Arizona republican., 1916-06-25
LIQUOR DRIVEN OUT IF RUSSIA
 IN PAST YEAR
Republican A. p. Leased Wire1

SiS iiltulS lO tllt ukdSe lOIDluulllS ltle traffic at the very outset of the war, has fallen from nearly billion rublcs tS5O0, O,0O0) yearly to approximately four per cent of that sum. This four per cent largely consists of the sale of liquors for medicinal purposes although in it is included also limited traffic in wines for which there is a restricted l permission in certain parts of the em- i pire.
 | Vodka, formerly the most easily ob- | talnable commodity in Russia has be- come as rare as whiskey in the most strictly prohibition community in the | United States. Wines are still to be had, surreptitiously for the most part, but also in some cases and under pre- scribed conditions, with the knowledge . of the authorities, but at prices which . | limit their sale to people of wealth or . woeful eXtravagance. It is possible, in . Petrograd and Moscow, for instance, where the ban, even on wines, is strict. 1 to purchase wines in certain hotels but i they may be served only in private ! dining rooms, and the privileges en- joyed by these institutions are ire quently interrupted by the police for
 
 One of the most noticeable results of the almost complete suppression of vodka naturally is the disappearance from the streets and other public places of intoxicated persons They have be- come so rare as to be more or less of a novelty. People observe such in a spirit of curious surprise, doubtless the impulse among the majority being to wonder how he managed it. This state Of affairs offers a remarkable contrast to the ante-bellum condition when drunkenness among the lower classes of society presented d most serious problem. It is d we'll l-established fact that each one of the sixty odd holidays, irrespective of Sundays when business houses and factories close their doors, used to mean a crippling of business activity on the following day and often Tor two succeeding days because of the sprees which attended the holiday cele- brations. IL is said that the saving to . the workingmen in this respect alone ; runs into prOdigious figures In one l factory in the Tula government, em- ploying 1000 men, there were 600 lost ? working days in three months during 1914. For the same months in 1916 these were reduced to 49.
 l The earning capacity of the people appears to have outstripped the ad- vance in the cost of living. with the : result that savings deposits have mounted up to an almost unbelievable extent, the peasant is living better than y he ever did before and he is acquiring j. q self respect which he never pos sessed in the old days of vodka dom e ination.
 6 Among the benefits observed by an independent investigator A. |. Fare SOY. who recently travelled through q s number of the, central governments T are: noteworthy falling off in the number of domestic rows; d lighter and more hopeful spirit among the people: decrease in arrears of tax U es: fields better titled and q grow u ', ing demand for agricultural machin. II cry; Q decrease in alcoholics in tn, N charity Hospitals and other institu- '0 tions: and q decrease in crimes and il
 the number of beggars. According t'
 this investigation the peasant. instea, :. of feeling that he has suffered al i, injury by the abolition of vodka i n grateful for having had a temptation
 removed which he knew himself wa
 powerless to resist. The emperor i F reverently referred to as "Nichola 10 the Temperate" peasant is quote ia as saying: We have now one com D., mon enemy-the Germans; formerl
 every man was his own enemy" - director of 9 glass factory in Mos
 COW said that fifty years more c
 drunkenness would have lost to tn Russian people all capacity for re sistance and the nation would hay fallen an easy prey to Germany.
 The vacuum left in the lives o former vodka consumers is gradual being filled through the establishmen in towns and rural districts of "na ! rodny doms' (peoplc's houses) Wher stereoptican and moving picture pro
 auctions are becoming popular form
 of amusement. Lecturers are als
 being sent out by associations whic \ are working for the betterment C the people. The Duma has vote
 1000,000 rubles (s500000) to promot temperance work by ,city councils, tn church and other organizations. Car playing is reported to be on the ir crease.
 That drunkenness still exists and tha many substitutes for vodka are em ployed, cannot be denied. By com parison however the evasions of th prohibition decree are negligib Colognes, cosmetics and even varnisf
 es are submitted to processes where by alcohol in their composition is eN tracted for consumption; but the eA
 tent of this picture is barely compar
 able with the blind pig and dru
 store abuses practiced in America prohibition communities. Illicit mar
 ufacturcrs are constantly bounded | the police so that the practice ha failed to assume proportions.
 There has been much speculation 6
 to whether the prohibition now
 effect will be continued after u
 war. r. l.. Bark minister of financ
 whose department of the governmel
 was most seriously affected by tf
 stoppage of revenue formerly derive
 from the sale of vodka, has definitel
 expressed himself in the affirmativ In a declaration in behalf of the gov
 ernment which he made recently critics of the governments poicie
 he said: T find it important to cate gorically announce that all suspicion
 that the government intends to rene | tI,1 l1 0f l1l