RUSSIA'S TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 121 



liquor that bore the seal of the state and whose purity 

 was attested by the government. 



In fact, every restriction which the frantic friends 

 of a doomed traffic are clamorously urging in our 

 own country was tried out in Russia during the 

 nationalization of the traffic. The rules governing 

 its management read like the recommendations of a 

 Model License League. 



Vodka was sold for off-the-premise consumption 

 only in corked and sealed bottles, and not a cork- 

 screw or drinking vessel was permitted in a vodka 

 shop. Its sale was prohibited to children and drunken 

 persons. Wage-earners were protected through the 

 early closing on pay-day of all vodka shops near 

 factories. They were closed also on certain religious 

 holidays and all days when the village Council met. 

 The traffic was made so respectable that school- 

 teachers withdrew from the profession of learning to 

 become managers of vodka shops. The government 

 lent its prestige, and patrons were required to remove 

 their caps on entering, as in other Imperial offices. 



The government even provided counter attractions 

 to its own liquor business. There were restaurants 

 where beer and light wines were served only with 

 food orders, and tea parlours, concert halls, and other 

 places of resort where the people might meet for 

 social intercourse apart from intoxicants. 



A portion of the profits from the sale of vodka 

 was devoted to an educational temperance campaign; 

 and during the year that saw the opening of the state 

 vodka shops, seventy thousand seven hundred tern- 



