The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-11-28
DAILY PRESS.
ROIgIsIAA-N MO.
Monday Morning, November % 1870.

POIEIVIAANG


A year ago, or more, the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue published a Report of the
affairs of his department of The public service
Among other matters, he gave the amount of
the retail trade in intoxicating liquors in the
entire country, gathered from the reports of
his subordinates, whose figures were made up
from those of the dealers. The amount of
these sales was considerably more than one
thousand millions of dollars.
The whole of this sum-whateyer the
amount really was-was lost to the country,
except so much of it as went for medicinal.
mechanical and other useful purposes I do
not mean that the cash paid for these LIQUORS
was lost absolutely to the country; that re-
mained as it was, except that it had changed
hands. 1t was lost in the same sense in
which money is said to be lost, when it is paid
for bogus oil wells or bogus copper Mines
Money represents labor; it is the product of
labor, the savings of labor; and when spent
for that which is not an equivalent, it is said
to be lost. So the vast sums spent every year
in this country for Intoxicating liquors are
lost, because the country obtains 10 useful re-
turn from the investment.
When year in the labor of man is deyot-
ed to some useless work, it is lost to the coun
try: it may not be lost to the workman, be-
cause he may have been paid for it; but in re-
turn for the wages he receives, he should have
added to the permanent wealth of the coun
try an equal amount. In my neighborhood
is beautiful mansion, nearly finished. 1t is
all the product Of cork since the early spring:
many busy and skillful hands have been en-
ployed upon it. 1t is permanent addition
to the wealth of the city, State and nation.
Its value will go to swell the aggregate of our
national wealth. All the materials entering
into this house are the product of labor, and
the skillful arrangement of them into this
form, is all work, work of heads and hands.
The money paid to these workmen remains
in the country, as it would do if paid for rum;
but the difference is, that these workmen
have given in exchange for it, a full and fair
equivalent, which remains permanently in
the country. We have in this city more
wealth now, by the value of this house, than
we had in the spring. The money paid to the
workmen was in the city before, being the
product of former work; but an equal amount
of value has been coined fiom the brains and
muscles of the workmen and has been added
to the absolute taxable property of the coun-
try.
There cannot be any addition to the wealth
OF the country except by work; no country
can be prosperous in any other way than by
work. Labor then wisely directed, lies at
the foundation of the wealth of every State.
Everything, therefore, that leads TO the en-
couragement of labor and the increase of its
products, goes directly to promote the pros
perity of the country and to increase its
wealth and the comfort of its people. And
on the other hand, everything that discour-
ages labor and tends to diminish its products,
is hostile to the interests of the country ard
injurious 10 society.
A writer on Political Economy has said
that "a sound, healthy, industrious working
man represents sum of money equal to
that of which his yearly earnings are the o.
nua! interest at lawful rates; so that he who
earns 5000 stands for what is better than
$4,000" That is to say, he is worth to
the city or State that sum, because by his
work he adds so much every year to the gen
eral stock of wealth.
But this is a very limited view of the value
of sound, healthy, Industrious working
man. Precisely as much could be said for
any machine that can turn out 5000 worth of
work every year. The value of sound,
healthy, industrious man is vastly greater
than that, for the myriad machines and en-
gines we have in the country, would be of small
value without his head and strong, careful
hand. The value Of such working men can
not be measured by gold; their influence is
felt not only in the mere husiness-the mon
eymaking of the country,-but in every de-
partment of society; in the moral interests
of the community. That is great, rich,
happy, powerful nation-if populous-whose
working men are 'sound, healthy and indus
trious." No country can 60 far wrong nor
be long weighed down by any calamity whose
working people reof that character.
Any public policy, therefore, which tends
to make the people "sound, healthy and indus
trious," ptcially the working people, is in
the direction Of the highest, wisest states
manshp; and on the contrary, any policy
which involves injury to the people, making
them less sound, healthy, industrious, tends
directly to undermine the wealth and pros
perity of the country, and to the full extent
of its influence, inficts an irreparabe mis-
chief upon society. ND.