Economic and Moral Aspects of Liquor
By Editor
"Economic and Moral Aspects of the Liquor Question, and the Rights and Responsibilities of the State and the Control Thereof." By Robert Bagnell, Ph.D., D.D. 12 mo. Cloth, 75c net. By mail, 83c. Funk & Wagnalls Co., publishers, New York. Dr. Bagnell's object in this volume is not to study the effect of the liquor question upon the individual, but it is the study of the question in relation to society. As the introduction states, "we are concerned with the question of the use of liquor by the individual only in his relations with society," and from this view-point as to whether the state has any right to control the traffic. There are nine chapters in the little book, the titles of which give a fairly good scope of the work,—"The Effects of the Excessive Use of Alcohol upon the Individual," "The Influence of the Saloon in the Community," "The Economic Aspects of the Question," "The Study of the Problem of Liquor," "The Power of the State to Control the Liquor Traffic," "The Basis of the Rights and Responsibilities of the State," "The Individual and His Rights," "The Conflict of Rights," "The Right of the State to Control the Use and Sale of Liquors." All temperance workers, even, may not agree with some of the arguments presented by Dr. Bagnell, but they will agree with his conclusion that the state has the right to control the liquor traffic. The purely economic reasons, it seems to us, clearly show that this is the case. If the individual were concerned with himself alone, and his case affected himself alone, it would be quite a different matter; but the fact that the consequences of drinking so affect the community itself, is pretty clear evidence that the state has the right to control it. The temperance worker will find in the book most excellent help indeed, and it would be a pretty difficult matter for the man who believes in the liquor traffic to confute the arguments presented.