The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-06-26
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
THE TEMPERANCE OUTLOOK IN
IRELAND.

l.
At the beginning of the year it is
very old and common practice for
many young men, and for much
smaller proportion of the old and mid
/ dle-aged, to make some sort of a reso-
luton. 1t may be to abstain from al
coholic drinks of every description, or
from some particular sort only; or not
to partake of any such beverage before
some stated hour of the day; or not
to exceed a certain number of drinks,
or not to enter public house; or, il
doing so, to neither give nor accept a
| treat" Such resolutions as a general
rule break down after few weeks, or
it may be after only few days. They
are then speedily forgotten until tow
ards the end of the ensuing Deem
Der, when they are perhaps renewed
to take effect after the first of
January, with similar results. In this
connection temperance reformers fail
to realize that in a great proportion,
if not in majority of instances, men
do not enter public houses for the sole
purpose of getting drink. A mere
fraction of the drink sold across the
counter for direct consumption would
be dispensed even to the most i'm
provident of the poorer portion of the
workmen and wage-earners if it were
only obtainable in the same way as a
glass of milk, or cup of tea or cof-
fee. Public houses afford change of
scene; the fiaring lights, the egress
and ingress of customers, and the gen.
eral hustle, providing what to many
! persons is an irresistible attraction.
: In many cases there is the likelihood,
and in a goodly proportion the Ger.
J tainty, of meeting acquaintances and
exchanging conversation. Clearly
: then, the shortening of the hours dur
; ing which such experiences are posi-.
, BILE cannot but exercise most bene-
fetal effects. About forty years ago
in London-when public houses were
open until midnight except on Sundays
, strong efforts were made by temper
ance and social reformers to bring
: about what was regarded as valuable
and necessary reform-the closing of
public houses on Saturdays at eleven
Z o'clock. Not only was the agitation a
~
! ment, after their victory in 1874, ex-
tended the hours of opening Except
on Saturdays and Sundays) until half
an hour after midnight! This, of
course, being due to the appreciation
by the Conservative Party of the great
services rendered to them all over
England by the licensed traders, who
were then anti-Liberal to man, and
have ever since been So
In Dublin, when eleven o'clock was
the closing hour, it was the briskest
and most profitable to the trader; just
Q as twelve o'clock would have been, or
] as half-past twelve was in London.
: In London, in the poorest and most
/, squalid districts, the only way in
l.. which the customers could be coaXed
! into leaving the premises was by
. gradually extinguishing the lights;
9 and had closing time been one o'clock
: in the morning, the same means would
) have had to have been adopted ~ss
One of the curiosities of the drastic
/ change is the extreme complacency
5 with which the public house fire.
4 quenters have accepted it, whether in
t. England or Ireland. In Ireland we
are all familiar with the attitude of
3 the trade" to any closing hours re-
t duction. Previous to the Parnellite
3 split the contention persistently urged
against any Temperance legislation
5 was that this was matter for the
Irish people only, and should be re-
/ served for the action of an Irish Par
: lament! A further contention, urged
} with equal persistency, was that any
curtailment of the existing hours of
/; opening would drive Mr.. Bungs GUS
toners straight off from his highly
, respectable well-conducted premises
} to those of the nearest shebeen.
J These shebeens were assumed to be
! well-known to Mr.. Bungs regular Gus
: toners, and ready to receive them
: with open arms, or rather pint, pots
: and corkscrews. AS matter of fact
) we never hear of these shebeens at
j all. The few that exist unknown to
the police, are as unknown to the gem
: eral public; who have so far given
not the remotest indication Of desiring
T to have recourse to any of them. The
5u6D6BuBT VIII WHO'LL temperance ~
Z formers were SO long threatened is
: now proved to have been a bung
! DOGGY. A further influence operating
, very powerfully on the temperance
] question is the increased price of
: porter, the workmans beverage, which
has been raised in price by no less
, than so per cent. Although result
. of the war, the most optimistic of pub
+ leans has no expectation whatever of
} its being reduced to the old figure
r after peace has come back The beer
, tax has come to stay. The porter
! drinkers purchasing power in thereby
permanently reduced, to his own very
great advantage. The old objection
to legislative interference, that men
cannot be made sober by Act of Par
lament, was well met many years ago
by Mr.. Gladstone, who insisted that 1t
) was the duty of the Legislature to en-
sure as far as possible that it should
be at least as easy for men to act
sensibly as foolishly. To the work
man, with his weeks wages in his
, pocket, 1t is surely an unmixed adj
vantage that he can only remain in
front of public house bar until half
past nine on Friday, instead OF until
nIovon nsrf0nb n, T1uhIfr ~. until half