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.
749
Beyond the permanent beer licenses just mentioned, there were 956 occasional
wine and beer licenses, 125 in the towns and 768 in rural districts; also there
were S8 personal licenses, of which 76 were in the towns and 12 in rural
districts. The number of persons sentenced for transgressing the regulations
for the sale of spirits, amounted to 620 in 1911, of whom only 129 were in
Stockholm, and 699 for offences against the regulations for the sale of wine
and beer.
Only one or two official enquiries as to the social effects of the consumption
of alcohol have been made. The annual reports of The Board of Prisons
respecting the influence of intoxicants upon crime supply information based on returns
made by prison chaplains. The number of prisoners admitted in 1911, who
committed crimes under the influence of drink or were addicted to drink before
their crimes, amounted to 1 135 males and 36 females sentenced to hard labour
and 484 males and 8 females sentenced to imprisonment; that is 71’7, 25’o,
54’7, and 21’i % of the total of new admissions in the various classes.
One of the features of the investigations of the so-called Temperance Committee
(see below) was an enquiry respecting the effects of alcohol on the amount of
poor relief granted. This proved among other things that, in Stockholm during
the first quarter of 1911, of poor relief granted to minors about 30 % of the
whole was principally traceable to the abuse of alcohol; and of poor relief given
to families about 19 % was necessary from the same cause.
The public derives considerable revenue from taxation on the manufacture
and sale of intoxicants. In 1911 the Treasury received about 21 million kronor
on spirit tax about 5 million on malt tax, about 1’7 million on punch stampduty,
and about 5’2 million for import duties on wine, spirits, and malt liquors. The
profits from sales the same ye^r were distributed as follows: 9’6 million to
towns, 3-6 million to country communes, 3"3 to county councils, and 2’4 to
agricultural societies: over and above this, 190 000 kronor were set aside for
the promotion of temperance and the combating of the consequences of
drunkenness.
The need for radical measures against the use of intoxicants has made
itself more and more strongly felt in the last decade. The idea of total
prohibition seems especially to have gained adherents. Under the
impression of the good effects resulting from prohibition during the great
lab-cur struggles of 1909, the representative convention of the temperance
societies arranged for a vote on the question of prohibition; in this no less
than 1 884 337 men and women over 18 years of age voted in its favour;
this means 55-6 % of the total inhabitants of or above that age; 1 440 151,
or 56-2 % were in the country, and 444 186, or 53-7 % in the towns. A
Royal Temperance Committee was appointed in November 1911 to prepare
a measure for so-called "local veto", to frame a proposal for necessary
reforms, and to deal with the question of total prohibition. This
committee, in the beginning of 1914, issued proposals for a radical reform of
existing conditions. After these proposals had been worked through and
in many respects modified by the Government, a proposal for legislation
in the matter of the sale of alcoholic liquors was formulated for the later
session of the 1914 Riksdag. It was not found possible, however, to reach
an agreement, for which reason the proposed legislation fell through.
Two important temperance questions obtained their solution in the
Riksdag of 1913, namely in the abolition of the public interest in the re-
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