
and express a desire to hear the views
of those who have plans to bring
about improvement.
The league is a national organiza-
ton of 800 distillers, brewers, wine
makers, wholesalers, retailers and col
lateral tradesmen and is conducting
national campaign in behalf of a
model license law.
The objects and purposes of the
Model License Legue are to take the
liquor question out of politics and to
take the lawbreaker out of the liquor
business. If there is to be any radical
reformation, it is declared, it must be
among these lines.
The model license law was formu-
lated by T. M. Gilmore, of Louisville,
president of the National Model Lii
cense League. For years Mr.. Gilmore
studied the liquor business by per-
sonal observation in this country and
in Europe, and he selected the best
clauses of the best laws of the best
governed districts in the world
The model license law provides that
all liquor licenses in effect at the
time of the passage of the law shall
remain in effect until suspended or
Cancelled because of violation of the
law.
The law provides also that upon
conviction for first offense the H.
cense holder must forfeit the right
to do business for a period of thirty
days, and upon a second conviction
he must forfeit forever his right to
hold liquor license in the state in
which the license has been forfeited.
Holders of licenses would be pro-
tected from undue competition by
that clause of model license law which
provides that after the passage of
model license law no new licenses
can be issued until the population is
in the proposition of (say) five hun
dred to each license. This would not
only give the license holder assur.
ance of a reasonable amount of trade
and therefore a reasonable profit on
his investment, but would protect So
ciety from the evils that it is claimed
result from a multiplicity of drinking
places.
The National Model License League
does not advocate excessive high IL
cense for the alleged reason that such
license compels the dealer to handle
inferior wares in order to make a pro-
fit. The license fee, it is asserted,
should be sufficient to give a good
revenue to the local and state gov
eminent without being oppressive.
According to the leagues figures,
the people of this country drank two
billions of gallons of fermented and
distilled alcoholic beverages in 1907.
The amount consumed in 1908, not
withstanding the slump that the Ii
quor industry suffered with almost
every other line of business on &C.
count of the financial stress, was
about as much as in the year previ-
GUS.
This consumption is equivalent to
twenty-three and one-half gallons of
alcoholic beverages for every man,
woman and child in the country, and
league officials say it would be fool
ish, in view of this enormous demand
to believe that this nation is pre-
pared to give up the use of alcoholic
beverages or that the day of teetotal-
ism will arrive tomorrow or next day,
or in the next few decades.
Il Il Sf