resources." What is the first thing she does? She stops the drink.
[Cheers.] I was talking to M. Bark, the Russian Minister of Finance, a
singularly able man, and I asked, "What has been the result?" He said,
"The productivity of labor, the amount of work which is put out by the
workmen, has gone up between 30 and 50 per cent." [Cheers.] I said, "How
do they stand it without their liquor?" and he replied, "Stand it? I
have lost revenue over it up to L65,000,000 a year, and we certainly
cannot afford it, but if I proposed to put it back there would be a
revolution in Russia." That is what the Minister of Finance told me. He
told me that it is entirely attributable to the act of the Czar himself.
It was a bold and courageous step--one of the most heroic things in the
war. [Cheers.] One afternoon we had to postpone our conference in Paris,
and the French Minister of Finance said, "I have got to go to the
Chamber of Deputies, because I am proposing a bill to abolish absinthe."
[Cheers.] Absinthe plays the same part in France that whisky plays in
this country. It is really the worst form of drink used; not only among
workmen, but among other classes as well. Its ravages are terrible, and
they abolished it by a majority of something like 10 to 1 that
afternoon. [Cheers.]

That is how those great countries are facing their responsibilities. We
do not propose anything so drastic as that--we are essentially moderate
men. [Laughter.] But we are armed with full powers for the defense of
the realm. We are approaching it, I do not mind telling you, for the
moment, not from the point of view of people who have been considering
this as a social problem--we are approaching it purely from the point of
view of these works. We have got great powers to deal with drink, and we
mean to use them. [Cheers.] We shall use them in a spirit of moderation,
we shall use them discreetly, we shall use them wisely, but we shall use
them fearlessly, [cheers,] and I have no doubt that, as the country's
needs demand it, the country will support our action and will allow no
indulgence of that kind to interfere with its prospects in this terrible
war which has been thrust upon us.

There are three things I want you to bear in mind. The first is--and I
want to get this into the minds of every one--that we are at war; the
second, that it is the greatest war that has ever been fought by this or
any other country, and the other, that the destinies of your cou