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No License Resolution. If, by a majority of 55 per cent of the recorded votes (not less than 35 per cent of the electors for the area having voted in favour thereof) the Resolution is carried in any area, the grooers' license and the drinking bar go out of existence. The cause of Temperance reaps the enormous benefit that this entails, for the serious temptations to seeret drinking offered by the one, and the scandals of the streets so largely caused by the other, are immediately swept away.

This is not all, however. The licensing authorities, and, be it noted, the same licensing authorities as we have at present, may in any area issue fresh licenses for inns or restaurants, where, as in the Carlisle experiment, any one may have beer, wine, or spirits with his meals. It is true that the premises of such a publie-house or restaurant must be structurally adapted to the provision of food; but the almost sure result of the passing of the No License Resolution would be that a certain number of the public-houses would, in their own interests, alter their premises so as to meet the demands of the Act, and that these public-houses would go on with their business under a new and reformed system in May 1921, when the Resolution will come into force. Things would indeed work

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out very much as they did in the Carlisle area experiment; and the "Trade," which, in many instances, seems sincerely desirous of doing its work in a better atmosphere, would be given the opportunity of fulfilling the aspirations which many of its members have recently expressed in regard to reform.

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And here an interesting point may be noted. After the expiration of the first year of the new restaurant license, the proprieter of what we may call the Reformed Public-house must satisfy the licensing authorities, through the figures shown by the excise, that he has not made more than two-fifths of his profits from the sale of alcoholio liquors. This provision, which seems to have been somewhat overlooked so far, should work out, it seems to us, in such a way as to make the limitatien most felt precisely where it is most needed. It surely means that where the inn, hotel, or restaurant makes large profits through the provision of lodgings, food, &o., this enactment will be little felt; while in the lower districts of great cities for instance, where the whole profit must be made on these very meals with which "drink" is provided, there will be very real restriction. If any one wants beer or spirits with his meal, he may have it; but, on the other hand, if he only wants

1 This two-fifth provision is only indirectly mentioned in the Act. The reader is referred to an older Act, which gives this as the condition of the renewal of the restaurant-keeper's license,

beer or spirits, with a biscuit a loaf, however, is surely, in thrown in, it will have to be rather an expensive biscuit.

It must be admitted that the No-License Resolution is far from perfect. It goes too far for some of us, and not far enough for others. It is not free from a suspicion of class legislation, although on this head it may be noted that the Independent Labour Party has recently, by a majority, voted in its favour. It removes drinking-bars and grocers' licenses without compensation, and it is so hedged about with "buts" and "excepts" that it practically leaves the situation in the hands of the licensing authorities a body that has not always been so wholeheartedly in favour of Temperance as some of us would desire.

With all its faults, however, it is the only measure of temperance reform now before the country. An interesting artiole, which appeared in the November number of 'Maga,' advocated State Purchase as an amendment to the 1913 Act. Scotland did not, however, rise to this idea, and although it is being discussed for England, there is no suggestion of its being offered to us Soots at present. Neither does the country appear to be ripe for Prohibition. Whatever might have been the case in the early days of the war, it seems certain that Sootland is not now inclined to follow America's example. Rightly or wrongly, she does not wish to go "dry." Half

the present instance, better than no bread, and the objections before mentioned are not, after all, insuperable. Sinee the Aet gives the whole matter into the hands of the electorate, the working man will not vote for "No-License " unless he likes it. As a matter of fact, when in 1887 a plebiseite of the city of Edinburgh was taken on the subject of Prohibition, the largest number of votes for the closing of the public-house was recorded in the poorest part of the city, and the smallest in the West End, where the miseries oonneoted with the present system were known only to the imagination. As to the hardship entailed by the publican and licensed grocer, they, after all, have had seven years of warning and of plenty in which to insure against loss; the licensed grocer, moreover, loses only part of his trade, and the publican may reconstruct his premises and turn restaurant-keeper. To add to this, the whole thing is in the nature of an experiment, and need only last for three years, a reflection which should make an appeal to the oanny Soot; while, as a guide to possibilities, it is interesting to remember that Ontario tried the same experiment many years ago, and that when, after three and a half years, she had an opportunity of going back to the old oonditions, the demands for Repeal were almost negligible.

If, then, the Aot is a real

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compromise, why should not diminished that three policeall fair-minded members of the men sufficed to deal with the community unite in supporting ill-deers. it? Might not the "Trade itself consider whether it is ever likely to secure better terms than those offered to it now?

