BRITISH "GOTHENBURG" EXPERIMENTS AND PUBLIC- HOUSE TRUSTS.
British " Gothenburg " Experiments and Public-House Trusts. By Joseph Rowntree and Arthur Sherwell. (Hodder and Stoughton. 2s. 6d.)—This useful and interesting little book begins by setting forth the principles to which, in the opinion of the writers, social efforts of the Gothenburg type must conform if they are to achieve any important measure of success; and proceeds to examine in that light the various experiments which have been for some time in operation, and those now being started, in the United Kingdom. The former include, as perhaps first in order of date, the 'Boar's Head Inn' at Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, run for nearly a quarter of a century with good results m that village by Mr. Mords,unt, the rector of the parish ; the public-houses under the management of the People's Refreshment-House Association, of which the Bishop of Chester is president, and of the Grayshott and Dis- trict Refreshment Association, of which Sir Frederick Pollock is president ; the canteens connected with the waterworks in con- struction by the Birmingham and. Harrogate Corporations respectively ; several public-houses under public management in Scotland, and a beginning in that kind made a few months ago in Ulster. Some thirty pages are given to the operations of the Bishop of Chester's Association, three typical examples being described in detail. A somewhat longer chapter deals with the local Public-House Trust Companies, with the initiation of which, during the present year, Lord Grey's name is specially asso- ciated. Speaking broadly, it may be said that all these efforts receive, in respect of their spirit and general aims the cordial sympathy of Mr. Rowntree and Mr. Sherwell. Their view, however, of the value of the work done, or likely to be done, varies with the measure of its accordance with the standards of sound public management of the liquor traffic stated as the conclusions of their elaborate and valuable joint treatise on the Temperance Problem. In particular, they insist on the importance of applying the profits from the sale of liquor principally, if not entirely, to the provision of facilities for wholesome social pleasure, and other rational recreations, which may serve as counter-attractions to those of alcoholic beverages. There, we should think, they are in principle quite right, but we cannot quite follow them in the aversion they repeatedly express to the bestowal of any attractions in the way of games, or even, if we understand them rightly, of newspapers, upon public-houses, however well managed, and especially on those parts of them in which liquor is to be consumed. By all means have games and papers elsewhere too, so that those who have been brought up as teetotalers may not be tempted to begin drinking. But for a long time to come the majority of English people will take their alcohol in some form, and we doubt whether its amount will be diminished by the rigid exclusion of anything in the shape of mental comfort from the scene of its consumption.
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