BACK TO DICENSE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVIII, Issue 1047, 31 March 1910, Page 22

BACK TO DICENSE.

WORCESTER MAKES A CHANGE.

Worcester, that for two years had been the largest no-license city in the world, voted license on December 14th by a majority of 3,740. Fifteen Massachusetts cities, including Worcester, that gave last year a no-license majority of 8,925, saw it cut this month to 2,197. We read in the “Times” that twenty-nine cities that have voted no license this year, and which gave last year a majority of 8,936 for nolicense, gave this year a majority of 12,467 for license. These are significant figures. Still more significant was the remarkable vote in Alabama, which overwhelmed the attempt to put prohibition , .into the State Constitution. Of that, and its probable effect on anti-rum agitation in the South, we have already spoken. The sweep of the “temperance wave” seems to be checked. If so, it is a fault of methods, not of purpose. Pretty nearly everybody wants to diminish the evils of rum and is willing to pay more than a fair price to do it. We infer that it is the conclusion in Worcester that no-license does not sufficiently diminish those evils in Worcester, or is not worth what it costs. We infer that it is the opinion in Alabama that State prohibition, which was on trial there, has not bettered things as much as was expected. We do not doubt that Worcester is too big a town to thrive on no-license, and we believe that State prohibition works badly in the cities of every State that has it, and always will. The problem of the regulation of alcohol in our cities has not been worked out yet, but the most

respected experts who have studied that problem do not ravor either nolicense in large cities or State prohibition anywhere. They do not expect by legislation to keep alcoholic drinks from people who want them, but they aim to diminish drinking, diminish the temptations to drink, and take away the motive for pressing drinks upon the public. They would use local option combined with a licensing system. Most of them favor some adaptation of the Gothenberg system, which has succeeded in Sweden, and under which the sale of intoxicants is controlled by the Government, and so regulated that while drinks can always be lawfully bought, there is restricted inducement for any private person to engage in the business of selling them. —Harper’s Weekly.