. Russia then and now, 1892-1917; my mission to Russia during the famine of 1891-1892, with data bearing upon Russia of to-day. the saloon began under idealconditions. One may wash a black cat, but one cannot make itwhite. So the plunge into respectability failed toremove a whit of the blackness of the liquor two years the would-be reformers learnedthat restriction is a foe to profit. The number ofvodka shops was increased, the restrictions werewithdrawn, and thereafter the business was run forrevenue only. During nineteen years of nationaliza-tion the revenue from the sale of v
. Russia then and now, 1892-1917; my mission to Russia during the famine of 1891-1892, with data bearing upon Russia of to-day. the saloon began under idealconditions. One may wash a black cat, but one cannot make itwhite. So the plunge into respectability failed toremove a whit of the blackness of the liquor two years the would-be reformers learnedthat restriction is a foe to profit. The number ofvodka shops was increased, the restrictions werewithdrawn, and thereafter the business was run forrevenue only. During nineteen years of nationaliza-tion the revenue from the sale of vodka doubled, butthe consumption increased threefold. Restriction illogically forced vodka shops uponvillages that had heretofore been immune from itsravages; and the inculcation of moderation resultedin such inebriety among children as to demandinvestigation by the Moscow City Council. In aword, Russias effort for the moral uplift of its peoplethrough the government control of drink broughtabout the degradation of the nation until its drunken-ness resulted in ignominious defeat by a people whomit outnumbered ten to rt f-H o rt .<oo ciG ^ rt a (4 £ RUSSIAS TEMPERANCE EXPERIMENT 123 From the mobilization of Russias troops to theirdefeat at Port Arthur, the contrast between a greatarmy drunk and a small army sober was presentedwith such dramatic force that the Russo-Japanesewar might have been enacted as a movie with a moral. The Czar visualized the lesson and added to thewar films the mournful pictures of popular debility,household distress, and neglected business, theinevitable consequences of an intemperate liferevealed in a journey through his Empire in 1913, dur-ing which convictions were formed which six monthslater resulted in the famous prohibition ukase. In a letter to his minister of finance, the Czaraffirmed that the journey which will ever be memora-ble in the annals of Russia was accomplished withthe help of God —and who can doubt the affirmation? The beg
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