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CHAPTER VII
THE COPENHAGEN SYSTEM
IT was not until I went on to Denmark, after concluding
my inquiries in Norway and Sweden, that I became acquainted
with what I think may deservedly be called ' the Copenhagen
System,' since it was there that it originally began. Not
that there is any idea of rivalry with the ' Gotbenburg
System.' Indeed, the workers in Copenhagen are so extremely
modest and unassuming in their ideas that up to the present
they have not even adopted the word 'system' at all. I doubt
if they fully realize that they have started a movement
which promises to bring about some approach to a social
revolution in the habits and customs of their fellow-countrymen,
a movement that, in my humble judgment, is far more deserving
of the attention of practical reformers of to-day than the
much lauded and the much criticised system which takes its
name from the city of Gothenburg.
The Copenhagen System, as organized by the temperance societies
of the city, is based primarily on that principle of recognising
light beers as temperance drinks to which I referred in
the previous chapter ; but it goes much further than that.
It recognises also the social instincts of our common humanity.
The failure to do this constitutes one of the weakest features
in the Gothenburg System, especially as enforced in Norway.
The Bolag or Sarnlag drinking-bars are avowedly simply places
where men can go to satisfy the purely physical sensation
of thirst. With the sole exception of the money payment,
they perform just the same role for their patrons that the
water-trough in the street does for horses and cattle. Men
come in, get their drink, swallow it off, and are then expected
to go their way, just as the horses and the cattle move
on from the trough as soon as they have had their fill.
In Norway there is even a, great reluctance to provide seats,
lest the men may be tempted to stay and talk to one another,
and in both countries the hours of closing are abnormally
early.
Unlike the Gothenburg System, the Copenhagen System sees
in human beings something more than purely physical or animal
wants, and it aims at providing establishments where a maximum
of possible social enjoyment can be obtained, with the help,
not merely of aerated waters, but also of light beers of
the kind already described. Hence the establishments known
under a name which, literally translated, means ' Temperance
Home.' Speaking generally, such a home provides (1) a series
of comfortably furnished rooms, with bars at which light
beers, aerated waters, coffee, chocolate, tea, sandwiches,
cakes, etc., can be obtained; (2) other rooms where well-cooked
meals at' popular prices' are served ; (3) billiard-rooms;
and (4) a series of rooms, small and large, where the local
societies or branches can hold their meetings, where dances,
concerts, and social gatherings can take place, and where,
also, amateur theatrical performances can be given, some
of the larger rooms (capable of accommodating from 500 to
600 or more persons) being provided with stages for this
purpose. Most of the larger rooms, and some also of the
smaller, are furnished with pianos.
The first of these establishments was not started in Copenhagen
until about six or seven years ago, and there are now seven
of them in different parts of the city. Of those I visited,
one had cost £9,500 to construct, and another had
cost £11,000. The bulk of the necessary capital for
the erection of such houses can readily be borrowed from
the local banks, which seem to have acquired great confidence
in the system. The houses have, in fact, proved to be thoroughly
self-supporting, the receipts from the beverages and food
supplied, and also from the hire of the meeting or assembly
rooms by the local societies, leaving a modest balance of
profit after defraying all charges. At one house I found
that no fewer than thirty-six local societies or branches
held their regular meetings on the premises, certain rooms
being allotted to them on specified days of the week. I
was invited to attend one of these meetings — a gathering
of the local branch of the Blue Ribbon Army—and I regret
that indisposition, following on a chill I had contracted
at Gothenburg, prevented me from
attending. But I heard next day that the proceedings had
begun at 8.30 with a business meeting ; that this was followed
by refreshments in the form of light beers, coffee, chocolate
(mostly favoured by the ladies), sandwiches, etc. ; that
a concert came next, and that there was a dance to finish
up with, the last of the departures being at 12 midnight.
Gatherings of this type—in combination with the other
advantages offered by the establishments in question—are,
I was assured, having a powerful effect in promoting the
social welfare of the people, and especially among the working
classes, to whom they directly appeal. Men could bring their
wives and children with a certainty of much real enjoyment,
and without any attendant drawbacks; and though they naturally
were not able to get spirits or wines, there was (as I learned
from the manager of one of the houses) a choice of no fewer
than ten light beers offered to them, in addition to coffee,
aerated waters, fruit syrups, etc.