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Whether we like it or not, we have henceforth to reckon with a dry America. What the effoot of the action of the United States may be no one can exactly tell for some time to come. Ten or fifteen years age the State of Kentucky was famed for its blue grass, its magnificent breed of horses, and above all for its whisky. It was a very "wet State indeed. When it decided on local option, and the little town of Richmond in the heart of it voted for total prohibition, the dissentients raised up their voices in horror, and the most gloomy prophecies were made as to the effects of such a step. Trade, it was declared, would desert Richmond altogether, for labour would naturally leave a town where ne alcohol was procurable for others close at hand, where it was to be had as before. The result of the experiment was as surprising as it was remarkable. Within a few years the trade of Richmond had increased to such an extent that it was pointed out as a model of prosperity. People flooked into the city, and whole streets of new houses had to be erected. Money poured into the banks, and the Corporation were able to spend huge sums in improvements, while orime so

Now, it is just possible that, although in this case the experiment was on tee small scale to alter trade conditions in the country generally, the effect of a "dry" and onormously prosperous America upon the "wet" countries of the Old World may be se great, that ten years hence the labouring and business men of this country may, if in the interval there is ne drastic reform of our drinking customs, themselves demand total prohibition their ene means of economic self-defence. The No-License clause may well be the last bulwark of the "Trade" against Total Prohibition.

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"It is undeniable that a gigantio evil remains to be remedied, and hardly any saorifice would be too great which would result in a marked diminution of this national degradation." The point at issue between such men and the teetotaller is not drunkenness, but moderation. No right-minded man wants excess. It is on the methods by which to attain sobriety that many of us differ.

The prohibitionists, as well as the "Trade," will have in reality a good deal to give up. After all, their dream of making a nation sober by Act of Parliament is a fair one, and not nearly so histerically impossible as many people seem to think. In the ancient world, Rome, through the firmest and most drastic laws, practised total prohibition for a period of 500 years of prosperity; while in regard to one of the newest States of the New World, Kansas, the writer of the artiole in 'Blackwood' before referred to says: "Kansas has 103 counties; in 84 of these counties there are no paupers; in 35 there are no prisoners; and in 87 there are no lunatios. Her banks and barns are full to overflowing. Some of the counties have had no criminal prosecutions for ten years, and the death-rate is the lowest of any nation on the earth." Small wonder, perhaps, that some of us, who have known most nearly what Drink has cest us in the past, and the needless suffering and whole

sale loss of life for which it was responsible during the war, should turn from such a dream with reluctance and regret.

Yet though all lovers of their country are agreed on the necessity for reform, we would point out that reform will not come autematically next November: unless the electorate are sufficiently awakened to the needs of the situation to go to the pollingbooth and to record their votes, we shall sink back into prewar conditions. "He trespasses upon his duty who sleeps upon his watch, as well as he that goes over to the enemy."

Already, with the removal of the war restrictions, criminal prosecutions and prosecutions for oruelty to children have gone up by leaps and bounds. To return to our old drinking customs is unthinkable. Liberty, temperance, self-control are the normal ideals of our faith, and Prohibition is itself & compromise. Yet liberty may become a mookery, and such restrictions as are offered by the No-License Resolution of the Temperance Aot may give us back more than they take away.

Among the early memories of the present writer is that of a doctor in a remote district of the Highlands, who lost his practice through drink. He was a man of brilliant parts, and being also something of a sardonio humourist, it occurred to him to make up for the loss of his income by taking inebriate patients.

His advertisements to this end met with marked success, and he soon had a little bevy of paying guests. It was his custom to welcome each newcomer into striotly teetotal surroundings, but in a week or two, when the patient had begun to feel at home, the dooter would remark genially that it was time he was learning to resist. He would accordingly order in large quantities of the fiery spirit, and he and his guests were in the habit of finishing this part of the experiment under the table. This makes an excellent tale of a somewhat grim humour. Yet the reflection that, under the present system, we are dealing with the drink problems of our great cities in much the same fashion might well make us pause. In the "Royal Mile" in the city of Edinburgh, between the Castle and Holyroed Palace, there are thirtynine public-houses and licensed premises. In the Grassmarket, which is about the size of a West End square, there are eight. We are there training the men and women of least strength of will to resist!

In these days of 1920 there are daily drifting by these public-houses, thousands of the lads who fought and endured

for us in the agonies of the great war. They are as yet unemployed, and are restless, disappointed, discouraged. Strange if, as they are demobilised, we can welcome them with nothing better than the repeal of the "No-Treating Order."

Daily, too, the problems of the Labour World become mere difficult and more menacing. Opponents of the Aot would soare us by a propaganda of posters into the belief that we are arbitrarily closing the doors of the public-houses, and by so deing are making these problems only more dangerous. But the argument is not true te fact, for this precisely is what the Aot does not de. On the contrary, it gives the keys of the drinking-bars into the hands of the people of the country, so that they, if they will, may close these particular doors for themselves.

We believe that a large section of the public, when they realise that this, and not Prohibition, is the meaning of the No-License Resolution, will gladly welcome the opportunity of taking their individual part in a reform that has never, in all the history of our country, been more urgently required than it is now.

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