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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 1915)
" mfwrJrT.Aqfjpjrvyrvsm H .. ,i ;i(i The Commoner VOL. 15, No. .4 --' "TrfpPT " v" 24 w r i u1 ifc.' ft"5 4 ?R " TX . ft?i m . i n i i . k .r,.a . " ' w ' r mmmw - --ji -p- CfrrL r Grit, of Sydney, Australia. The Way to Prohibit is to Prohibit, Russia Showed Following is from a special corres pondent to tho New York World, dated Petrograd, February 15: In their hunfblo and most tenaci ous instincts the broad masses of the Russian people have come around again this week to begin the annual observance of the Orthodox Lental fast. They renounce, especially their women, even tho fish permitted to Catholics whon their ritual prescribes for them meagre fare. Obediently and without murmur some millions of Russians in the first, fourth and Bovonth weeks of their fast go with out milk, butter, eggs and, indeed, Bvorything which emanates from ani mal life. Their diet will be cabbage, potatoes, beetroot, cucumbers, pickled mushrooms; for anything, like fat they have to content themselves with the oil of sunflower seeds. This deep, ingrained habit of self flonial as the one obvious tribute to Russian human nature to the Rus sian church has to be kept in the foreground .of one's thoughts if any foreigner is to understand the im mediate, unprotesting acceptance of 30 numerous a change in the daily habits of life as the sudden and total prohibition of vodka. The self-denial was put to them as an act of Christian renunciation in face of the awful visitation of war. They are ready to take it as a Divine com mandment. VODKA ALREADY GIVEN UP Giving up vodka was probably not bucIi a punishment even to those who took far too much of it as many who have heard of its sway would think. By no stretch of imagination could anybody say that vodka made a man "jolly," or that it was a sociable, comforting beverage. It was potont and rank, always taken "neat" and very often out of the neck of the bot tle: and its plain purpose was to give a man an immediate change of mood. If a man felt the monotony of his humble existence and the pathetic sense that grows on one living always in tho drab sameness of vast Russian plains vodka would get him quickly and cheaply into another temper, mostly pugnacious, and then more melancholy than ever. Nor did the surroundings in which tho man usu ally swallowed his vodka help to make it the occasion of social festiv ity. The government drink stores the jnonopolka were of set purpose as bare and forbidding as a carpenter could make them. There was no seat or table for anybody, and riotk ing could be consumed on the prem lie. If tho man wll wanted his change of mood did not gulp down his vodka on the open road outside the stores, he would adjourn to a traktir the commonest kind of eat ing house and here he could soon enter the land of lurid visions; or he would take it home and drink it there, when ho is tho worst nuisance of all. HOW IT WAS DONE But though the exhibition that vic tims made of themselves was stark alcoholism and nothing else, It is a mistake to think that they were so completely its slaves that they lost all power of decision. Even before the days of prohibition it was almost unheard of in villages that a peasant should be drunk in tho strictest weeks of the fast. The "water wag on," as you call it in America, was a religious emblem which their neigh bors and the inherited force of habit compelled them to worship in fear and. obedience. For another thing, there were sin gularly few physical or nervous wrecks from the abuse of vodka. This is mostly due, no doubt, t6 the Russians being a young and sturdy race, and a far higher percentage of them than of any other people live by manual work in the open air, which helped them to work off the damaging effects of drink before it undermined their constitutions. And it was never a thing that people sip ped or soaked over. Its effects were immediate and violent, and as a path ological consequence there were pretty long intervals in which its de votees had a spontaneous disgust for it. The final blow came upon them quite unprepared. The night before the publication of the absolute ban the police in tho different precincts went around among the stores that could sell vodka either to the public or to retailers, and, Indeed, to all drinking shops, ,and sealed up the doors, front and back, pasting a bill on the windows with the word "Closed." Nobody had time to lay in a supply. There was plenty of sad surprise, but, being Russia, It ended at that. The idea of an implacable, fussy mob trying to break into the cellars and help themselves is so ut terly impossible in Russia that no body who has ever lived here. for any time ever dreamed of expecting such an incident. GOOD RESULTS QUICKLY FELT No doubt many of the reservists and, still more, their friends would have been glad of a dram at parting, but as soon as they knew that they could not have it there was a bigger consumption of food and tea instead. Tho army was and is too eager to do its very best to trouble its soul about tho vodka question; it goes without and is cheerful. As for the change of mood, which was the desideratum in tho old thirsty days, tho war itself and the cause for which they are fighting are enough exaltation. The, best results of the prohibition came out first in the big cities, The panorama of the war and its periods of dramatic excitement made the peo ple very gregarious. It was a new thing for them to meet in the pres ence of the most in.tep.se crisisHn the world and to feel themselves part of it. Had vodka been accessible it would have been an unqualified curse; generous excitement would have degenerated into nervous passion. The abstinence was made