The superiority of these Copenhagen establishments over
the Gothenburg System liquor-bars is undeniable. Men go
to them from curiosity; they like the ' life' and the comfort
of the place; they join one or other of the societies, and
they give up spirit-drinking the more readily because they
are allowed to take as much as they want of harmless and
palatable beer. So far has the movement spread that, although
it was started only so recently, there is now an ' Afholdshjem,'
or ' Temperance Home,' on the lines here indicated, in every
town throughout Denmark, while in villages where the population
is too poor to allow of special houses being set apart for
the purpose the local schools are utilized.
Conducted in accordance with these principles, the temperance
movement is making much progress in Denmark. The various
societies, twenty-seven in number (exclusive of local lodges),
had an increase in membership during 1905 of over 11,000,
the present total, in a country of 2,600,000 inhabitants,
being close on 150,000. But, although they have about seventy
supporters in the Danish Parliament, they seem to have no
political programme. On inquiring as to the nature of such
programme, which I naturally assumed to exist, I was told
: ' We haven't got one. All we have asked for at present
is that the Government should give us a contribution towards
the cost of setting up a home for inebriates.' A temperance
party which does not worry the national Parliament for all
sorts of coercive measures, but quietly sets about doing
all it can to promote sobriety on the broadest and most
common - sense lines, is, surely, deserving of no inconsiderable
measure of respect.
In carrying out the general policy I have here sought to
describe, the Danish temperance party have had the active
co-operation of the brewers. It was about ten years ago
that leading members of the said party, recognising the
hopelessness of promoting their cause so long as the doctrine
of ' total abstinence' from all alcoholic beverages was
alone maintained, got into communication
with some of the chief brewery firms, and consulted with
them as to the possibility of producing malt liquors of
such alcoholic strength that, while satisfying the palate,
they would not be likely to cause intoxication. The result
of these consultations was that the brewery firms undertook
to place on the market beers of a type that would fully
meet the requirements of the party. This they have done,
adding fresh varieties from time to time, so that there
are now, as already indicated, no fewer than ten kinds of
beer manufactured in Copenhagen which come within the limits
of alcoholic strength laid down by the temperance party.
These limits were more clearly defined, and the position
of the brewers in the matter was made all the stronger,
by the fact that in Denmark beer which contains not more
than 2J per cent, (weight) of alcohol pays no duty to the
Government, while a duty of 9 kroner per barrel of 140 litres
is imposed on beer containing more than that percentage
of alcohol, though no beer having more than 6 per cent,
of alcohol may be brewed in Denmark.
The brewers had a double incentive offered them — the
possibility of a new market, and the increased supply of
light beers on which no duty would have to be paid. They
thus readily entered into an agreement with the temperance
party, and from that time the production of light beers
of the variety in question has undergone great development
in Denmark. I was even able, at Copenhagen, to visit a 4
temperance brewery,' where beers for Danish temperance people
are exclusively produced; and although this particular brewery
was not of especially large dimensions, I learned that the
output, in the small bottles (holding ^ litre) in which
such beers are sold, had increased from less than a quarter
of a million in 1895 to nearly 17,000,000 in 1905.
One striking effect of these various conditions in Denmark
is that, without the passing of any coercive measures by
the Danish Parliament, at the bidding of the temperance
or any other party, and without the inauguration of any
' system' for controlling the sale of spirits, as in Sweden
and Norway, the consumption of spirits is declining, while
beer, and especially duty-free, light beer, is taking their
place. This, at least, is the conclusion pointed to by the
table on p. 95, which I have put together from the reports
of the British Consul at Copenhagen.
Comparing 1893 with 1905, it will be seen that spirits have
undergone a decrease, and that strong beers show an increase
of only 3,500,000 gallons, whereas the duty-free, light
beers have increased by over 7,500,000 gallons.
