03.04. The Cost of Alcohol.

The Cost of Alcohol. THE revenue derived from the liquor traffic is a strong argument in its favor in the minds of many persons. There are those who claim that it really increases business, and that it is, therefore, a finan­cial benefit to the country. The license fees will help defray the expenses of the city schools; it will assist in the construction of sidewalks, and pay for other public improvements.

If all they claim in the respect of finances were granted, still the objections to the licensing of saloons for the sale of intoxicating liquors would remain insuperable. He who so far forgets the real needs and interests of humanity as to put every physical, mental and moral question out of sight, and base his calculation alone upon financial issues, is incompetent to give the subject that in­vestigation which its importance demands.

Some have said that we must license this traffic or we will lose business and impoverish the city; the men that we now have will go elsewhere, and the thrift and energy of the place will be impaired. And, further, we now derive the handsome revenue of $600, $200 from each beer saloon in the place. This wisdom is wholly financial. It does not stop at the thought of building our sidewalks in the blood of our brothers and sons; of educating our children from the tears and wails of the broken­hearted! Let this mighty car of prosperity rush on. What care these engineers if a thousand life­less forms bestrew the track behind them! Peace may be taken from the earth, a thousand pale-faced, care-worn, poverty-stricken women may pray them with uplifted hands to stop ere they crush to powder all their hearts hold dear; the children may cry, "Father is on the track, father is on the track!" but it is nothing to them. Give them money and they are satisfied! But how is it possible that making, selling and drinking alcoholic liquors can be of any financial advantage? The corn and rye and barley, etc., that contain food are sprouted, malted, rotted, destroyed. What is furnished in the place of it is incompetent to do any good. It is not food, and it is even doubtful if it is medicine. How, then, can such employment be useful? Nor can I see wherein is the financial gain of keeping saloons. Is it because that every fifth man is induced to squander a portion of his means in drink that cannot do him any good, and to neglect his business? Is it the charm that pro­duces midnight orgies, houses of prostitution, fights, brawls, stabbing, knocking down with bil­liard cues, that brings a hundred homes to squalid poverty, and a thousand men and women to grief; that which causes corruption and crime to fester and ripen until the very atmosphere is putrid, and is more loathsome than a den of lepers? Is this the secret of its greatness and its favor, that im­parts the tone of prosperity and makes it smack of financial success? It must be! Now it requires a deep insight into the social economy of the times to discover any advantage to the people from the rum trade.

It is evident to every person of observation that whatever corrupts the morals of the people and depletes public and private virtue, must be a finan­cial curse to the country. A sober man cares for his family, and plans and works for their honor and happiness. But he who is induced to waste his money and time in drink ceases to be careful for the welfare of any one. Hence his work is discontinued, and his life is rendered worthless.

All accounts agree in representing great busi­ness depression and destitution in England. Bank suspensions, failures, strikes and lock-outs are of daily occurrence. One thing that will retard busi­ness revival is the vast drain made by liquor upon the nation. The working people of England, from long custom, regard beer as one of the essentials of life, and without it they imagine they can neither work nor live. A careful estimate made last year puts, in round numbers, the cost of intoxicating drinks annually drunk by the English people at $700,000,000. This amounts to twenty dollars to every man, woman and child, and is a gloomy basis upon which to found a returning prosperity. No nation under such bondage, with such a drain of not only money in vast amounts, but, what is far better, life and moral energy, can hope to hold the wheel that directs the world’s commerce. The Glasgow City Bank lost $25,000,000 for its stockholders when it suspended. Many of them are ruined. An appeal has been made to the people of Scotland for a relief fund, raised by subscription, and a Scotch official calls attention to the fact that the whole $25,000,000 is only half the annual liquor bill of the Scotch people. Not only do the people suffer a direct loss of more than $50,000,000, but the time spent in drinking, and damages done because of intoxication, accidents and neglect of personal and public interest, caused by the stupefying power of rum, which will equal double the sum of the drink-bill.

