Disinterested Management

DISINTERESTED MANAGEMENT. A term historically associated with the regulation and control of the liquor trade ; describing a system of management which has for its distinctive object the removal of private profit interest from the sale (in some cases from the manufacture also) of alcoholic beverages. It is not in any sense a prohibitionist system of control. Its object is rather to eliminate from liquor selling the financial inducements which in ordinary trading press for expansion of sales; to bring the motives of trading into harmony with the objects and aim of licensing laws.

In actual practice disinterested management has taken many forms which, although similar in aim, have differed greatly in scope and effect. The underlying principle in every case has, how ever, been the same. Disinterested management was first adopted on an extensive scale in Scandinavia. It received its earliest statutory sanction in the Swedish law of 1855, which, a few years later, gave birth to the "Gothenburg" system of drink regulation, which may be said to have inspired most of the schemes of dis interested management which have since been adopted in different parts of the world. The growth of the system was rapid and the example of Sweden was quickly followed by Norway and Fihland. In 192o the latter country adopted statutory prohibition, but in Sweden and Norway (both spirit drinking countries) disinterested management is now legally established as the sole method of sale for both spirits and wine. The principle has also received statu tory recognition in a permissive form in the Danish law of 1924, and in Estonia.

In Great Britain the principle of disinterested management, al though lacking explicit statutory sanction (save only in the case of the State management schemes which were organized during the World War), has been variously applied. The earliest experi ments date from the late '7os of last century. They were isolated experiments, but notable as pioneer efforts. The first important attempt to apply the principle of disinterested management in Great Britain, was made by the People's Refreshment-House Association Ltd., which has now some '75 licensed houses (chiefly village inns and small country hotels) under its control. It was followed ( I9oo—o ) by the organization of Public House Trusts, of which the late Earl Grey was the founder. There are some 14 or 15 of these Trusts in the United Kingdom, of which three are in Scotland and one in Ireland. Most of them are affiliated to a Central Association but operate as separate companies on a county basis. These Trusts have 92 licensed houses under their management and control. In addition there is Trust Houses Ltd. —a separate and independent company which is not now organ ized on a county basis and has 18o houses under its control. All of these Trust houses-272 in number (exclusive of the 175 houses controlled by P.R.H.A.)—are managed on the principle of disin terested management.

There are, also, in the mining districts of Fifeshire and in one or two other Scottish areas, a number of so-called "Gothenburg" houses, controlled by local registered companies, in which the prin ciple of disinterested management is applied.

The Carlisle Experiment.

The most complete and important practical application of the principle in Great Britain is, however, represented by the three State management areas in Carlisle and District, Gretna and Cromarty Firth. In these three areas the liquor trade is under direct Government control and the under takings have statutory authorization. The Carlisle undertaking is far the most important of the three. It has (save for two hotels and one restaurant) a complete monopoly of the sale of alcoholic liquors in the city of Carlisle and in a large adjacent area, and a partial monopoly in other districts. It also owns and operates the breweries. The undertaking, established in 1916, is directed by a central advisory council, responsible to the Home Secretary, and as3isted by a local advisory committee which includes repre sentatives of the local authorities, licensing justices, magistrates, trades council, etc., in the management area. The undertaking is in a sound financial position. By March, 1917, it had repaid, with interest, the whole of the capital liabilities and charges (some Lgoo,000) incurred in the acquisition and development of the properties, and is now a valuable revenue-producing asset, the property of the State, which receives the whole of its profits.

Elsewhere the principle of disinterested management in the form of State control has been adopted on a large scale. In Russia, the State vodka monopoly, founded by M. Witte in 1894, and repealed in 1914 by the late tsar's edict establishing prohibition, has been re-established by the Soviet Government ; while in Can ada, seven of the nine provinces have substituted Government sale for prohibition. In Poland the State monopoly principle was adopted for spirits in 1924. It applies in the main at present to the production and wholesale distribution of spirits, but includes sale arrangements also. Until 1934 spirits will be sold both in State premises and in private licensed premises. After that date in State premises only. In Germany there has long been a State spirit mo nopoly, but it is concerned only with the production and wholesale distribution of spirits. (See TEMPERANCE; PROHIBITION ; GOTH ENBURG LICENSING SYSTEM ; LOCAL OPTION.) (A. SH.)