LIQUOR LAWS AND LIQUOR CONTROL. Laws to regulate the manufacture and sale of alcoholic and intoxicat ing liquor are of ancient origin, numerous and varied and increas ing in number and complexity in nearly all countries. Their greatest extent and variety are in the form of tax laws as an easy means of raising revenue. The dominant motive everywhere, how ever, has been a social one, to combat a menace to public order and the increasing evils of alcoholism in the interests of health and social welfare. The evils vary greatly from one country to another according to differences in climate, diet, economic condi tions, and even within the same country according to differences in habits, social customs, and standards of public morality.
A new factor of growing importance since the middle of the 19th century has been the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization of our modern every-day life in the leading nations of the world, and the consequent wider recognition of the advantages of sobriety in safe-guarding public order and physical efficiency.
In general there are four methods of legislative control of the liquor traffic :— (I ) Licensing, the oldest and most widely adopted method.
(2) The No-Private-Profit Scandinavian or Company System which seeks to secure disinterested management by entrusting a monopoly of the sale of liquor to a body of citizens who have no personal interest or profit in it.
(3) State Monopoly, where the State retains the wholesale or retail trade or both in its own hands, takes the profits as pub lic revenue and maintains of course complete control.
(4) Restriction or Limited Prohibition, which is usually a system of high licence with local option or local veto.
An important distinction between the United Kingdom and the United States with respect to liquor legislation is that in the former we find a single homogeneous system, gradually evolved in the course of centuries as a development of the licensing prin ciple, while in the latter, before national Prohibition many differ ent systems ran parallel because of the sovereignty of the individ ual States. Another distinction of importance is that American law and legislative practice have never varied from the traditional theory of the licence as a temporary permit revocable for violation of the conditions upon which it was issued and terminable at the will of the issuing authorities upon the expiration of the brief term for which it was granted—usually one year, without vesting any property right in the expectation of renewal. Since i9o4 a
new principle was introduced into the licensing system of England.
The number of public-houses, including beer-houses for "on" consumption in England and Wales from 1831 to 1909 decreased in proportion to population, being one public-house to 168 persons in 1831, one to 375 in 1909, although the total number of "on" licences increased somewhat, being 94,794 in 1909 compared with 82,466 in 1831. There was a still greater decrease in proportion to population in Scotland in the same period, but in Ireland, although there was a fall in the number of public houses since 1829 it was not large or continuous and because of diminish ing population, the proportion to population increased, being one to 395 persons in 1831 and one to 241 persons in 1909. As a whole, the United Kingdom shows a large and progressive diminution of public-houses to population which has not been counter-balanced by an increase of "off" licences. The diminu tion was accelerated by the Act of i9o4 which introduced the principle of compensation for licences withdrawn on grounds other than misconduct, but the reduction of public-houses has been accompanied in recent years by a constant increase in the number of clubs which, by an Act of 1902 are brought under registration and some control which, however, is less stringent than that for the licensed trade.
Two significant measures prior to the World War are: (I) The Licensing (Consolidation) Act of 1910 which codified the greater part of the existing licensing laws of England and Wales and remained on the statute books until 1921, although superseded in many of its main provisions during the period, 1915-21, by orders of the central control board (liquor traffic).