Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-07-28
THE
BRITISH
CRISIS

LONDON. July 1.-THE liquor trade is
| in the present struggle for supremacy
| between the house of commons and the
house of lords 1.-The trade is fighting
| with the peers and against the people
| 1t is the liquor trade which the Asauth
government must fear even more than
the landlords and the church, because
| the present government cannot live with
out the support of the Irish nationalists
and in Ireland the nationalists are not in
sympathy with the liberal policy of re-
| strainins the traffic in alcoholic liquors.
| The controverted Lloyd George budget
was the first effective blow dealt in the
warfare against the liquor business in
Great Britain. The house of lords had
rejected the liberal licensing bill of 1908.
| and recourse was had to the power of
taxation. In Great Britain the annual
| finance bill or budget goes into effect on
| the day it is introduced in parliament,
instead of after it is enacted into law,
as is the case with all legislative meas
ures in the United States. Thus the liquor
taxation features of the budget were in
effect for more than a year before the
budget actually became the law of the
land These taxes had proved to be such
great burden on the liquor trade that
in the general election of January the
liquor interests were militant in their
opposition to the liberal government. This
fact accounts for great many tory
gains, especially in urban communities.
The leaders of both the conservative
and the liberal parties agree in deploring
the evil effects
Folltlcal Leaders of drink upon
Deplore Drink Evil the people OF
he kingdom,
but they differ widely as to measures to
be taken to remedy the present condi-
tions. The liberals favor a policy of
cutting down the number of drinking
places both by arbitrary restriction and
by high taxation. The conservatives are
opposed to any measure that will in any
wise interfere with property rights
In the first year of the operation of the
new liquor taxes the British people spent
$SO5 100000 for alcoholic liquors. a de-
crease of s3OOOO,OOO as compared with
the previous year. The current year will
show an even greater decrease on ac-
count of the higher price of liquor and
the smaller number of public houses. The
excise duties on the liquor itself were
greatly increased, and the license fees
practically were quadrupled under the
new budget and vet Mr.. Lloyd George
confessed in parliament that the govern
ment was disappointed in the amount of
revenue derived from the new liquor
taxes. The people stopped buying liquor
when the prices went up. This was true
to remarkable extent in thrifty Scot
land
The British people drink more liquor per
capita than any other people on earth.
cohO statistics show that the English
people are at the head of the list as con-
sumers, followed closely by the Irish and
then the Scotch. The figures show that
the annual average consumption of pure
alcohol per head is 10 gallons in Eng
land, 1.o gallons in Ireland and 1.3 gal
Ions in Scotland, making an average for
the United Kingdom of is gallons. The
annual per capita consumption of spirits.
wines and beers in the United Kingdom
for France. 299 gallons for Germany and
a. gallons for the United States.
4 4
How difficult il is to deal with this
vexing problem in England is made man
ifest by the story of
Hard Problem the licensing bill of
to Deal With. 1908. In the United
States license to
sell liquor is a privilege which may be
granted at the will of the community, but
it never has been looked upon as prop
erty. In England. on the other hand a
retail liquor license is property. is a
vested right. and a sacred thing which
the law may not terminate without giving
compensation. Until the Lloyd George
budget the liquor license fee in the
United Kingdom varied from $50 in towns
Of less than loo people to $500 in Lon
don. These compared with an average
in the United States of from $40 for