26 THE GOTHENBUEG STSTEM OF LIQUOE TEAFFIO. 



for reform. There is no danger of the business becom- 

 ing respectable so long as the men who have it in charge 

 are temperance men who have no wish that it should be 

 thought respectable. 



Will not saloons be run without licenses, and illegal 

 selling go on after the formation of the company? Un- 

 doubtedly if the temperance sentiment of the community 

 is not alert to prevent it. Yet the fact that there is an 

 organized company to contend with this evil, and the 

 fact, also, that public institutions or interests suffer a 

 loss of profits by all illegal sales must do much towards 

 suppressing it. 



The saloon is confessedly the workingman's club- 

 house ; will he not for this reason object to its suppres- 

 sion? The cheerless Norwegian drinkingplace in which 

 he is not allowed to linger, and finds nothing to make 

 him wish to do so, cannot delisrht him or give him a cosy 

 spot in which to meet his friends. This should be recog- 

 nized and a substitute provided. It is only necessary to 

 devote part of the company's profits to public reading 

 rooms, or club-houses where amusements, light refresh- 

 ments, billiard tables and the like can be enjoyed by the 

 poor at a nominal expense and without the evil influ- 

 ences and temptations to drink which our present saloons 

 offer. We all see the need of such places, bat at present 

 the expense of maintaining them is largely prohibitory : 

 the Norwegian system removes that obstacle. 



Leaving the discussion of these and similar points to 

 yourselves, let me briefly state in closing just what the 

 Norwegian system has actually accomplished in the 

 countries which have given it a trial. The two largest 

 cities of Norway (Christiana and Bergen) have a popula- 

 tion of about 150,000 and 50,000 respectively. There are 

 three other cities of above 20,000 each. The population 

 of the whole country is over 2,000,000. Sweden has a 

 population of 6,000,000. Its chief city, Stockholm, hag 



