Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 3. Temperance Question. By Einar J:son Thulin
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temperance question.
743
has undoubtedly resulted, at any rate in those parts where the system has been
applied with a sense of responsibility. It is an open question, on the contrary,
how far the system may in general be credited with the increase in sobriety, which
is the aim of these companies. And opinions on the point are distinctly at
variance. If the system is to perform its function, a watchful public is necessary,
and a lively feeling of responsibility among the communal authorities and the
directors of the companies; where these conditions are not prevalent, abuse has
frequently resulted, especially in smaller communities. The less severe application
of the leading principles in the system has indeed been promoted by the direct
participation of towns in the companies’ profits; so that precautions, intended
appreciably to diminish the consumption of liquors, have in various places been
opposed, or at least viewed with unfavourable eyes. In the matter of the bar
trade in spirits, however, the system has effected a practically universal
improvement; this has been done by the establishment of respectable public-houses
where good and cheap meals are served and where the quantity of spirits
served is limited. The retail trade, on the other hand, shows no improvement,
because the restrictions laid on the bar trade have induced spirit consumers to
provide themselves by means of the retail trade. The consequence has been
increased drunkenness in the home and in the streets. These conditions,
however, have received increasingly great attention from the public in recent times.
Certain firms have ceased to supply spirits to persons known to be habitual
drunkards. "Black lists" have developed from this system, and result from a
proposal, brought forward a few years back, that no company may sell without
a knowledge of to whom, when, and in what quantity drink is served, and
that it should only be sold under the personal responsibility of the customer.
The public has a keener perception that reform in the retail trade is requisite
in the direction indicated. Such a reform ("System Andree") has been effected
by the Gothsnburg company since October 1912, to the extent that the purchase
of spirits by retail is only possible for those who possess personal certificates
of permission to buy ; that such certificates are unobtainable by certain persons,
e. g. those who have been convicted of drunkenness, those who have become a
burden to the rates through the abuse of alcohol, those who have committed
crime in a drunken condition, etc.; and that certificates shall be forfeited by
purchasers who have misused spirits, or exceeded the maximum allowed by the
company; control in these respects is facilitated by the company’s possessing on
each certificate an account of the quantity of spirit bought. The same principles
are maintained in the "Stockholm system", founded by Dr Bratt, which applies
to the capital from 1914 inclusive. The Stockholm company retails only a
certain quantity of spirit quarterly to each individual, and it is only delivered
on the presentation of a "pass book" or "customers’ book" (motbok).
Consumption of spirits has also been combated by limiting to a definite maximum the
profits of private restaurant keepers, so that they have no interest in increased
consumption. At the same time, the system of individual control is to be
introduced during 1915, in a large number of other places, and the State has
supported the introduction of similar regulations by a change in the law, effected
in 1914. The result of this will be that, upon application to the Government,
a company that has introduced the system of individual control can be allotted
a control-area, into which companies and private dealers belonging to other places
cannot introduce spirituous liquors.
Some flaws may be imputed to the Gothenburg system. Among these defects
we may especially cite the absence of central control of the system’s operations,
the lack of regulated standard prices for sale and purchase, and of regulation as
to alcoholic strength (such regulations would largely forestall competition between
companies); the lack of completeness in establishing the monopoly system, a
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