■ lANUARV 1, 1915 



■■ On supposition that the government was selling 

 vodka for revenue, I calculated the revenue received 

 from its consumption in Samara. I then introduced 

 a bill in the city council providing that the city give 

 this sum to the imperial treasury with the request 

 that the sale of vodka be prohibited. This bill was 

 passed. The money was offered to the government, 

 but the government refused it. 



" It dawned upon me that Russian bureaucracy 

 did not want the people sober, because it was easier 

 to rule autocratically a drunken mob than a sober 

 people. 



" That was seven years ago. Later I was chosen 

 mayor of Samara, and subsequently elected to the 

 duma on an anti-vodka platform. In the duma I 

 proposed a bill permitting the inhabitants of any 

 town to close the local vodka shops, and providing 

 also that every bottle of vodka should bear a label 

 with the word poison. At my request the wording 

 of this label, in which the evils of vodka were set 

 forth, was done by Leo Tolstoi. This bill passed the 

 duma, but in the imperial council was amended and 

 finally tabled. 



" I then begged an audience of Emperor Nicholas. 

 He received me with great kindness, and listened to 

 me patiently. He was impressed with my recital 

 tliat more revolutionary and social excesses were 

 committed by drunkards than by any other class. 

 He promised to speak to his minister of finance 

 concerning the prohibition of vodka. 



" Disappointed at the failure of my bill, I had 

 abandoned my seat in the duma. It was evident 

 the bureaucracy had obstructed the measure. Minis- 

 ter of Finance Kokovsoff regarded it as a dangerous 

 innovation, depriving the government of 1,000,000,- 

 000 rubles ($500,000,000) yearly. 



" While I lobbied in Petrograd the emperor visited 

 the country around Moscow and saw the havoc of 

 vodka. He then dismissed Kokovsoff and appointed 

 the present minister of finance, M. Bark. 



" Mobilization precipitated the anti-vodka measure. 

 The grand duke, remembering the disorganization 

 due to drunkenness during the mobilization of 1904, 

 ordered prohibition except in first-class clubs and 

 restaurants. ^ This order, enforced for one month, 

 showed the Russian authorities the value of absti- 

 nence. In spite of the depression of war, the paraly- 

 sis of business, and the closing of factories, the 

 people felt no privation. Savings banks showed an 

 increase in deposits. There was a boom in the sale 

 of meats, groceries, clothing, dry goods, and house 

 furnishings. 



" The 30,000,000 rubles a day that had been paid 

 for vodka were now being spent for necessities. The 

 average working week increased from three and 

 four days to six, the numerous holidays of the 

 drinker having been eliminated. The working day 

 also became longer, and the efficiency of the worker 

 was perhaps doubled. Women and children who 

 were seldom without marks showing the violence 

 of husband and father, suddenly found themselves 

 in an undreamed-of paradise. There were no blows, 

 no rough treatment, and no insults. There was 

 bread on the table, milk for the babies, and a fire 

 in the kitchen. 



" I decided to seize this occasion for a press 

 campaign so far as this is possible in Russia. I 

 organized delegations to present petitions to the 

 proper authorities for prolonging this new sobriety 

 for the duration of the war. This step found favor 

 with his imperial majesty, and an order was issued 

 to that effect. A similar campaign to remove the 

 licenses from privileged restaurants and clubs was 

 successful, and strong liquor was no longer of value 

 anywhere in Russia. 



" The second month of abstinence made the mani- 

 fold advantages so clear to everybody that when we 

 called upon bis majesty to thank him for his recent 



43 



orders he promised that the vodka business of tlie 

 government would be giveu up forever." 



XO MORE HEROIC REFORM MEASURE WAS 

 EVER INTRODUCED BY ANY GOVERNMENT." 



A friend in New York sent the following, 

 but neglected to say what New York paper 

 it comes from: 



EUS.SIA'S GREAT DRINK REFORM. 



If the manufacture, sale, and consumption of 

 whisky and all "hard" liquor were suddenly stopped 

 in the United States — if the country's 2300 distil- 

 leries were put out of business by a stroke of the 

 pen, and the Government's income of $163,879,3-12 

 yearly from this source absolutely cut off — we should 

 have a condition of things approximately resembling 

 that brought about in Russia by the abolition of 

 the vodka traffic. Yet even this parallel does not 

 fully represent the revolution in Russia's drinking 

 habits whereby 150,000,000 persons are affected at 

 an annual cost to the Government of $500,000,000 

 in revenue. 



Doubtless no more heroic reform measure was 

 ever introduced by any Government. It has re- 

 mained for the absolute monarchy whose name is 

 synonymous with oppression, but which yet antici- 

 pated our own free nation in liberating the serf, to 

 give force to what is altogether the most remarkable 

 temperance movement in the world's history. 



Here is something more, from the New 

 York Times: 



But that Russia will profit in every way except 

 that of immediate and direct income from such 

 suppression of the use of vodka as is attained need 

 not be seriously doubted. As always, too, the loss 

 of revenue will be more than balanced by increased 

 capacity to pay taxes, and possibly in the increased 

 sobriety of its people the great empire will find 

 more than compensation for its military expenditures 

 of money and men. 



France seems to be meditating like though less 

 sweeping reforms, and hints of similar plunges into 

 abstinence more or less nearly total are coming from 

 other countries involved in the war. It all marks 

 the world's new appreciation that alcohol and effi- 

 ciency of any sort do not go together. This fact is 

 now demonstrable by scientific tests of the most 

 convincing sort, and it applies to war as well as to 

 any other form of activity. 



WHAT A QUART OF WHISKY MAY COST A 

 COUNTY. 



Since there has been such a talk about the 

 loss of revenue if the saloons were ruled 

 out, the following, clipped from the Xew 

 Republic, may give us some light on the 

 subject : 



One of the citizens of Belmont County went to 

 Bellaire some years ago and bought a quart of whis- 

 ky, got drunk, and went out and killed a man. It 

 cost the county about $5000 to send the murderer to 

 the penitentiary. The circuit court set aside the 

 verdict, and sent the case back to the lower court 

 for a new trial. It cost tlie county about $6000 

 more to land the man behind the bars at Columbus. 



Two years later Governor Harmon pardoned the 

 murderer. The fellow went right back to Belmont 

 County and bought another quart of whisky, got 

 drunk, and killed another man. It cost the county 

 $5000 more to send him again to the penitentiary. 

 Once more the circuit court reversed the decision 

 and sent it back on error for a new trial. The de- 

 fendant asked for a change of venue, and the case 

 was heard in Jefferson County. It cost Belmont 



