Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-21
NATIONS DRINK BILL
TOTALS S1,2O0,0OO,0O0
Taxation Causes Excess; Both
Drinking and Drunkenness
Decline in England.

London. Sept ,mbsr Before the
war the people of this country spent
| $500, ,OOO. 900 "a wear for drink Now
! they spend POO, 900, 600 Nevert hcless
there is not half the drunkenness in
| these wartimes that there was In 1913
Heavy taxation TO provide war funds
accounts for the public's increased
dr bi l. rot furthur indulen nee
In fact, excessive drinking has declined
more than so per cent, and there has
been an enormous gain IN national
efficiency
All this has come about. Lord ID
Abernon. chairman Of the Liquor Con
troll Board. told The Associated Press,
as result of the war regulations in
troduccd by the government
There is great ground for hope,
he said, that the progress made to-
ward temperance under war conditions
wont be lost, that II will be continued
bv postwar action along lines similar
to the restrictions now IN force.
Such action must come, If taken,
from Parliament The life of the pres
ent regulations will terminate one wear
after peace has been declared. Accord
ing to Lord ID Abernon, II Is certain
that the country never will 60 back
to pre-wsr conditions
The boards regulations limiting the
hours for the sale of lqUor, cutting
down the alcoholic content OF both
spirits and beer, and ahollshing treat
ing were taken 10 rather kindly, on
the whole. in Lord ID Abcrnon's opinion
There has been very little friction.
he said We have had sc ne complaints
to the effect that !. eIats enormous
amount of money 10 get drunk now
but that IS exactly what should he the
case fhe question OF the pricc OF aIco-
hoic drinks compared TO that OF food
Is yer, important II hquor is too cheap
that fact leads to overindugence The
duty of beer is now seven times what
II was ten wears ago and the duty on
spirits also has been greatly increased
II is clear that public opinion will
not tolerate a return to the bad con
dltions which undoubtedly existed be
fore the war 1t - recognized that the
present system affo dis basis for
permanent settlement Of the drink ques-
ton acceptable to oil
Narc than twice ms much money Is
spent N T. ga d Tor drink rs for bread.
and the OUTLAY Just about equals the
expenditures for meat
After the war the government
yearly revenues from duties on drink
are expected TO amount 10 from $4,000.
900 600 to $50. 900 900 a sum almost
equal 20 the total tax revenue before
the war
England has hccn noted for ITS heavy
St out bittcrs and ale and the brewers
thought that dilution would greatly
injurr their business But they have
done far better than they thought was
possible
The quantity Of alcohol IN beer has
been reduced ~ nearly two-thlrdS
Great tnnro.cn,nt has been mad
III he manufacture 81 light beers, which
are Sald to bc growing steadily N favor
The strength nf Splrli h,tur" the War
averaged about - degrees under proof
They have teen weakened nndrf the
rcgllatiuu> to au average ~ tci@ren
s. aud 50 Indrr proof
Id discussing tht sharp ID Tease ~
heavy drinking LORD y tIcrron sad
il might he thoughl mt the absence
from the ,ountr of millions Of soldiers
vas respanSIhlc in argc measure fur
the improvement, Tins Iea he pointed
out wss rafuted IL s,atistic~ which
showed the dc,rcasa ID drinking tl
women va- jlst as Crcai - hcf ~ men
\o gram Is now tcing u~ed ~ Ing
land for making ,plrf~ ne man'i-
fature of whisky was stopped TWO wears
ago Concerning beer. Lord y Aber-
non said That The net totle OF cereals
,lsed annually for brewing Is approx
imatcly 3S2 900 tons Compared with
thc totat amount Of cereals grown here
imported $500 900 tons this SHOWS
that the net percentage used for brew
ing purposes is approximately - In
1918 approximately IS per cent was
used for making beer and , - per
cent for diStilling spirits Thus there
has been reduction from s - per
cent TO l-2 per cent.