VASSAR BROTHEES INSTITUTE. 11 



The following officers were elected : 

 W. Bancroft Hill, . . . . President. 



James Winne, .... Vice-President. 



John A. Williams, Secretary. 



Edward Elsworth, .... Treasurer. 



NOVEMBER 13, 1894— SIXTY-FIFTH REGULAR MEETING. 



President Hill presented the following paper : 



THE GOTHENBURG OR NORWEGIAN SYSTEM OF LIQUOR 



TRAFFIC. 



BY REV. WM. BANCROFT HILL. 



The history of legislation in the United States upon 

 the manufacture and sale of intoxicants is most varied 

 and comprehensive. Each State has the right to legis- 

 late for itself concerning this matter, except so far as 

 interstate commerce laws and excise laws are framed by 

 the national government. We have, therefore, practi- 

 cally more than forty independent sovereignties, each 

 trying to solve for itself the great difficulties of the liquor 

 problem. And in no two States are the conditions 

 exactly the same. Maine is largely isolated geographi- 

 cally from the other States, and can enforce its laws with 

 little interference ; but Iowa has only artificial boundary 

 lines, or the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, to sep- 

 arate it from its neighbors, and has to contend against 

 influences from without as well as from within. New 

 Hampshire is a State which has no city of any size to 

 introduce special difficulties or to predominate in politics; 

 New York is a State of large cities whose condition and 

 influence are the chief topics to be considered in temper- 

 ance legislation. Vermont is purely agricultural ; 

 Rhode Island is as purely manufacturing. Massachusetts 

 has a large and increasing foreign population, coming 