To understand aright the full significance of these figures,
one must bear in mind that Denmark is credited with a greater
consumption of spirits (though not of alcoholic drinks in
general) per head of the population than any other country
in the world. It is not that the Danes are heavy drinkers
of spirits. They have been in the habit rather of taking
them in small quantities, but at comparatively frequent
intervals, so that, although they have maintained
PRODUCTION OF SPIRITS AND BEER IN DENMARK.
sobriety, they have considerably swollen the national statistics.
Another factor which has greatly tended to increase consumption
is the extremely low duty that is imposed on native brandy
(braendevin, distilled from maize and barley) in Denmark,
that duty being only 18 ore per pot (about 1 litre), reduced
to 100 per cent, alcohol, as against 232 ore in Norway,
and still higher amounts in England and the United States.
Political reasons, however, have prevented the increase
of this duty (as suggested from time to time) successive
Governments having been afraid to interfere with the so-called
' poor man's schnaps.'
The economic situation has thus been left to work out its
own salvation, and in effect spirit-drinking has been going
more and more ' out of fashion' in Denmark of late years,
as one authority assured me. That is certainly the case
' in society,' while the Danish agriculturists, who at one
time thought it necessary to give their labourers brasndevin
twice a day at their meals as a precaution against climatic
influences, now offer them money instead, and the men are
quite satisfied with the change. This latter practice has
especially come into vogue since the spread throughout the
rural districts of temperance homes and temperance beers,
and one sanguine Dane, who had supplemented his personal
knowledge of what was going on in the country by a study
of the official returns of consumption, assured me that
he was looking forward to the day when spirit-drinking would
be almost extinct, and Denmark's reputation for sobriety
would be even greater than it is already.
Here I come to an apparent anomaly which is especially deserving
of the attention of economists and would-be reformers. Denmark
is a great consumer of alcoholic beverages, but is a country
where one seldom sees a drunken man. The comparative rarity
of drunkenness in the agricultural districts is, of course,
accounted for by the fact that the consumption, though leading
to a large annual total, is so distributed as not to produce
inebriety. But in the case
of Copenhagen there are conditions which might seem calculated
to lead to an altogether abnormal amount of drunkenness.
In this eminently pleasure-loving city of 500,000 inhabitants
there are no fewer than 3,577 places where alcoholic beverages
may be obtained for consumption either on or off the premises.
Included in the former category are 461 hotels and inns,
670 public-houses and beershops, 84 restaurants,-and 11
confectioners, while among the places where liquor can be
obtained for consumption off the premises are the shops
of 2,197 grocers. Then the hotels, public-houses, restaurants,
and beer-shops are all allowed to remain open until one
o'clock in the morning (certain of the leading places being
further permitted to retain until 3 a.m. persons who were
already in the house at 1 a.m.), while the hours on Sunday
are the same as on other days of the week.
The consequences ought to be positively alarming from the
point of view of the ordinary teetotal advocate in England.
But a very large proportion of the liquor consumed is beer,
and the greater quantity of this belongs to the exceptionally
light qualities, which would not intoxicate any ordinary
person. Then, in regard to spirits, there is no need whatever
for the working man in Copenhagen to buy a bottle on the
Saturday to last him over Sunday, because he knows that
if he should want a drink at any hour of the day—even
on Sunday—he will be able to get it without any difficulty.
Hence there is no huge retail trade in spirits done with
the working classes of Copenhagen, as in Gothenburg and
Christiania. There is no need for them to resort to illicit
drinking in private houses, woods, or sly-grog shops; nor
is there any incentive to drink pernicious substitutes for
' controlled' liquors.
These last-mentioned considerations, therefore, must be
set against the former, and, in the result, we get this
remarkable fact—that whereas the arrests for drunkenness
per thousand of the population in the ' system '-controlled
cities of Gothenburg and Christiania in 1905 were fifty-two
and forty-three respectively, the corresponding arrests
in Copenhagen for the same year were only sixteen per thousand
of the population. In 1904, and also in 1903, the proportion
of arrests was seventeen per thousand; in 1902 it was sixteen
per thousand ; and in 1901 it was fifteen. Earlier figures
would be of no value for the purposes of comparison, because
of changes made in recent years in the city boundaries.
