The Need and Practicability of Licensing Reform. By Frederick Ernest
Slee, M.A. (J. S. Phillips.)—Mr. Slee has made a valuable contribution to the great discussion on what may be compendiously called the "drink question." On the matter of compensation—not the least important, certainly, of the divisions of the subject—he says what has been said more than .ones in these columns. He condemns all the schemes that have been proposed for eluding real compensation. The temperance ex- tremists are enthusiastic about the benefits Which the abolition of licenses is to bring about, but they will not pay a penny for them. They do not hold with David when he declared that he would not offer to the Lord of that which cost him nothing. If anything must be paid, it must be paid by the surviving licensees. Of course, this would be fair only if there should be just as much drinking as before. "Pay money down," says Mr. Bias, "and pay it yourselves." It is impossible to suppose that a genuine advocate of temperance would object to pay even another shilling in Income-tax if he could secure his end. No really great reform was ever done on the cheap. We paid many Maims to do away with slavery, and we ought to be ready, Should it prove necessary, te pay many millions to do away with drunkeuneult
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