The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-06

1tation of the number of drinking places.
All of which will constitute the most eff
fective blow that has yet been struck
against the omnipotence and reactionary
influence of the brewery trade, the great
monopoly which controls over 95 per cent
of the saloons in this country and whose
leaders value it at f15O.oO0.00O.
I'VE temperance workers." he contin-
ued, are not clamorlng for the abolition
of the saloon (or publ, but only for its
effective regulation with the public itself
instead of-in effect-the drink interests
as the arbiter of increase in the number
of existing drinking places. At the pres
ent time the inequality in the number of
saloons in congested, as compared with
rural areas, is most striking the per-
cef1tage being l to every or 1000 of the
population in the suburbs, as compared
with to every 10 in localities like the
East End. where the multiplicity of pubs
in an increased incentive to drink All
over the country new areas are being
opened up as residential quarters for the
working classes, and In many cases we
- y P~Sai obiC " pi upOli the SlOuIQ
landlord, in whose hands the authority
primarily lies, to limit rigorusly the
number of public houses to be built on
such estates. A peer who upon his own
initiative has SCI striking example in
this respect. is lord Rowallen, who owns
between 100000 and 100000 acres and has
inserted in the trust deeds of every dis
trict which has been acquired for work
ing class dwellings a clause prohibiting
any public house from being situated
thereupon. The Right Hon. A. j. Bal
four, the former prime minister, likewise
will allow no public houses to be opened
upon his estate, Whittinghame, nor
would the late King Edward whom no
one ever has denounced as fanatic on
the subject of temperance, permit the
existence of pub on his Sandringham
estate.
Except in the cases of such estates"
Thomson went on, mot only has the
power to grant licenses lain in the hands
of justices of the peace alone but our
bench has been recruited, until recently,
almost entirely from class whose SYM
pathies lie strongly with vested interests
and in consequence our magistrates have
generally yielded to the influence of the
brewers When 1t was a case of granting
or refusing the creation of a new license.
Accordingly we have been working stren-
uously for many years with the object of
getting more representative type of
man appointed to the office of magistrate
and have been to a large extent success
ful, with the result that applications for
lincences are being weighed with more
regard as to whether real need exists
for them Should the licensing bill pass
into law however, local option will be es-
tablished all over the country: in other
words, wherever objection is raised to
the. creation of a. new public house licence
it will be the duty of the local magistrate
to REFER the question to a popular vote,
a majority of which will decide the ques-
tton one way or the other
Since 1885, the parliamentary agent
continued. only one important temper
ance measure has passed into law, this
being the so-ca1led 'childrens act. which
was taken out of the licensing bill and
passed by both houses of parliament. This
act makes 1t Illegal to give drink 10 any
child under five years of age and for
drink to be served to any child under IA
in a public house bar--exoept in a sealed
vessel It's passage was the outcome of
prolonged agitation in which the lead
was taken by George r. Sims. the author,
dramatist and newspaper man, who