LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of .our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.] --
NATIONALIZATION AND THE LIQUOR TRADE. [To THE 'EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
S1R,—Those of your readers who have perused the articles and correspondence in the Spectator dealing with the nationalization of the liquor trade may be .interested to know that active steps are now being taken within the Labour movement to focus attention upon the policy of the Labour Party regarding the liquor trade and to press for its translation into practice. The general attitude of the Labour Party on this question was defined in " Labour and the New Social Order " as follows : • ` The Labour Party sees the key to Temperance -Reform in taking the entire manufacture and retailing of alcoholic drink out of the hands of those who find profit in promoting the utmost possible consumption. This is essentially a case in which the people, as a whole, must assert its right to full and unfettered power for dealing with the licensing question in accordance with local-option." •
With a view to urging upon the Government the need for immediate action along these lines, an Executive Committee has been formed to conduct a Labour campaign for " the public 3wnership and control of the liquor trade." The Chairman is the Rt. Hon. J. H. Thomas, 3[.P., and the Committee consists pf a number of men and .women prominent in the trade union and Labour movements.
Labour policy on the question of the liquor 'trade is strikingly in agreement with -the views contained in your article of August 30th, which lays down the twin.principles of State ownership and local option. You rightly emphasize the political influence wielded by " the trade." It exerts upon the Government in power an influence more than proportionate to the number of its members in the House of Commons. Every public-house, in -town and village, is -the source of a . constant stream of interested opinion, which, during election times, swells to the dimensions of tr flood. Moreover, the liquor trade is a State-created monopoly occupying a -privileged position, and, like all vested interests, an obstacle to the fullest national development. But what is.even worse is .that,
in the ease of the .drink trade, the motives .of private profit must inevitably come into violent .and direct conflict with the national interest. To quote your article of August 23rd, ;
"when there is a trade, like the trade in intoxicants, the' undue extension of which may mean an increase of crime.and a lowering of the national health, that trade ought not to be in ' private hands--i.e., in the hands of people who have got to live by it, and therefore are under a perpetual temptation to develop it intensively, a temptation economically rightful but' morally reprobate." Apart, however, from the moral and social consequences arising from the anomalous position of -the drink trade there are injurious economic results. The Trade must exist by the diversion to it of wealth which would otherwise flow in more fruitful directions. Its prosperity depends upon the extent to which it can induce people to,expend their :substance on intoxicants rather than on houses, clothing, furniture, books, or what not. At the present juncture it is most undesirable to put inducements in the way 43.f unproductive expenditure.
On political, social, .moral and economic grounds there is a strong, indeed, an overwhelming, case for State purchase, coupled with the right of localities to the exercise of local option. I say nothing as to -the merits or demerits of Prohibition. In a free country the Prohibitionists may claim the right to use all legitimate means to convert 'the majority to their view. But the process of conversion will not be achieved by -a .raging, bearing-campaign eoneentrated within a few short months. It will .take time; meanwhile, something should :be . done, to use the words of your articlaon " The True-Sulljeet,fo:
Nationalization," to " make the Trade fit the social and moral needs of the nation exactly."
The Labour Committee will work through Labour organizations. It is to be hoped that other people favourable to the public ownership and control of the liquor trade will work through other channels in order to assist the effective co-ordination of public opinion upon the drink problem.—I am, Sir, &c., ARTHUR GREENWOOD,
Joint-Secretary, Labour Campaign for the Public Ownership and Control of the Liquor Trade.
45 Mecklenburgh Square, London. W W.C. 1.
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