Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 3. Temperance Question. By Einar J:son Thulin
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74 (i
v. social movements.
ing from year to year (see Table 81). The chief reason to be assigned for
this is a more general and more emphatic prosecution of offenders; and the
fact that the increase in population among towns and communities similar to
towns, (where police supervision is regulated) advances more rapidly than in
purely rural districts. But also another circumstance may be considered of great
importance, namely, the increase of consumption is not properly expressed by
when reckoned out per inhabitant; in the case of the same consumption per
individual, an increase in the number of non-consumers may thus imply an
increase of consumption among consumers. It is, therefore, far from impossible,
that the consumption of intoxicants, reckoned per individual of the consuming
portion of the population, may have increased, and thereby as a natural
consequence, the number of persons sentenced for drunkenness may have gone up.
The concentration of the spirit trade in towns may also have had the effect
of causing a rise in the number of persons from rural districts who have been
sentenced in towns for drunkenness.
Licenses for the sale of spirits in towns amounted during 1855—56 to 584
for retail and 1 170 for bar trade. In 1911 the former were 251, of which
100 were assigned licenses; the latter 516, of which 296 were assigned licenses.
The proportion of inhabitants to permanent licenses (retail and permanent bar
licenses) was 584 in 1875, 821 in 1885, 1 149 in 1895, 1 469 in 1905, and
1 553 in 1910. There is now, in 1915, no sale of spirits in six towns, Säter,
Gränna, Tidaholm, Nässjö, Huskvarna, and Luleå.
In the country there were 64 places for retail and 493 for bar trade in
1855—56; the corresponding numbers of places for the sale of spirits in 1911
were 33 and 53 respectively.
The number of licenses therefore has diminished in a very striking measure
in spite of the rise of population. The importance of this diminution comes out
with special clearness in the rural parts, when one considers how many
inhabitants there are on an average for every permanent license, viz. 10 357 in 1875,
17 251 in 1885, 25 283 in 1895, 34 919 in 1905, and 56 052 in 1910. In
1911 the Malmöhus Län accounted for 31 licenses in country districts,
Stockholm Län 15, Kristianstad Län 13; there were 12 läns in which there were no
licenses in the country districts.
Nevertheless this "drainage" of the rural parts, as it is called, does not imply
that persons dwelling in the country are shut off from all possibilities of
obtaining spirits. Thanks to improved means of communication, rural inhabitants
can easily provide themselves with spirit either upon application to the
companies in the towns, or by immediate purchase there: by this means this huge
decrease in licenses to sell has not been accompanied by a proportionate increase
of temperance in country communes.
The sale of wine and beer is closely concentrated in the towns. There were
in 1911 no less than 4 023 places provided with "off" licenses in wine and beer,
and of these Stockholm alone included 1 768; 729 for wine alone, and 471 of beer
alone. There were besides 140 producers, of whom 130 were brewers of beer.
In the same year the number of places with "on and off" licenses were: 585
for the sale of wine and beer; 36 of wine alone, 517 of beer alone. At 13
railway stations alcoholic liquors were served. In addition 16 innkeepers held
licenses to serve beer.
In the country the number of licenses for the "off" sale of wine and beer was
only 59 in 1909, 130 of wine alone, 74 of beer alone. The number of
producers was 83, of whom 80 were brewers of beer. The bar trade alone in wine and
beer was plied in 202 places, in 2 for wine alone, and in 121 for beer alone, besides
which alcoholic liquors were served at 49 railway-station buffets. Finally no less
than 728 innkeepers were to be found in rural districts provided with beer licenses
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