It is almost impossible to be entirely correct respecting the cost of liquors. If we base our cal­culations upon manufactures and importations we will be far from the amount of liquors sold and drank; for very much, perhaps two-thirds, of wines, ales, gins, brandies, beers, etc., never knew a grape, or grain of corn or barley. The following statistics have been carefully compiled from the best authorities, and are as nearly correct as they can be made:

Liquors consumed in the United States:

• Spirituous Liquors - 69,572,062 gallons annually

• Beer - 279,746,044

• Imported Wines - 10,700,009

Liquors consumed in Great Britain:

• Spirituous Liquors - 33,090,377 gallons annually.

• Beer and Ale - 906,340,399

• Foreign and British Wines - 17,144,539

Liquors consumed in Germany:

• Beer - 146,000,000 gallons annually.

• Wine - 121,000,000

Liquors consumed in France:

• Spirituous Liquors - 27,000,000 gallons annually.

• Beer - 51,800,000

• Wine - 600,000,000

We estimate that the world consumes twice as much as these four nations:

• Spirituous Liquors - 314,031,882 gallons annually.

• Beer - 2,797,291,632

• Wine - 1,482,239,914

Cost of liquors in the world in ten years, $64,405,042,231, or twice the value of the United States of America. Allowing the average value of the world, per square mile, to equal the United States, and every one hundred and twenty years the actual cash value of the world is consumed in these drinks. The materials used in the manufacture are an­nually as follows:

The cost in France and Germany would be modified by the cost of grapes, which are much cheaper there.

Cost of the land, buildings, machinery, labor, etc., invested in the traffic is about as follows:

Cost of alcoholic drinks in the United States annually:

This nation receives in return for this traffic:

500 murders, 500 suicides, 100,000 criminals, 200,000 paupers, 60,000 deaths from drunkenness, 600,000 besotted drunkards, 600,000 moderate drinkers, who will be sots ten years hence, 500,000 homes destroyed, 1,000,000 children worse than orphaned. And if the country should be searched, from center to circumference, it would be impossible to find any good resulting from this traffic, or a single reason why it should exist longer. A competent committee, a short time ago, ex­amined the reports from the counties of Iowa, from which they furnish us the following:

This report was as accurate as the committee could make it, and shows that about 95 percent of the crime in our State was caused by the rum trade. The whole drink bill, according to their report for 1877, lacked only a little of $38,000,000. In Hardin County, alone, there were twenty-four criminal convictions; fourteen of those convicted were saloon-keepers. Several others came to their evil deeds from the influence of liquor.

Now, when we count our jail expenses, and all that result from the liquor traffic in this county, we find ourselves paying three percent of our landed worth for the inestimable privilege of rum. In absolute indifference to this leakage of money and morals, we gravely discuss finance, complain of hard times, write long articles on political econ­omy, the remonetization of silver, and the circu­lating of greenbacks. But if any man shall uncap this sink-hole and show where our money, as well as our honor and morality is disappearing it will be in order to stand off and sneer learnedly at temperance fanaticism. BUT WE ARE ASKED TO CONSIDER THE IMMENSE WEALTH IN THE COUNTRY THAT WOULD BE DESTROYED BY ABOLISHING THIS TRADE. The United States has 903,414 acres of land em­ployed for the whisky, beer and wine trade. This land, at $50 per acre, is worth $45,170,700. That money, at ten percent, would be $4,517,070 as the annual outlay in lands. In buildings and ma­chinery there is invested $74,041,044, which, at ten percent, would yield $7,404,104.40 annually. In the manufactory of alcohol, we perform $9,405,­104 worth of work per year. This is a heavy in­vestment, I grant. But the land is capable of producing wheat, oats, corn and potatoes. Hence, there is no capital in that which will be lost by prohibition. The men who work at this business could easily find other and useful employment. Nay, more, the tramps that have threatened to overrun the country are largely the outgrowth of the whisky and beer business. But for alcohol and its concomitants, tramps in this country had never been heard of. The buildings can be used for some profitable purpose. In machinery, and in liquors on hand, there would be a few millions loss. And yet, if all these buildings would burn up tonight, and the lands be converted into rattle­snake dens, and the men become paupers tomor­row, the country would be incalculably wealthier by the change. The total costs of alcohol in this country, count­ing all percents, wastes, loss of time, criminal expenses, give us an outlay for 1877 of $1,866,642,203. Who would refuse the meager sacrifice necessary to save the country from this financial ruin that weighs us to the very earth?