THE ALCOHOL PROBLEM 
CHAPTER I 
THE PROBLEM STATED 
INTEREST in the regulation and control of the sale of 
alcoholic liquors has greatly increased of recent years, 
not only amongst social reformers, but in all classes 
of society. This is due partly to the culmination of 
the prohibition movement in the United States of 
America by the legal enforcement of complete pro- 
hibition, and to the adoption of various degrees of 
prohibition in our colonies and in other countries; 
but probably the war-time restrictions on the sale of 
alcohol, and the striking social effects produced by 
them, are even more responsible for the change of 
outlook. Many people who previously had scarcely 
given the matter a thought have come to realise, not 
only that excessive indulgence in alcohol causes many 
and widespread evils, but that these evils can be 
largely reduced by legal enactments falling far short 
of complete prohibition. Also it has proved a matter 
of interest, tinged with somewhat malicious amuse- 
ment, to read of the difficulties met with in the attempted 
enforcement of the Prohibition Act in the United 
States. 
It is probable that at the present time the majority 
of men in this country would admit that the conditions