THE INSENSATE "PARTY" SYSTEM IN PARLIAMENT '235 



a public-house at every street corner in most towns, with 

 others at frequent intervals along the street. 



It is a common occurrence to find in nearly every town in 

 the kingdom a hundred facilities where ten would sutficc, and 

 since the drinking shops are so freely scattered throughout the 

 length and breadth of the country, the wonder is not that 

 drunkenness is common, but that there is not more of it. That 

 it is not more prevalent is due to the good sense of the people 

 themselves, and the masses would gladly welcome salutary 

 reform in the laws which now regulate this traffic. 



How Vested Interests killed the "Confiscation" Bill 



A better exemplification of how national requirements arc 

 still subordinated to private interests, and how easy it is for 

 well-organised industries to make sport of the needs of a people, 

 cannot be found than in the wreck of this " Confiscation " i5ill 

 in the House of Lords. 



Allowing for the self-interests of those engaged in the trade, 

 as also for the ]3arty bias of the Opposition, there will hardly 

 be found a man in the kingdom who, having studied the ques- 

 tion from a rational, common-sense, and independent point of 

 view — realising that during tlie last ten years the people have 

 spent an average of about £180,000,000 annually on intoxicating 

 liquors, and recognising that the curse of drink has settled 

 upon masses of the people as a deadly blight — will be found 

 to uphold the action of those who killed the Licensing Bill. 

 This is not the place to discuss the Bill, but this may be said 

 — that it was an honest attempt on the part of Government to 

 amend, to some extent, the many evils which spring from this 

 unbridled drink traffic. The Licensing Bill is now a matter 

 of history, but its stormy passage through the Commons, 

 and its destruction in the Lords, serve to emphasise the tremen- 

 dous difficulty there is in this party-ridden country of getting 

 a sinfrlc measure of real reform through Parliament once vested 

 interests are threatened. It has been well termed " a victory 

 of wrong over right, of the trade over the community," and 

 brings, as the Lord Chancellor said, " no honour to the \'ictors." 



Drink produces £35,000,000 to Eevenue 



Because of the easy facilities of raising enormous revenues, 

 past Governments have connived at the growth of a monstrous 

 evil which has taken hold of the people with a deadly and 

 unrelenting grip. Millions have suffered in the past, incal- 

 culable harm is being done to-day to vast masses of unfortunates 