easier by being applied inflexibly to rich and poor. For some weeks light wines were obtainable, but they, too, have gone the way of everything else that contained alcohol. Only the foreign embassies are allowed the privilege of obtaining wine through a special permit issued for each sep erate occasion by the administrative authorities; and they are believed to have tho decency to exercise their privilege in moderation. An am bassador is the immediate personal emissary of his sovereign, and an invitation to dine with him is equiva lent to a social "command" from his king to one of his subjects, and only actual ill-health is accepted as an excuse for absence; any previous in vitation for the same night must be set aside. But all around even the semblance of social feasting is set aside. MAY NOT EFFECT REVENUE It is not, at all clear that the rev enue will suffer a permanent heavy loss by the renunciation. There, is, of course, an enormous dislocation from the last budget accounts, but the money that went in vodka is still somewhere about the country. The savings banks show great increases in deposits all over the empire from here to Vladivostok and from Arch angel to Odessa. The clothing trade has been thriving and spreading ex traordinarily since- the prohibition. The long process under the Stolpin land, act by which the peasants were gradually buying up their sectional holdings as their absolute property has been helped to an incalculable extent by the exclusion of the vodka trade and the consequent circulation of money for punctual payments to the land banks. ' So far from regretting the down fall of King Vodka, the very people who yielded sway to him realize now that the thing could have been done successfully only by one sudden stroke and that legislative amend ments and limitations would never have protected the people in the way tnat tney are shielded by this abso lute act. New York World. that work was being carried on nteht and day, seven days in the week ?. total working time on the averaco n British shipyards was actually6 w than beford the war and the averaS productiveness had decreased. The were many men doing splendid and strenuous work, but many did not even approximate full time, thus dia astrously reducing the average. Notwithstanding the curtailment of the hours they are allowed to keen open, the receipts of the public houses in the neighborhood of the shipyards had greatly increased, in some cases 40 per cent. An instance of a battleship coming in for imme diate repairs was cited. She was de layed a whole day through the ab sence of riveters, who were carous ing. COUNTRY REALIZES SITUATION The chancellor of the exchequer said the government had not here tofore taken more drastic action on the liquor question because it need ed to be assured that it was not go ing adverse to public sentiment. But now he was sure tho country was be ginning to realize the gravity of tho situation. "I have a growing convicition. based on accumulating evidence," continued the chancellor, "that noth ing but root and branch methods would be of the slightest avail. I believe it is the general feeling that if we are to settle- German militarism we must first of all settle with drink." Mr.1 Lloyd George intimated that Lord Kitchener, the secretary for war, and Field Marshal French, in command of the Britjsh expeditionary forces on the continent, were of the same opinion, and he promised to lay the statements of the deputation before the cabinet. He said, in con clusion: '.;.'.' ' ' "I had the privilege of an audience with his majesty this morning, and I am permitted by him to say that he isvery deeply concerned on this question very deeply concerned and the concern which is felt by him, I am certain, is shared by all his sub jects in this country." Washington Post. King of England Quits Drinking; Bars Liquors in Royal Houses London, April 5.-Teetotalism will be enforced in all the king's house holds beginning Wednesday. An offi cial announcement just issued, dated April 6, says: . "By the king's command no wines or spirits "will be consumed in any of his majesty's houses after. today." ENGLAND MAY BE "DRY" A London cablegram to the Wash ington Post, under date of March 29, says: "We are fighting Germany, Austria and drink, and so far as I can see the. greatest of these three deadly foes is drink," said David Lloyd George, chancellor of the exchequer, replying today to a deputation of the Shipbuilding Employers' Federation tho members of which were unani mous in urging that, in order to meet the national requirements at the Pre?ent time, there should bo a total prohibition during the period of the war of the sale of Intoxicating This should apply not only to pub lic houses, but also to private clubs, so as to operate equally with all class es of the community. - It was stated that despite the fact GOVERNMENT AGENTS DESTRu LIQUOR Bemidji, Minn., April 2nd. Acting under orders .from Cato Sells, com missioner of Indian affairs, govern ment, agents, directed by Henry A. Larson, chief special officer for tho suppression of the liquor traffic among the Indians, seized the Bemidji brewery and emptied great vats con taining, seven car loads of beer into the streets. The beer, valued at forty five hundred dollars, flowed down tho gutters and into the lake. Men in rubber boots waded in beer one foot deep on the brewery floors, whilo policemen kept tho crowds back. The beer was confiscated because of the failure of the brewery company to comply with the Chippewa Treaty of 1855 as recently construed by the supreme court of the United States. Nows Tribune, Duluth, Minn. CURT Skinum I want to interest you in a mining proposition. It's a gooa thing. .';.": ' T,, FlubdubPerhaps it is; but I not. Judge. h , ($& VJ