AN ALTERNATIVE TO " NATIONALIZATION."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—I notice that in every letter but one appearing in you? issue of the 13th inst, the writers thereof apparently consider or take it for granted that the one and only way to avoid the evil of over-indulgence in alcoholic liquors is to nationalize the whole "concern." The one correspondent who has endeavoured to point out a less drastic and risky course is the Assistant-Secretary to the P.C.T.U.C., Mr. P. Brantley, in whose letter there is no mention of the word " nationalization," who advocates the betterment of the present-day average public-house.
If we take the nationalization of the various undertakings during the war as proof of the efficiency which the same course would instil into the "Trade," there is apparently as much or more chance of the public-house going down to further depths rather than going on the up-grade—the "Carlisle Experiment," being an isolated instance in a restricted district, cannot be taken as an example which would apply to the whole country, a gigantic undertaking for one central body.
Surely before sanctioning or advocating the tremendous expense to the country of nationalizing the " Trade," at a cost of anything up to .t700,000,000, it would be advisable to try other means at first to see if the public-house could not be raised to a position more compatible with the requirements ofthe population whose needs, as its name implies, it is supposed to fulfil.
The True Temperance Association has for many years advocated the means -whereby the average present-day publichouse could he raised to a proper place of refreshment and recreation where, according to permitting circumstances, the public, irrespective of age and sex, could enjoy its leisure and partake of refreshment in pleasant surroundings and amidst better environment, thus raising the general tone of the house, and thus to a great extent doing away with over-indulgence in alcoholic drinks, which now takes place mostly in the holeand-corner places which can be described better by the name
of "drinking dens " than of " public-houses." •
The Public House Improvement Bill, which was passed by the House of Lords this year, was drafted with this purpose in view, and if the Government would only endeavour to allow this Bill, even in its present state, to be passed into law, it would in a short while bear its fruits. I say "even in its present state," because, owing to certain amendments in the text in its passage through the Upper House, the Bill as it now stands does not represent in full the recommendations of the True Temperance Conference Report on which it is based. " True Temperance " in its proper sense implies that moderation in drink as applied to all other things in life.—I am, Sir, &c., JOHN A. PACE, Secretary. The True Temperance Association, Donington House, Norfolk Street, Strand, MC. 2.
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