BEER WAR IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 499, 26 October 1909, Page 4

BEER WAR IN GERMANY.

A NATION ATHIRST

Germany is in the throes oi a beer war, and this time the conflict threatens to have serious consequences. It is all the fault of the increase of duty on this universal beverage, of which the German man, woman, and child consumes on average nearly thirty gallons annually, and the Bavarian upwards of fifty gallons. Thft brewers opened hostilities. They thought the aguraentation of the impost under this year’s scheme of finance reform a suitable opportunity for recovering the last previous addition to the tax, which they alone had had to bear, as well as the considerable increases which have since taken place in the cost of their raw materials. Great federations of brewers met together and decided to raise the price of their product accordingly. Publicans of all kinds were compelled to follow suit, being for the most part prevented by their obligations to the big breweries from obtaining their supplies from a few independent concerns, which continued to deliver at old rate. But beer is a susceptible point with the German. So much so that he is prepared to go without it altogether for some time rather than have his quantum permanently reduced by enhanced price. The consequence is that a boycott movement of enormous dimensions has sprung up, and that abstinence is being both eloqently preached and rigorously practised in the interests of indulgence.

The struggle has taken its sharpest form on the Rhine. Here both Socialistic and nonSocialistic trade unions, as well as the clerks’ association, have put a loan upon all bouses of refreshment where the retail price of beer has been raised in a higher ratio than is strictly justified by the new duty. As a result, the trade of many breweries has sunk to half of what it was. • The brewers have now retaliated by threatening to lock out their workmen unless an agreement is promptly come to with the trade unions.

At Leipzig there has been another strange development of the beer war. Here the publicans’ hands are tied by the fact that they had for the most part received monetary support from the big breweries. Some person unnamed has, however, freed them from these obligations by placing at their disposal a sum of At Bocum, so it is announced today, a large proportion of the publicans, who for a week or two had had their pumps standing idle at the increased rates, have gone back to the old prices. The news ran round the town like wildfire, and soon all the beerhouses in question were filled by rejoicing crowds, eagerly attempting to make up for lost time. The Socialist leaders are trying to induce their followers to pledge themselves to total abstention till the new tax is repealed and replaced by one which only touches the wealthier classes. They hope to prolong the present agitation till the next general election. Trouble seems also likely to arise out of the tobacco duty, as a number of cigar factories have already been obliged to reduce hands in consequence of the reduced consumption.