DECREASED DRINKING IN ENGLAND

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 14

DECREASED DRINKING IN ENGLAND

Temperance is gaining ground in England, asserts Lord Dawson, a famous physician, in a recent speech in the House of Lords. Ho gives figures showing that in certain great London restaurants, feeding from 10,000 to 40,000 people a day, 75 per cent, of the patrons ordered no .stimulant, and of the remaining ‘25 per cent, only onefourth ordered anything stronger than beer or light wino. He has also ascertained, he asserts, that among London clerks under forty years of ago 40 per cent, were total abstainers, though the dry percentage for the men over forty years old was only 21 per cent. He attributes the improvement to better housing, to the broadening of interest in hooks, plays, and “ movies,” to athletic sports and outdoor life, to the growing companionship of men and women, to their desire to keep physically fit. to education, especially in the hygiene of diet. This testimony, says ‘Public Opinion ’ (London) will be a disappointment to temperance reformers. To which the New York 1 Christian Advocate ’ (Methodist) retorts: — “ That is scarcely true. If humanity will turn itself away from the waste and damage caused by alcoholic indulgence, the true reformer will rejoice. The law is the schoolmaster. If Britain can teach itself the lesson of total abstinence, without resort to law, the drys will rejoice everywhere. Unfortunately, however, the British drink bill is an account which Lord Dawson has not explained away.”