Whatever shortcomings may be found in the following pages, I have done my best to ensure their honesty and fairness. I have written with a brief for no particular policy, but with a sincere desire to learn, free from the blinding mists of partisan prejudice, the truth about all. My conclusions may appear to some mistaken, and my treatment inadequate, but I have never suppressed facts that told against my own opinions, arranged statistics to suit myself, or consciously placed incidents in a disproportionate light. The subject is altogether too serious, and involves issues too grave, to allow one to indulge in one-sided statements, garbled facts, or lying statistics.
As far as possible, the facts and figures given are taken from official sources. I must acknowledge my indebtedness to many correspondents in America, in Australia, and on the Continent of Europe, as well as at home, who have helped me by collecting statistics and supplying information. Without their aid my investigations would have been far more difficult than they have proved. I am also greatly obliged to the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette for permission to reproduce portions of several articles of mine on “Liquor Laws,” which appeared in his journal and in a Pall Mall Gazette “Extra” during 1893.
FRED A. McKENZIE.
46 Oxberry Avenue,
Fulham.
CONTENTS.
| [PART I.—AMERICA.] | ||
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [I.] | The State as Saloon Keeper | [9] |
| [II.] | Rum and Politics | [21] |
| [III.] | Forty Years of Prohibition | [32] |
| [IV.] | Prohibition in Kansas | [45] |
| [V.] | The Law that Failed | [53] |
| [VI.] | High Licence in Pennsylvania | [67] |
| [PART II.—GREATER BRITAIN.] | ||
| [I.] | Prohibition and Local Option in Canada | [75] |
| [II.] | Local Control in New Zealand | [92] |
| [III.] | Licensing in Australia | [104] |
| [PART III.—THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE.] | ||
| [I.] | The State as Distiller | [112] |
| [II.] | The Gothenburg System | [122] |
| [PART IV.—ENGLAND.] | ||
| [I.] | The Growth of the Licensing System | [133] |
| [II.] | Proposed Reforms | [147] |
| [III.] | The Problems of Reform | [169] |
| [IV.] | The Path of Progress | [191] |
| APPENDICES. | ||
| [I.] | The Condition of Working Men in Maine | [199] |
| [II.] | The Gin Act, 1736 | [200] |