The licensed trade : an independent survey / by Edwin A. Pratt.

  • Pratt, Edwin A., 1854-1922.
Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The licensed trade : an independent survey / by Edwin A. Pratt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    reasonable doubt can be entertained. So one comes to this further conclusion : that any fresh legislation which is attempted should certainly deal with the club problem, and that it is no use suppressing public-houses, where a full control can be exercised, if they are to be suc- ceeded by clubs, where, under present-day conditions, little or no control can be exercised at all. Apart from this question of clubs, it might be asked in regard to the general policy of suppression, Can it really be taken for granted that a reduction in the number of licences in any particular town or neighbourhood neces- sarily leads to a decrease in the amount of drinking ? Most of the supporters of the reduction policy assume that it does. On the other hand, the compensation principle assumes that the trade from the houses suppressed goes to those that remain, so that the latter are well able to pay for the former. Both of these theories cannot be right. The probability is that in the towns, at least, reduction has little or no effect on consumption, since the man who wants a drink will not go without it merely because a particular house has been closed and the next is a quarter of a mile away. An individual who is not keen on getting drink, and who would there- fore be likely to remain sober, might not care to walk this quarter of a mile; but the same argument would certainly not apply to the average drunkard. Reduction may more conceivably be of practical advantage when carried out according to the plan adopted in certain parts of Birmingham. By arrange- ment there between some leading brewers and the magistrates, the licences of an agreed number of houses —mostly beer-houses—are surrendered within a par- ticular area (compensation being duly given by the holders of the remaining licences, as agreed among themselves), and the magistrates allow one (generally