Arizona republican., 1914-11-19
Since Mobilization Began,
Sale Of Vodka or Other
Spirituous Liquors Has
Been Effectually Stopped
by the Government
ENTIRE COUNTRY
BETTER FOR TT
Peasants Show Different
Spirit and There is Now
an Almost Total Absence
of the Minor Crimes in
the Country
ASSOCIATED PRESS DrsPArcH1

PETROGRAD. Nov. 1S.-There is
prohibition in Russia which means that
not single drop of vodka. whskey,
brandy. gin or other strong liquor is
| ohtainable in a territory populated by
150, ,000, 900 people covering One-siXth
of the habitable globe People who
| formerly consumed $1,000, 600, 900 worth
of vodka yearly have suddenly been
| forced to become absolutely abstemious.
Vodka manufacture is government
monopoly so prohibition is easy of en-
| forcement on the day Of mobilization
| ii is declared that officials made the
rounds of public places, sealed up the
supply of liquor and declared its fur
ther use would be prohibited. AS Il re-
suit there has been a remarkable
change in the people. There Is no
drunkenness and the peasantry show
better living and better health.
| Places formerly unsafe for men may
now be visited by unattended woman.
| MINOR CIllItS nave bttH stiAAAp-'N
mated. The reform was brought about
chiefly by Demitrovich Tcheliseff,
peasant by BIRTH originally house
painter, later mayor of Samara ana
now a millionaire.
Speaking of what he aecomplishe-!
| for the cause of sobriety in RUSSO,
Tchelisheff says:
| Il was reared in a small Russian
village There were no schools or
hospitals. or any of the improve
ments we are accustomed to in civil
ized communities. ! picked up Al
| education from old newspapers and
stray books. one day | chanceo
upon a book in the hands of a mou-
1ik, which treated of the harmfulness
of alcohol 1t stated among other
things that vodka was poison. [
was so impressed with this, know
ing that everybody drank vod
lla, that / asked the first physician
I met if the statement was true. He
said. "Yes." Men drink it, he eX
planned, because momentarily it gave
them a sensation of pleasant dizzi-
ness From. that time | decided to
take every opportunity to discover
more about vodka.
AT the end of the eighties there
came famine in Russia, followed by
agrarian troubles. l saw crowd of
peasants demand from a local land
lord all the grain and foodstuffs in
mis- granary. This puzzled me. I did
not understand how honest men
could he indulging in what seemed
to me to be highway robbery. But
noted at the time that every man
who was taking part in this incident
was a drinking man. while their fel-
low villagers who were abstemio1s
had sufficient provisions in their own
homes. Thus it was that | observed
the industrial effects of vodka
drinking.
AT Samara I decided more tha1
passively to disapprove vodka. At
this time I was alderman and many
tenants living in my houses were
working men. One night drunken
father in one of my houses killed his
wife. This incident made such d
terrible impression on me that I de-
lClptu " llSHI NOukd WIN all my
strength.
"On the supposition that the gov
. ernment was selling vodka for reve-
nue. | calculated the revenue re-
ceived from it's consumption in Sa =
nara. | then introduced a bill in
the city council, providing the city
would give this sum of money to ,ha
| imperial treasury, requesting at III,
same time that the sale of vodka be
prohibited. This bill passed and the
money was appropriated. 1t was Of
fered the government. but the goy-
ernment promptly refused it,
: TT then dawned upon me that the
{ Russian bureaucracy did not wan
the people to become sober for tn,
l reason that it is easier to rule auto
: cratically a drunken mob than {
sober people
This was seven years ago. Late
t I was elected mayor of Samara, tn.
g capital of the Volga district a dis
= trict with over a quarter of a milliol
inhabitants. Subsequently to holdin
= this office I was elected to the DUN;
= on an anti-vodka platform. In tn
$ Duma / proposed a bill permittin
n the inhabitants of any town to clos
{ the local vodka shops, providing ais
|. every bottle of vodka should bear
e label with the word poison AT IN
= request the wording of this label. i
l. which the evils of vodka were sc
y forth, was done by the late Coun
e Leo Tolstoy. This bill passed til
It Duma and went to the imperial coun
Gil. where it was amended, and wa
finally tabled"