is of little or no use to quench a continuous thirst such as is produced by continuous exposure to heat.

"One measure that may be useful in lessening the abuse of alcohol is to lessen the facilities for obtaining it.

"A reduction in the number of public houses, or places where alcohol is sold, is therefore one method of lessening alcoholism. A second plan is to lessen the temptation to alcoholism within the public houses themselves. In regard to this I do not think I can do better than quote from a letter in the Times by a publican of fifty years' experience:

""The working man is attracted to the public-house not only for its warmth and light, but also to converse with his friends. He can only purchase beer or spirits, although he may prefer tea or coffee, meat, bread and cheese, but as he cannot obtain these he therefore takes, say, whisky, which is very often composed largely of Hamburg spirit; he soon requires another, and another; eventually he becomes maddened, not drunk as he would have been fifty years ago. The next day he does not feel up to working, so goes again to the "pub" for a livener; and so he goes on from year to year, never feeling as a healthy, vigorous man should feel. Now if these huge drinking bars were abolished and only rooms where meat, bread and cheese, tea and coffee, and also beer and spirits could be obtained, with comfortable seats and good lavatory accommodation, he would gradually become a temperate drinker.'

"In another letter to the Times Mr. Ernest Williams says:

""That with this programme I am in hearty agreement, and would fill it out much more generously and make it include, where practicable, reasonable provision for reading, writing and telephone accommodation, games, music, and other harmless distractions from the business of mere drinking.'

"It is of very great importance indeed that young men especially should not get into the way of going to public-houses, and in order to prevent it means should be supplied to give them amusement and employment in other ways. More especially useful in this

respect are athletic clubs, gymnasia, cadet corps, and classes for technical education, which would help the youth to strengthen his body, improve his mind, and increase his chance for advancing in life, as well as keeping him occupied for the present and preventing him from getting into mischief.

"A plan that is useful both for men and women, but perhaps more especially for women, is that of lessening the number of public-houses at which alcohol is sold, and at the same time increasing the number of refreshment places where tea, coffee, cocoa, and non-alcoholic drinks can be obtained as well as solid refreshments, including not only bread, buns, tea-cakes, and the like, but also more elaborate dishes of eggs, fish, or meat, which ought in all cases to be well cooked and cleanly served, as they would almost certainly be at a restaurant in France. To some of these restaurants might be attached a nursery under the charge of a responsible woman, where the mothers could leave their children for a short time while they were enjoying their tea and gossip. There ought 'to be opportunities in the summer for sitting in the open air, and in the winter there should be light and warmth. Public-houses are aware of the importance of light in attracting clients, and it is not to be wondered at if poor women, depressed by scanty food, poverty, and misery, are anxious to exchange the comparative darkness and coldness of their own miserable homes for light and warmth and the opportunity of gossip in a public-house. Two pennyworth of gin to such a woman means not only the relief and comfort which she gets from alcohol but the brightness, warmth and pleasure. in gossiping that the public-house affords.

"The next thing to be done is to lessen the discomfort at home. In some cases this depends, no doubt, in great measure on the difficulty of getting proper accommodation, and the housing question and the removal of slums is one of the utmost importance to the community in relation to the lessening of drunkenness. But however good the house accommodation may be, if the housewife is incompetent the home will not be comfortable, and probably in the greater number of cases the discomfort depends less on the accommodation than on the woman's want of thrift and want of knowledge of how to cook, as well as on actual poverty. It is very difficult, indeed, if not hopeless, to try to teach these things to grown-up

women, but it might be done with the children, and if less time were spent at school in girls learning what is of no use to them in after life, and pains were taken to teach them the things that would be useful, much might be done to lessen drunkenness.

"It would be of very great advantage if it were possible to prevent the sale of intoxicating liquor entirely to youths under twenty-one and thus prevent them from making drafts on their physiological capital, just as the law already recognizes that minors should be prevented from making undue drafts on their monetary reserves by obtaining loans from money-lenders."

LICENSING REFORM: A NEW POLICY

Under this title Mr. Alexander F. Part writes an article in the January number of The Nineteenth Century and After. What lends especial interest to it is that Mr. Part is the managing director of the most successful of the various Trust Companies in England, formed for the purpose of conducting public-houses, or saloons as we call them, without the exploitation of customers and the resulting evils associated with the ordinary public-house. Lord Grey prefaces the article with an introduction in which he speaks of it as revealing "with expert clearness the chief causes of failure of our existing liquor legislation to lessen evils which up to now have been the despair of every patriot, and the standing proof of the helplessness of party politicians." He also says that Mr. Part demonstrates "how under the conditions of sane legislation, based not on irrational sentiment or blind prejudice, but on a scientific regard for cause and effect, the public-houses of the United Kingdom may be made instrumental not of national degradation, but of national and social advancement."

The extracts given below from Mr. Part's article are of especial interest to the American reader, for what he says concerning certain basic principles of legislation, which have been ignored in the United Kingdom in efforts to deal with the liquor question, applies in a general way to this country. Of course, this statement will not for a moment be conceded by the Prohibitionists who cannot conceive of any conditions under which even the most moderate use of drink can be made respectable. The rest of the public needs to learn that beyond a certain point repressive legislation is bound to fail, and that law cannot cope successfully with drink regulations unless it is of a constructive character. This is the main thesis of Mr. Part's essay. His description of the operation of Trust Companies is omitted as being of a fairly familiar nature. It may be said, however, that these Trust Companies operate after the manner of the Scandinavian system, which has been modified to meet English

needs. Of course, it means a complete revolutionizing of the retail traffic, since it substitutes for individual ownership that of companies whose share-holders are only allowed an ordinary rate of interest on their investment. On the other hand, these companies do not affect the operations of producers, whose wares they necessarily purchase. It is observable that the bitter opposition of the manufacturers of liquors to the Trust Companies in England, which was so strong at first, is dying out, except of course in cases where the producers also control, or attempt to control, the large part of the retail trade.

In the true and permanent interests of the Trade, no less than in respect of the public well-being, reform of licensed houses and of licensing is a vital necessity. The revolting conditions under which most of the drink of the country is purveyed are evidence of the urgency of the matter, and if further proof were necessary a study of the latest available licensing statistics would give additional point to the need for a change.

From a growing sense of public decorum, the State, in the struggle to limit so mighty a factor, has evolved a system of control which in complexity, ineptness, inefficiency, and artificiality is perhaps unrivaled.

The purpose of this epitome of failure is merely to indicate, by reference to the mistakes of the past and present, a live policy more in accord with common sense and practical politics than the present system-a policy, in short, which, if carried out, would effect in very large degree the solution of the licensing and temperance problems, thorny and difficult though they are.

This assertion may appear to be presumptuous, but close and intimate study of these questions from a practical point of view has shown that the main difficulty is not so much to find a solution as to elaborate a policy which will at once be effective and gain general support.

The comparative failure of the teetotalers warns us that, while the public demands a change, it requires one which will give individual freedom of choice, and equally one which is as just to the interests involved as is reasonably consistent with public welfare. Excesses on the part of extremists are equally distasteful to the