Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1874-06-04

of others, and which form part of til
great investment lodged even in the SO
of a laborer, one without the advan
tages or culture Of wealth. They can
not be reekoned IN dollars and cents
but they exist none the less, and shoul
be taken into account and kept in min
as part of the loss which the commu
nifty at large suffers when one man fail
to make any return for the talent con
fided to his care The gross, percept
ible, enumerable parts Of his cost pric
are, to his family in money, 2,979; t,
his country and the community, $546
his share OF the income from $4,000,
0O0, 600 of property. and the partially
developed life wasted and cut off tina
his might reach maturity. In all, thu
direct outlay is 5000, an snderstate
ment in two directions.
The estimate itself is a very small
one, cut and pared to bring it tar under
the truth and avoid the possibility Of
exaggeration; and it is taken in sta.
ton of life where the conditions are az
simple as possible, and cheap in pro
portion as they are simple. 1t is COM
paratiyely easy task to reckon up the
cost price Of boy who lives in tene-
ment house, has coarse food and CLOTH
ing and no education but the teaching
of public school, whose value is given
in dozen reports, because it is limited
to the small sum Of 5000. 1t is large
fraction, but after all, only q fraction
of the community whose expenses are
restricted to food, clothing and shelter;
the fraction does not include more than
one-fourth of those engaged in earning
their livelihood. The chill dren of the
other three-fourths of the community
lin other words, three-fourths of the
children cost more than 5000 apiece
to raise, and are worth more when they
are raised. -ie -a
At fifteen years a man may begin to
be producer--he very eften does not
begin to do so till years after-and he
may also begin to be drunkard. Nei-
ther are likely before this age, though
either contingency may occur years
earlier, as well as after. Neither hap
pen at once; and while there are no
tables accessible which determine the
average training required, to gain pro-
ficicncy in either direction it will be
fair enough to consider the man for
three years as neutral, whichever course
he takes. He is not an actual burden
on society or himself; neither does he
produce much, If anything, over and
above his own sustenance. Whether
the entire cost of his production shall
be capital worse than wasted, so that
received economically it would have
been altogether better for the commu-
nifty if he had been throttled at an ear
ly age, depends largely, if not entirely
in the absence Of any organic disease
in his constitution, on his becoming
addicted to the use of intoxicating liq-
uors. Society has spent some thous-
ands of dollars directly OH him, and
devoted some millions of capital to
providing him with an education and
throwing around him influences which
will make his life a profitable invest
ment.
But society has also taken some pains
and trouble to render null and void its
own efforts. In this city, for instance,
the community has licensed over 5000
places at which the means of forming
the habit of drunkenness can be found
and society pays four times as much to
support them as it does to protect and
educate they whom it has raised at
such trouble and expense. BY crowded,
lll-ventillated dwellings, by insufficient
nutrition, by ignorant and depraved
ancestors, by congenital traits and taints |
number, society does its best to |
turn the boy into drunkard, and make
its better efforts useless; and in justice
to society 1t should be said that the at
tempt is very often successful. He en-
ters his eighteenth year a drunkard.
Three courses are before him. He may
continue to be a producer to an extent
great enough to support himself, and to
do that alone-a burden OIL the COM
but only in negative way;
not meeting his full share of the bur-
dens Of the industrious, but at the same
time not directly adding to them. He
may become a pauper, and TALL a dead
weight on the producers of the COM
munity, to be cared for as well as pro-
tected. And he may become criminal
mot only burden on society, but an
enemy to its welfare, to be abated and
restrained at all hazards; no longer
either floating waif or dead weight
on society, but an expensive antagonist
with whom war is as expensive as war
always must be. At best the state loses
by his intoxication completely and en-
tirely the direct investment of 5000.
At eighteen the mans labor is worth at
least 1928 year, or $14 week. All
this is lost, and it amounts to the inter-
est on nearly twice the sum spent for
the mans education. The average life
Of man addicted to ardent spirits is
about seventeen years, and the sum lost
in this way is $l2,376.
1t is even greater than this. At twen-
" person in health has an even chance
Of living forty-four years; dram
thinkers chances are cut down to about
,ne-third of this period; and the differ
,nce between these figures is a loss of
sl9,657, and adding together these
sources of loss and damage to the COM
munity the total deficit; even where
.he man has enough energy and meth
I'd left to keep himself from becoming
an actual burden on the community is
Is follows:
Original investment, 5000
Loss of labor during life III years. 1876
Loss OF % years of labor by drink, 1865
|
Total, 37,Gs
This is the direct cash loss in case
where the training of victim ceased at
fifteen, and had up to that time been
Of the cheapest possible description.
Every additional year added to the
time devoted to education adds proper
tionately to the investment loss in the
first instance, as well as to the value of