THE DRINK QUESTION.
[To TRH EYOTT011 08 TUX .° erecraeca.1
Bin,—May I trespass on your columns upon this important question ? The result of the Cleveland election was a foregone conclusion, but I am glad to see its result so formidably in favour of the Government. At last the Government are not to be intimidated by brewers or shareholders. Mr. Knight seemed to base his claim on the freedom of beer, or one might say freedom of intoxication, for we must all be very blind if we detect not the terrible results of very high wages amongst certain classes of ignorant men and women. Now I say " fore- gone conclusion," providing the Government know and exhibit their own minds and are not howled down by selfish trade interests. Surely we have reached a time when we are positively sick of party, seeing what it has done for us the past few years.
I trust and think we have reached a stage when selfishness must reign less and the State be more thought of. I am not a teeto- taler, but I am appalled—being a visitor of city slums—that fifty years of free teaching has done so little to destroy in- temperance in our midst, for, apart from waste, its effect upon morals, discipline, and suffering is most horrible. Schools are tnblame that the children are not taught the evils of intoxicants. It should be rammed and jammed into them. I would point out, however, that during the past twenty years public-houses are having far loss influence on the electors, and if only they could be closed .on polling days the results would be useful. The country has never realized the consequential results in want of health and economy which we suffer from through the super- abundance of intoxicants, and that we must have fewer houses and Sunday closing. Experiments now going on will prove it all. As a Magistrate's clerk of advanced years lately said to me, take away drunkenness and we should at least have eighty per cent. less convictions, and U so, how much less of workhouses, jails, hospitals, and asylums ? The other day I counted fifteen " pubs " in a distance of about five hundred yards, and I know some side by side. I know scores of suburbs where, say, a dozen of now respectable roads would empty from end to end if a public-house were suggested. Let us have a lesson now we can. Fifty years ago my father possessed some artificial manure works about a mile out of a town. The town grew, so the Corporation speedily shut it up, without compensation. If you could get a thousand ladies all over the country to investigate the mischief caused by licences, a change would soon take place.
Previous page
