PROHIBITION IN RUSSIA.

White Ribbon, Volume 21, Issue 245, 18 November 1915, Page 5

PROHIBITION IN RUSSIA.

Samuel G. Blythe, m tin* Saturday “Evening Post,’’ says “When vodka was on sale the average savings bank deposits in Russia were in the neighbourhood of from sixteen to twenty million dollars a year. In the thirty-one days of January, 1915, five months after the sale of vodka was prohibit d in one month the former vodka drinkers put thirty million dollars into the savings banks in the Empire. 1 hey saved nearly twice much in one month as they formerly saved in a year. Moscow has about two million people, and is far more Russian than Petrograd. The Russians call Moscow “the* heart of Kus sia,” so vodka figures from that < ity may be considered really Russian. Vodka was prihibited when mobilisation began, about August 1, or a few days before. In August, 1913, 667,29 b gallons of vodka were sold in Moscow, and in August, 1914, after mobilisation, 23.373 gallons. In September, 1913, Moscow drinkers of vodka consumed 759.947 gallons, and in September, 1914, they got along with 7314 gallons. In October, 1913, they drank gallons, and. in October. 1914 —the third month of prohibition, they drank only 2913 gallons. The amount is far less now, because vodka was sold by the dm! in the restaurants in Moscow during these three months, but the bottle shops, which were the plain people’s emporiums, were closed.