The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-12-14
BRITISH l AR0R |,S
 NOT ON DRY SIDE
By K. WALTER.

London, December 1.CReciprocal News Service. )-The British Labor party dosn'. take any stock il, the prohibition asita- tlon While admitting sincerity among some of the advocates of dry England the laoor movement as whole has got | it firmly fixed in it's mind that there is
 no sincerity among the ''higherups" who
 have recently gone over to the ''drys'' l These people are deliberately backing an impossible policy of prohibition. labor be- lieves, in order to defeat the immediate demands for the reform of the liquor trade which labor is advancing Practically every labor man in a public position is to-al abstainer and for some lyears labor meetings and conventions have been dry affairs In the campaign laun- ched this mcntc to popularize labor 8 liquor policy, the speakers are keeping clearly apart the two issues of the qucs- ton. the moral issue and the immediata political issue This is largely because within the next few days the government will be compelled to abolish the Liquor Board established during the war unless it's functions are continued by some strong political authority before the board expires it will be difficult to reesta blish any government control of the liquor trade. The government is drafting a bill to deal with the matter which it is ex pected will virtually hand back the trade to the brewers ana dfStlllefS. II a Te ferendum were taken today as between private control ard prohibition the liauo, interests would certainly win. If the labor party came out for prohibition that would make a definite issue between private con- trol and prohibition, without chance of compromise.
 Sd the labor party has adopted a policy of it's own based upon the important ex-
 pertinent of public control carried out for
 lfeta Vcrl-i ir,e~ ,l..
 the hold, do not want the pubis houses
 (saloons) abolished, but want them trans
 formed into places of social intercourse
 and decent refreshments ,as has been demonstrated in Carlisle and in passing
 it may be noted that the Carlisle experi.
 ment has had great influence over the
 country in changing the public houses
 from mere bars into cafes with seats and
 tables and a service of food in some cases a elaborate as restaurant. Women
 have always beer admitted in public hou-
 ses and now it is a common sight to see a man and his wife sitting down to a meal and drinking their beer at table instead of standing up to the bay and drinking
 before the meal or perhaps forgetting entirely.
 Labor also proposes that the government should buy out the present controllers of the drink trade. but is making it clear that whenever this is done the price will be on pre-war values and not on the pre- sent inflated valuations. Shares of ons big brewing concern, for example. that were worth s10,00D in 1914 are today worth s49o. 100. The labor proposal fixes the gov ernment purchase price of these shares at s10O0o and it is proposed to ignore equally any luther increases of market value.
 This is more drastic proposal in real itv than that which is entertained by some of the society" converts to prohs- bition. for. unlike the measure as it went through in the United Stotes, most of sha 1 well-to-do English converts understand that a prohibition bill would carry with 1t a compensation clause that would give the shareholders of all liquor concerns cash value for their holdings at market prices T
 The hquor issue in England is there- fore ir process of being drawn as be- tween state control with purchase at lsli valuation on the one hand. and prohibi- ton with market price compensation on 1 the other hand.