NBWTA Report 1903-053
Image details
| Document format | |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Transcript |
|
| Original Source Organisation | |
| Original Source URL | |
| Transcription |
100 101 been prohibited from obtaining more than the LEST WE FORGET. I have quoted from one of the most able little pamphlets that has been put forth upon this subject, and with the author of that pamphlet I want to emphasize one sentence in Mr. Chamberlain’s speech :— ““My proposal was based upon the principle of the total and absolute elimination of any idea of private gain in the retail sale of liquor.” Will you ponder these words and weigh them well, and ask your- selves whether perhaps in this principle does not lie the solution, at any THE TRUEST FAITHFULNESS—LOovALTY TO A LEADER. I have before now spoken to you, dear friends, on my strong views as to the importance of loyally following a leader. I have learnt some- thing during these fifteen years of the perplexing difficulty of leadership dut now as I am about to lay that burden down I cannot urge you too strongly, first of all, to support and help, with all that in you lies, the woman who shall take my place. But there is another aspect to this question of leadership that I want to impress upon you. The Tem- perance party must have a leader, and the leader has arisen. Never in the history of our reform has a braver stand been taken than that made by Lord Peel over the report of the Royal Commission on licen- sing laws. His action has now passed into history, but that he stands to-day the acknowledged constructive leader of practical Temperance reform is, I think, unquestioned. He has wide political experience, he has a strong and balanced judgment, and above all he has a generous disinterested desire to help forward what I know he believes to be the greatest reform of his time. He has many difficulties to meet. His great experience will probably make him wary, where he should be impetuous. He will be contented with less if that little is in the right direction, though we in our haste might deem it Inadequate. He has an insight into political life which belongs to none of us, and therefore I would say to you, as the most important message that I can leave with you to-day, Trust him, follow him, help him, support him. If we are to have any reform at this hour, it will be by following his leader- —s would have Ree “authority, That scheme, “limited amount which could safely be given to them. “based upon the experience of another nation, Norway and Sweden, that But still, whatever “ scheme was defeated, that opportunity lost. “ may be the difficulties connected with a proposal of that kind, believe me “the principle is sound, and the principle is worthy of your support and Mr. “co-operation in whatever form it may be presented to you.” Chamberlain thus refers to the way his scheme was defeated: “It was “defeated, practically it was laughed out of court, by those who were “leading the Temperance party at that time, not in Birmingham, but in It was defeated just as the legislation of “other parts of the country. by the extremists on “Lord Aberdare was defeated before me, “both sides, by the men who thought that things were so satisfactory that “ nothing required to be done, and by those on the other side who would “ not have anything except their own prescription.” rate for this country, of our greatest problem. For my personal conviction, which is strengthened every day, is, that so long as the drink traffic is carried on for motives of private gain, so long we are powerless against it. I believe that, under existing circumstances permissive powers must be given to communities to enable them to bring the whole of the liquor traffic under effective public manage- ment and control, just as much as I believe that permissive powers must be given to communities to decide whether they will have that traffic in their midst at all or not. We are passing at this moment through a great crisis. It is to me an astonishing fact that the country has not been already aroused against the measure that has already passed a second reading in the House, and more especially against Sir William Hart Dyke’s proposals and that the Temperance party should have been so far almost apathetic to the danger that menaces us. Does this apathy come from despair, or does it come from a false security? I know not, but both are _wrong, there is not an hour to be lost. The sober common-sense of English people must still be appealed to, and in maturing plans for the future it is well to take our lesson from the past, for we have suffered many things by reason of our failure to apprehend what we ought to support and what we ought to oppose, and therefore in order 2 learn for the future let us calmly take a survey of the past, lest we orget. iia «Mr, Gladstone, besides many eminent Conservatives, was based upon the total and absolute climination of any idea of “this principle, I proposed then that the Town “ private gain in the retail sale of liquor. “Councils, the local authorities, should have the power to take over every “licence in their district, not to confiscate them, to pay as we pay for water, “as we pay for the gas—to pay a fair and full compensation for them—and “JT proposed that when we had thus got them into our power that we “should deal with them exclusively for the benefit and with the approval of And what would have happened suppose that “the whole community. I will undertake to say that at this day one “ scheme had been carried? “half, or prohably three-fourths of the business in the city of Birmingham The remainder would have been sufficient “would have been extinguished. “for the convenience of the supply of those who desired to have liquor ; “and at the same time all that eager competition for trade, which will en- “ endure as long as there are several interests concerned, would have been The Town There would have been no competition. “done away with. “Councils would have had no interest whatever in pressing the sale of If they had lost the profit of a pint of beer, it would have gone in “drink. “the better condition of the people, who otherwise would have drunk it. “You would have reduced the consumption; you would have been able to “make the strictest regulations; and you would have reduced the con- “sumption where you most want to reduce it—that is to say, not so much “among the moderate drinkers, but among those who drink to excess, and “who, under regulations which would have been made by the local |