416 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



or pa^vn tickets, (3) with the injury arising from the sale of li- 

 quor to young people, (4) with the violation of restrictive regu- 

 lations of the law in regard to hours of sale, to the quantities al- 

 lowed to be sold, and to the entire management of the business^ 

 (5) with a competition which lowers the prices, (6) with the use 

 of an unnecessarily large number of licenses, and finally (7) 

 with the evil influence of the saloon as an element in political 

 life. When the system has been extended to the sale of all al- 

 coholic bevera2:es, it will, bv virtue of its manv excellences, ex- 

 ert a blessed influence upon the future. 



In order that the results at which we have arrived may not 

 be deemed inharmonious with the opinion of authorities who 

 have studied the Gothenburg system not from a distance, as we 

 have been obliged to do, but who have studied it in the very 

 theatre where the drama has been played, I shall, in conclusion, 

 present a few quotations to indicate that at least a few promi- 

 nent Scandinavian authorities agree with my conclusion. Says 

 Sven Alarestad, to whom we have already referred as a leading 

 authority: 'The same reasons which have made it desirable 

 that the traffic in brandy should be controlled absolutely by 

 samlags make it also desirable that ale and wine should be thus 

 controlled. Especially is absolute control by samlags desired 

 in the traffic in the cheap and highly intoxicating wines which 

 have become so common during later years. These wines seem 

 indeed to be even mjove intoxicating than brand}^ But it is also 

 desirable that samlags should be granted absolute control of the 

 sales of ale. It is evident that the brewers are more and more 

 gaining control of those channels through which ale may reach 

 the people. All liquor traffic should be controlled by samlags.'^ 

 Says Siegfrid AVieselgren, the president of the Swedish Tem- 

 perance Society: "Under the present state of things it seems 

 to me it would be a very wise measure to extend the application 

 of the system by bringing under its control also the sale of the 

 milder liquors." Says H. E. Berner, the noted temperance ad- 

 vocate and mayor of Christiania : 'There can be no doubt that 

 by granting absolute control of the sales of all liquors to samlags 

 we should see a material decrease in the amount of drunken- 

 ness, and a new and great triumph for temperance work.'' 



