The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1902-1910, 1910-07-28

LONDON, July 27-The liquor
| trade is a powerful factor in British
politics. and 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 It is the
! LIQUOR trade which the AsQuith govern
ment must fear even more than the
! landlords and the church. because the
| present government cannot live with
| ont the support OF the Irish National
lists. and in Ireland the NatIonallsts
| are not in sympathy with the Liberal
| policy OF restraining the traffic In al
cohollc liquors,
The controverted Lloyd-George Bud
| get was the first effective blow dealt
In the warfare against the liquor busl-
ness In Great Britain, The House Of
| Lords had rejected the liberal llcens-
ing bill Of 1908, and recourse was had
| to the power OF taxation. In Great
J Britain the annual Finance Bill. or
| Budget, goes into effect on the day IL
| Is introduced In Parliament instead of
| after II Is enacted into law. as Is the
case with all legislative measures in
the United States. Thus the liquor
I
in effect for more than year before
the Budget actually became the law
| of the land These taxes had proved
to be such a great burden on the
! liquor trade. that IN the general cleo
tIon of January the liquor interests
were militant in their opposition to
the liberal government This fact
accounts for great many Tory gains,
| IN nj
The ledars OF both the Conserva-
tive and the liberal parties agree In
deploring the evil effects OF drink
upon the people OF the Kingdom, but
they differ widely as TO measures to
be taken to remedy the present con.
| ditions. The Liberals favor policy
OF cutting down the number Of drink
| Ing places, both by arbitrary restric-
ton and by high taxation. The Con-
servativcs are opposed to any moas-
ure which will In any wise interfere
with property rights"
In the first year of the operation of
the new liquor taxes the British peo-
pie spent SS05 100000 for alcoholic
liquors. a decrease Of s30,O00,00o as
compared with the previous year. The
current year Will show an even great
er decrease on account of the higher
price Of LIQUOR and the smaller num-
Der OF public houses. The excise
duties on the liquor Itself were great
ly increased, and the license fees prac-
tlcally were quadrupled under the
new Budget, and vet Mr Iloyd-George
confessed In Parliament that the gov
ernment was disappointed In tho
amount OF revenues derived from the
new liquor taxes The people stopped
buying liquor when the prices went
up. This was true to a remarkable
extent in thrifty Scotland.
The British people drink more liquor
per capita than any other people on
earth except the French. Reduced TO
pure alcohol statistics show that the
English people are at the head Of the
list as consumers, followed closely by
the Irish and then the Scotch The
figures show that the annual average
consumption Of pure alcohol per head
is / o gallons in England, 15 gallons
In ireland and 1,3 gallons in Scotland.
making an average for the United
Kingdom Of Is gallons The annual
per capita consumption OF spirits
wines aud beers In the United King
dam Is 3d. gallons, ms against 1876
gallons for France, 299 gallons for
Germany and 1872 gallons for the
| United states
How dtfficult 1t Is TO deal with this
vexing problem in England Is made
manifest by the story Of the licensing
bill of 1908 In the United States IL
cense to sell liquor is a privilege
which may be granted at the will Of
the community, but il never has been
looked upon as property, In England,
on the other hand. a retail liquor Ii.
cense Is property. Is n vested right,
and is a sacred thing which the law
may not terminate without giving com
pensation Until the Lloyd-George
Budget, the liquor license fee I'm the
United Kingdom varied from $50 In
towns Of under 200 people TO 5000
In London These compared with an
average in the United States Of from
sl75 for village licenses up to S2,500
in the large cities
The liberal licensing bill was dc
Vised as a measure Of temperance re-
form directed TO three main cnds-
the immediate and progressive i'm
| proyement In circumstances attending
the sale OF liquor. the gradual but
complete recovery for the community
Of its dominion over property IN II.
| ceDSlnG, duo inc greater power OF
preventing the growth Of drinking
clubs. Having due regard for the
| British notion OF property rights, the
bill created a special court OF licens-
Ing justices. whose duty II was TO pro-
pare a scheme OF the reduction Of the
number OF liquor licenses 10 certain
graduated scale based on population.
Under this scheme $4,000. or about
one-third OF the existing licenses
would have been terminated.
Fourteen years notice was given.
before the arbitrary sections of the
act we're to become effective In tho
mean time. any old license extlnguish-
ed was to he paid for at fixed rate
OF compensation which would give to
the license holder a guaranteed nnnu-
ity equal IN amount TO the annual
value of the license, the annuity 10