THE DRINK PROBLEM.

Evening Star, Issue 15515, 10 June 1914, Page 10

THE DRINK PROBLEM.

10 THE EDITOR, Sir, —Widespread interest was aroused, recently when nows wae published, of the national awakening in Russia to the evils of alcoholic liquors, and to the terrible devastation caused by the “ State sale of drink” to the Russian people. I enclose herewith a short extract containing the very latest news from Russia on this question, feeling sure that it will prove of great moment to your readers. Tne English correspondent of the ‘ American Advance,’ under date February 24, writes: “ The Tsar has addressed a rescript to M. Bark, the new Minister of Finance, in which he makes plain his own deep interest in the liquor question, and invitee the Minister to grapple with the task of diminishing the revenue derived from the sale of drink, and of making the loss good from “the inexhaustible ivvealth of the country and the productive labor of the population.” 'the Tsar declares that he has been led to this step by the sad observations which he made on his recent tour, wherein he saw the weakness, poverty, and economic desolation, the inevitable results of drunkenness. All last month the galleries of the Marie Palace were crowded bv eager listeners to the debates in' the Council of the Empire on the Duma’s great Temperance Bill. The Bill confers full Local Option powers to all communes, townships, and villages by a simple majority. All local bodies to have the right either of completely prohibiting the sale of liquor within their respective purviews or restricting such sale to specified shops, to be opened in certain days or at certain hours. The Council furthemnbre agreed that women should have the right to vote on these matters in the village motes. Ihe Bill was passed by a majority of all the peasant and clerical Deputies in the llo’.cc. The Bill must be referred to a joint committee of the two Houses, and will probably be returned to the Duma, who may have to discuss it anew, so that a year or more mav elapse before it becomes law. The moral‘effects of the debates in the Upper Hou-se Eire bound to be far-readi-ing -I am, etc., Interested. June 8.