20 THE GOTHENBtJRG SYSTEM OF LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 



business of the company and thereby lessen his burden 

 of taxation. As matters stand to-day Norway is the 

 better of the two countries to pattern after ; and the 

 Massachusetts advocates of this temperance reform call 

 it, not the Gothenburg, but the Norwegian system. This 

 may be in part because while Sweden is aristocratic in 

 its institutions, Norway is intensely democratic. 



Now let me try to state briefly, and without confusing 

 details, just what that Norwegian system is. 



1. The whole liquor traffic of a town both wholesale 

 (by which I mean liquor sold in aiiy packages, less than 

 66 gallons to be drunk off the premises, e. g. a grocer's 

 trade) and retail is put in the hands of a company. In 

 neither Norway nor Sweden as yet have malt liquors 

 been included with distilled. For a time the consump- 

 tion of beer was encouraged as an antidote to brandy- 

 drinking; and partly through this and paitly through 

 the restiictions upon brandy, beer-d? inking has greatly 

 increased in Sweden, although not at all in Norway. 

 But either country drinks only about 30 quarts per capi- 

 ta as against 60 in the United States, 126 in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, and 289 in Bavaria. They certainly cannot 

 be set down as heavy beer-drinking countries. And the 

 prospect is that before long the sale of malt liquors will 

 also be handed over entirely to the companies. 



2. These companies must be composed of reputable 

 men ; their by-laws approved by X)™?©"^ authorities ; 

 their books and accounts kept o[>en for public inspection ; 

 and their jDroceedings published annually. They are to 

 receive only a stipulated sun, usually the current rate of 

 interest, on capital actually invested ; and the remainder 

 of the proflts is to be turned over to " objects of public 

 utility " determined by a special committee. These ob- 

 jects include charities, parks and tree planting, indus- 

 trial education, libraries, amusements, baths, gymnasi- 

 ums, rescue homes, Young Men's Christian Associations, 



