ALCOHOL: A. D. 1909. The Decreased Consumption of Whiskey caused by increased tax. Speaking in Parliament of the increased whiskey tax in his Budget, on the 29th of October, some months after it had gone into effect and its yield was being shown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Lloyd-George, acknowledged that he had greatly overestimated the revenue it would produce. He said: "The whole point was to what extent would an addition of a halfpenny a glass deter a man from taking his usual share of drink. I could no more estimate that than any other member of the House. I made a very liberal allowance for decrease in consumption, so liberal that nobody either in or out of the House agreed with it. Many said it was absurd. … I assumed that people who could afford it would not regard the halfpenny at all; that they would buy exactly the same quantity of whisky as before. The working classes I assumed would probably purchase a smaller quantity. Supposing a man says, I spend 2s. 6d. on drink; he would not spend more; therefore he would consume less. "I made a rough calculation upon such information as I had how that would affect the consumption of whisky as a whole, but I find the change has gone beyond that, and my information now is not merely that there are thousands of people who drink a percentage which is, in proportion to the increase, less, but some of them drop it altogether. Some of them are barely drinking half what they were before. Altogether a most extraordinary effect has been produced upon the habits of the people. I am not here to apologize for that at all. In some districts, I am told, the drinking of spirits has gone down by 70 percent, in Ireland, I think. I hear that there are districts in Scotland where it has gone down 50 per cent. I have a communication in regard to the whisky distillers of Glasgow saying that the decrease in Glasgow during September has been 36 per cent. "People have not even been driven to the consumption of beer. It is really almost unaccountable. People have not been driven from one form of alcohol to another, but have been driven from alcohol altogether. The fact is very extraordinary, and has gone beyond anything I have anticipated. … Our anticipations now are that the consumption of spirits, both of foreign and home manufacture, will go down by something between 20 and 25 per cent. That means that a smaller quantity of spirits will be consumed in this country during this year by eight or nine million gallons.’’ ALCOHOL: A. D. 1909. Organization of "The True Temperance Association." Its aim and appeal.