LABOR AND PUSSYFOOT

Evening Star, Issue 17234, 26 December 1919, Page 6

LABOR AND PUSSYFOOT

.. THE PUBLIC-HOUSE OF TOMORROW. [By T 7 7 L ;i IALLON . Joint Secretary of the J/anor Campaign for the Public" Owner- • ship and Control of the Liquor Trade 7 hrln'r 8 f e f 7 i s ' Mr Pn «y f o°fc desires to hop England, he will promptly go home lfc>t 1S^ tWs co « ntr y he will ass only ,he publicans. And he will asiis* them so valuably that they will be well 7 t ?i. lna , l ! ce him t0 rem[ "n. Whv do J. *ay that Mr Pussyfoot is helping thpublican? 'Mainly because ProMmWcVin m the pise of Mr Pussyfoot is ludicrous and objectionable. So long as Mr Pussyfoot- honors these shores with his presence the brewers can use his unpopularitv to cover their own. They can pretendi that if V,Z.TJ °-n a Sans 0f Senses .and Pussyfoots wil come in. l'hev can frighten the decent moderate drinking ■public out of their wits by simply pointing to this smug and presumptuous" Pharisee who boasts toat he has come to save the Lntiah working man from habits of bestiality andi sin.

Look at im,' whisper the publicans in tones calculated to make their customers' flesh creep. "Isn't he 'orrible? Get behind us or -ell 'are yer." - *'£? faofc well known to the Trade is that the mode-rate drinkeT is not in danger. Pussyfoot is a mere bogey and Prohibition a dream. The people in danger are the great brewers and publicans who have profiteered to their hearts' content during the war and desire to continue to do so. DRINK PROFITEERING.

# The tale of drink profiteering is almost incredible. The Trade was valued at £350,000,000 before the war; it is now valued at about £700,000,000. A man who invested £2,000 in Allsopp'g early in 1915 would to-day be worth nearly £IOO,OOO. What has the Trade done to meritsuch staggering rewards? The answer is simple. It has done its customers. When beer was scarce it raised the price. When strength was reduced it raised the price. As a brilliant writer has recently said, ''the. less beer was sold and l the worse it became the more the public paid for _ it." Now, the public do nob enjoy paying mora. They do not enjoy drinking "swipes" slich as the great brewers have forced upon them (falsely attributing all blame to Government control). The public consequently axe angry with the Trade and anxious to escape from- its tyranny. And working m<m are especially angry. Co into any of the industrial! districts and listen to the views of the ..men in the mines audi factories,. Go into any working men's ebb and ask what its members think about the brewers. ANGER OF THE PUBLIC.

This universal anger with the Trade is one of the considerations that have determined a host of trade union leaders to carrv on a campaign- for the public ownership and control of the liquor trade and to try to get rid of the Trade altogether. These men, like the vast majority of trade unionists, are not Prohibitionists, and they regard the theatricalisms of Pussyfoot with resentment and dislike. They are moderate drinkers who see no harm, in moderate drinking. Their programme is not to close the " pub," but to make it something more than the nasty drinking den-it so often now is. They desire "pubs" in which men_ (and their families with them) can obtain not merely alcoholics but any kind or type of refreshment. They desire " pubs "y here the tired man can rest and the studious man can read and the sociable men talk with his-cronies. The "pub" In this scheme would be transformed from a meTe drinking shop to a palace of refreshment and sociability. The "pub," in short, would be a club, a centre of local life, a well-ordered and democratic meet-ing-place for people of all sorts and conditions. THE NEW "PUB." How is this public-house to be created? The committee in charge of the Labor campaign for the public ownership and control of the drink trade know well that the brewers, who are interested only in money-making, will not create it, nor do they want them to try. 'The brewer, they claim, is as unnecessary as Pussyfoot. Let him be bought out at a fair price as soon as possible. Let Pussyfoot depart to a more congenial clime, andi let the British people apply their genius for self-govern-ment.ito the task of looking after refreshment'and recreation for themselves. "The public-house," the leaders of .the Labor campaign contend, "will lose most of its evil when it loses all its grossness."