Sing-Songs in Public Houses

Group of people in a wagonette outside the Globe Inn, 26 Union Street, Luton c.1914 [Z50/75/246]

Friday 14th August 1914 (Luton):  While the country faces up to wartime there is talk that some restrictions should be put on the opening hours of public-houses and beerhouses to reduce drunkenness. Some people would also like to see other attractions of the public-house curtailed, as show by this letter to the Luton News: 

Sing Songs in Public-Houses
Sir. – May I be allowed through your useful paper to suggest that the above be prohibited as long as the war lasts. There are many reasons to put forward why they should be. First is, that they entice husbands and fathers to stay away from home night after night spending what the children ought to have upon their feet, or what ought to go towards providing for the bad time that is fast coming. Many families could hold out months longer when poverty begins if husbands were more careful; and again, when our partners emerge from the public-house, more or less muddled, they are apt to become a nuisance, if not dangerous to their own neighbourhood, as their beery patriotism often demonstrates. In conclusion, Sir, I am not a temperance faddist, but I think during these serious times that we are embarking upon, any and everything that entices the married man to spend his money wastefully and recklessly should be curtailed. Yours truly,
“A Mother of Seven”

Source: Luton News 13th August 1914