The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-07-10

Republican state Central COMMITTEE
s. :. OLDs, Secretary.
Lansing, June 10th, A. D., 1874.
We have before us the report of Mr..
Ruffncr, Superintendent of the Virgin
ia Board of Public instruction, for
1878, and we find in il, arrayed in
startling figures, statement Of taxation
for liquors, drank within the state,
which fully accounts fer the poverty,
not Only of Virginia, but Of all the
Southern States; while it also gives the
reason for the straitened circumstances
OF millions in the North. There are
1856 retail liquor shops in the state
If these shops sell the average amount
Of liquor sold by the liquor shops Of the
United States, and there is 40 reason TO
suppose they do not, the usual amount
consumed is S10622, SIS. There are
additions to be made to this from whole
sale dealers and patent medicines which
are bought and consumed for their al
cohol, that raise the aggregate to ST.,
100000. There is no doubt that the
sum total exceeds these terrific figures,
which leave out entirely the alcohol
used for mechanical and manufacturing
purposes. This sum exceeds the total
value O. all the farm productions, III
crease il live stock, and value OF M
provements, of the year 1870, according
ia the II. : Census, in the seven best
counties of the State, and by Just about
the same amount, the value Of the pro-
ductious of forty.fve smaller counties
during the same year. The wheat crop
of Virginia, for 1870, was in round
numbers, 100000 bushels. This, at
$3.50 per bushel, which is more than
was received, makes exactly $4,000.
000 In brief, Virginia drank up its
entire wheat crop to the last gill
Mr.. Ruffner presents other illustra.
tive estimates, but nothing can add to
the force of those which we have cited.
He then goes on to show that the total
taxation for State purposes, including
legislation, salaries, courts, institutions
for dumb, blind and insane, public
schools and interest on the public debt
only reache the sum Of S3,5OO000
while TO add to this sum all the local
taxation, would not equal the burden
which the people voluntarily lay upon
themselves But this is not all. The
injury done 10 public order, and to pri.
vate health and enterprise, Is to be
taken into account. Mr.. Ruttner be.
Iievcs that the time wasted, the injury
done to business and the cost of crime
pauperism insanity and litigation result
ing from intemperarce, would be more
costly than the liquor itself, Then the
Superintendent, with figures furnished
by the distinguished English actuary
Nelson, in the interests of Life Insurance
shows how much valuable life is thrown
away in the State Between fifteen and
twenty years OF age, the number Of
deaths of temperate and Incorporate
persons, is as 10 to Is; between twenty
and thirty, Q to 81; between thirty and
forty, 10 to 40. At twenty years OF
age a temperate persons chance for life
is 442 years-intemperate, l5.6; at
thirty, the temperate mans chance is
for 3G.5 years, Incorporate, 13.S at
forty years. the proportionate chances
are 2S.6 to ll:G years. Thus money
health, morality, industry, good order
and lie itself, in enormous sums, 20 into
this bottomless caldron. Is there any
return o; good for all this expenditure
None The loss is entire, and IRENE
diabIc. If the whole had gone over
Niagara Falls, something would be
picl ed up, on the shore below, but moth
ing is left from this waste. A bushel
of grain transformed into alcohol, and
swallowed as a beverage, is bushel OF
grain annihilated If all that is spen,
for liquor were put into huge furnace
and burned, we should have the ashes
but, as it is, we have no ashes excep,
such as, with shame and tears, we are
obliged to bury.
We have not displayed these figure
for the special purpose of reading lest
son to Virginia, for that state is nc
worse than the rest of the States of the
Union; but one of her faithful officers
has brought out theftatistics, and the
country ought to feel very much obliged
to him for them. They give US the
facts that account for all our public
distress. Our taxation for the legiti.
mate purposes Of government and the
payment Of the public debt is a mere
bagatelle by the side of the taxation to
which the people Voluntarily subject
themselves, for that which harms them.
We consume, as a nation, S60O.000,000
a year in spirituous liquors, sum which
only needs few multiplications to pay
the whole public debt of the country
If this tax could be entirely abated, the
impetus that would be given, not only
TO our prosperity, but to our civilization,
would soon place us in advance of every
nation under heaven. Liquor is at the
bottom Of all our poverty. If the tax
for ~ were lifted there 1Could moi need