On my asking one of the temperance workers in Copenhagen
what his views were on the subject of local option and prohibition,
he replied:
' I should like to see local option adapted in regard to
the sale of spirits in the rural districts ; but, personally,
I do not agree with those who would attempt to enforce prohibition
in the urban centres, and if it came to voting on the question
of license or no license in the towns, I should certainly
vote for license. I spent some years of my early life in
the United States of America, and what I saw there convinced
me that prohibition in large centres of population is not
only impracticable, but leads to greater evils than those
it seeks to avoid. My experience was that in the so-called
Prohibition States there was more drinking and more drunkenness
than anywhere else. In one town in Massachusetts where I
lived for some time prohibition was supposed to be supreme,
but the people drank like Hell! All who wanted liquor knew
where to get it, and some of them seemed to drink out of
" pure cussedness" (if I may use an Americanism),
simply because it was unlawful. Temperance advocate though
I am, I should be sorry to see any attempt to enforce a
no-license policy in Copenhagen. It is the same with the
drink as it is with boys and apples. Place an apple on the
sideboard, and forbid a boy to touch it, he longs for the
fruit, and will not be satisfied until he has eaten it,
while if you leave a large basket of apples in the room,
and allow him to help himself whenever he pleases, he will
probably not touch them at all. So it is in regard to liquor
in Copenhagen. People here have every facility to get what
they want, and they take just what they require, and no
more. Place difficulties in their way, and they would probably
take a delight in increasing their consumption. Leave them
free to get brandy when and where they please, instead of
trying to control the sale, and, as you have seen, they
show the greater inclination to take to light beer instead.
These are reasons enough, even from a temperance point of
view, for not seeking to enforce prohibition. But there
is still another: Copenhagen is a city visited by many foreigners,
who spend their money freely among us, and whose personal
requirements we ought to consider in return. Why should
we, for purely domestic reasons—in themselves more
or less impracticable—seek to put difficulties in the
way of our visitors getting what they want (provided they
do not abuse the privilege), and render our city less attractive
to those who come here from all parts of the world ?'
This is an argument which may be more especially recommended
to the notice of the authorities of Christiania and Bergen.
What is being done at Copenhagen is that, under a new Municipal
Law, expected to come into force in 1907, no new licenses
will be issued to places that do not fulfil the requirements
of the Health Committee in regard to air-space, ventilation,
etc., nor Mill any transfer of existing licenses be allowed
in respect to places which fail to meet the same requirements.
Under these regulations it is expected that a number of
the cellar or basement taverns in Copenhagen will be weeded
out; but this is about as far as ' prohibition' in that
city is likely to go.
Judged by actual results, the outcome of the Copenhagen
System compares most favourably with that of the Gothenburg
System. The one tends to increased sobriety much more than
the other, and it shows, at the same time, a greater regard
for the liberty of the subject. The representatives of the
Gothenburg System admit that they constitute what they call
'a beneficent despotism.' Within the strict limitation of
their powers they are absolute autocrats over their fellow-men
; and I must confess that, however beneficent the intentions
may be, the exercise of such despotism or autocracy by salaried
officers in the name of philanthropy—but on strictly
business lines—with a steadfast eye to the ultimate
profits, is not a sight over which those who are possessed
of any respect for personal freedom can rejoice. It is true
that in Denmark the profits are not available for rate reductions
or for public improvements and charities, the cost of the
maintenance of which thus falls on the community ; but Denmark
is saved the spectacle of a scramble among the different
authorities— State and municipal, rural and urban—for
the money got out of the pockets of working men whose interests
it is professed to safeguard; while no consideration of
' public gain' from the consumption of native brandy is
likely, in Denmark, to check the increasing use of those
light malt beverages, the substitution of which for the
stronger liquors cannot fail further to promote the sobriety
of the people.
Whilst the present volume is passing through the press,
I have received a letter from the manager of the famous
Carlsberg breweries at Copenhagen, who writes:
' We brew two kinds of temperance beer, a light and a dark,
the latter containing somewhat more extract than the former.
In each case we brew on the sedimentary fermentation principle
(instead of surface fermentation, as adopted elsewhere),
the product being thus totally fermented before it leaves
the brewery. In the few years that these beers have been
on the market the sales have reached about 750,000 gallons,
and this autumn has seen a further substantial increase.'
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