LEGISLATION AGAINST THE DRINK EVIL. 443 



containing about fifty per cent of alcohol, was cheap, and in con- 

 sequence of the poor food supply grew into universal use, until not 

 only men and women but very young children drank it. Drunk- 

 enness became the rule, and pauperism and crime prevailed in start- 

 ling proportions, outrunning the range of either charity or police to 

 control them. In this state of affairs a Dr. Wisselgren, Dean of 

 Gothenburg, a Swedish city, arose, and from his exertions grew the 

 famous Gothenburg system. 



Stripped of detail, this system provides that stock companies 

 called brandy companies shall receive from the crown a monopoly 

 of liquor sales, on condition of maintaining eating houses, reading 

 rooms, lodgings, and other conveniences for the community, and out 

 of surplus profits contribute to the police, the poor, and the educa- 

 tional, funds of the community. The companies shall be under in- 

 spection of the royal governor, with no appeal from his discretion, 

 and also under inspection of officers of the three funds entitled to 

 the surplus profits. The companies must close their places of sale 

 on Sundays, can sell only to persons over eighteen years of age, and 

 in the rooms devoted to drinking alone there must be no chairs or 

 settees. After drinking, the purchaser must depart. Such rooms 

 must not be in communication directly with the eating and lodging 

 rooms. In these latter cleanliness and cheapness must prevail, but 

 the company may raise the price and dilute the strength of the 

 brandy sold. 



With much amendment and revision, this system appears to be 

 to-day substantially in effect, with what good results opinions differ. 

 It was speedily rejected after brief trial in Georgia for a high- 

 license system pure and simple. In South Carolina its introduc- 

 tion from Georgia provoked riot and even bloodshed on account of 

 the right of search which it involved. The main feature is, of course, 

 that the State becomes the real buyer, jobber, and retailer of all 

 ardent spirits. Here it has been found difficult of complete ad- 

 ministration, and, unless its success should be more distinguished 

 than at present, it probably is but a short-lived expedient. 



V. Regulation or Hours of Sale. — All the liquor-licensing 

 States and Territories regulate the hours of opening and closing 

 drinking places. They all agree in closing them during the small 

 hours (that is, from midnight or one o'clock a. m. until about sun- 

 rise or an hour after). It is difficult to all what effect for good or 

 ill these statutes can have upon either the decrease of drunkenness 

 or the increase of revenue. Doubtless they are convenient for the 

 public force of cities or the constabulary of the smaller towns, so that 

 they may know when to be prepared for possible breaking of the 

 public peace. But in no State, so far as we can discover, are they 



