The Reich government and the state governments are now taking action against the merry-go-round epidemic.

It's an oversight that hasn't already happened.

The increase in liquor stalls and entertainment venues of all kinds is a nuisance to every thinking person, and what is going on there is a serious injury to our people, also because of the bad impression these things make on other countries.

Foreign countries would have no reason to dwell on these manifestations of merrymaking and should beat their own breasts, for there is no doubt that this savagery is also largely their fault.

It is known from various times in history, and it is also easily understandable, that in a heavily oppressed, undernourished and constantly threatened people, large sections of the population easily lose all inner composure and relieve their nervous excitement by dancing and drinking.

It is all the more likely to happen when the monetary situation is such that saving seems pointless and it takes a certain foresight to know how best to use ever-declining money.

It is also connected with the money detour that the wage differences are more and more evened out and that the youngest people get their hands on sums that they cannot mentally cope with.

We don't need to talk about the swindlers who squander the money;

there is no excuse for them, but they alone would not determine the picture.

Taken as a whole, it is mostly a pathological condition, which one must not simply accept, but which one must counteract.

It should have happened a long time ago in a much more decisive manner than it did.

Only the new catastrophic situation in which we find ourselves, and in which merrymaking is particularly inappropriate, has aroused greater activity in this area.

A few weeks ago a meeting took place in Elberfeld between representatives of the authorities, the hospitality organizations, the clergy of all denominations, the various trade union institutions and the youth organizations.

There was talk of restricting dance merrymaking and the sale of alcohol.

Apart from the innkeepers, there was full agreement that vigorous action was needed and a commission was elected to give guidance to the Minister's representatives on regulations to be made.

That may also have contributed to the current campaign.

But there was no lack of suggestions in the past either, and the Reich government has long owed a law on a new regulation of the tavern sector.

In October 1921 a large conference took place in Breslau, which made certain demands and in particular demanded that the individual communities be given the right to regulate alcohol in their area according to certain guidelines.

The government then drew up a preliminary draft of a law against alcohol abuse, which, however, did not contain this right of municipal determination.

The German Association Against Alcoholism discussed this draft at its annual meeting last autumn. It acknowledged that the draft would bring some improvements compared to the current situation, but also stated that

The people must be interested in the alcohol issue

In fact, any legal regulation would be incomplete without this right.

The people themselves must be interested in the alcohol issue and everything connected with it and be able to have a say themselves in some way, otherwise we will never get out of deplorable conditions.

And the people are also interested if you only give them the opportunity to think about it and to express their views on the matter in principle.

Numerous examples can already be given for this.

For months now, whenever a new liquor license application has been submitted in Görlitz, the neighboring population has voluntarily voted.

70 to 96 percent of those who voted said no.

Based on these results, the city committee rejected nine applications and approved only five.

One can see from this that the population has a fairly good understanding of this issue if they can only be made to consider their responsibilities.