176 LABRADOR 
Some trouble is caused by the fact that the mail steamer 
brings down regularly to private individuals liquor which 
is bought and paid for in St. John’s. They can even carry 
it down for “‘cash on delivery” and still escape the law. 
Naturally, this opens a very wide loophole for the enemy 
of the fishermen. Foreign vessels are still unfortunately 
in the habit of giving away rum to those loading them with 
fish. The total quantity drunk, however, is very small 
indeed. Thousands of our fishermen are absolute ab- 
stainers on principle, and a very strong anti-liquor senti- 
ment prevails almost universally. The results are obvious 
in the fact that we have not one policeman stationed along 
the whole coast; not one among twenty-five thousand 
people. We haveno penitentiary, and there has not been, 
to my knowledge, a conviction for drunkenness. During 
sixteen years I have personally not seen one fisherman 
drunk. It is very different among the North Sea fisher- 
men. Alcohol has there been the downfall of some of the 
best men. It has cost the lives of more than one of my 
own friends. It has ruined and starved many families 
I have known and loved. 
A careful study of the health conditions of the coast by 
the doctors of our staff all these years has shown that there 
is no need for liquor whatever in these subarctic climates ; 
that, on the contrary, the first man to go down in hard 
physical conditions is almost always the drinking man. 
Among men on the sea the dangers from its use are 
enormously enhanced. As a method of making money, 
I can conceive of few that are so despicable, so inhuman, 
as this liquor traffic! 
The complete absence of artificial class distinctions on 
