PERIODICALS AND DRINK ADVERTISEMENTS
AN announcement was made in the Press last week that after next March no further advertisements of intoxicating liquors would appear in Punch. We warmly congratulate Punch on its action, which is worthy of the great position Punch occupies. We are sometimes told that in the commercialized Press of to-day there is no place for idealism. Punch's action gives the lie to this statement.
For many years the Spectator has refused to accept contracts for the advertising of spirituous liquors, thereby sacrificing a considerable revenue. Advertisements of wine have, however, appeared in the Spectator. We place light wines and beer in a different category from that of spirits.
We do not believe that public opinion in Great Britain, in the present generation, will accept Prohibition ; we may therefore rule it out of court. Nor in view of the difficulties entailed by its enforcement and the evils that result from it do we think its introduction would be desirable. We believe in the public control or ownership of the drink trade, of which the Carlisle experiment is a recent example. No private individual or group of individuals should be permitted to make money out of a commodity the excessive sale of which is injurious to the nation. Alcohol is unlike most commercial commo- dities; its consumption does not affect only those who are foolish enough to indulge in it too freely. The health and happiness of tens of thousands, born and unborn, are involved. If the individual citizen decides to buy a hundred pairs of boots he merely makes himself ridiculous; his eccentricity hurts no one. Not so with alcohol. As long as a three-quarters majority of the nation believes that the sale of alcohol should be permitted, then it is the duty of the State to see that pure kuor is provided, but the State can see to it that nothing is done to stimulate sales. In the State-controlled Inn or Trust House, the managers receive a commission on the sale of food and of non-alcoholic drinks, but not on alcohol, and no advertisements of alcohol are displayed. Under no scheme of a private-owned drink trade, however enlightened, would the decreased consumption of liquor be welcome to the owners. How could it be ? You could not expect the distiller or brewer to commit hara-kiri.
The action of Punch is not a new departure in British journalism, although no paper of equal prominence has hitherto excluded alcoholic advertisements. Some years before the War the leading magazines and periodicals in the United States and Canada decided to exclude all advertisements of alcohol and patent medicines. We hope and believe that the policy of excluding advertisements of spirits and patent medicines will be adopted in the next decade in all parts of the British Empire.
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