Next, beer somehow got hitched on to the Trade Union
movement, and it was fiercely hinted that the Prohibitionists might have to be regarded as the very worst kind of " scab " or " black- leg." Then beer suddenly appeared in the strange and beneficent role of a sort of food insurance. Where should we be now if the thrifty brewers had not accumulated in these islands a store of barley, some of which has actually been allowed to be used for food ? Finally, as we see from Mr. Meadows's letter and the "leader" in the Daily Mail, beer has become a species of coal, or at any rate is translatable into terms of coal. Where beer will fetch up in the end we tremble to think. It is quite possible that the advocates of the national drink will finally insist, not on a compulsory price, but on a compulsory ration of beer. " Two pints a day for all, rich and poor alike." We trust, however, that there will be a clause for conscientious or bilious objectors, or at any rate an alternative drink of national importance.
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