Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-07-01
Taxation that Kills.

N
0 Ruffner, Superintendent of the Virgin
Board of Public Instruction, for lS7;
and we find in it. arrayed 10 startling 6I
. ures, a statement Of taxation for liquor
, drank within the State. which fully az
counts for the poverty, not only of Vii
ginia, but Of all the Southern States
while 1t also gives the reason for th
straitened circumstances of millions in tn
North. There are 1856 retail liquor shop
in the State. If these shops sell the av
erage amount of liquor sold by the liquo
shops of the United States, and there j
no reason to suppose they do not, the an
nual amount consumed is Sl0,622. $50
There are additions TO be made to thi
from wholesale dealers and patent medi
cines which are bought and consumed 70
their alcohol, that raise the aggregate IL
So, 900, 600. There is no doubt that tn,
sum total exceeds these terrific figures
which leave out entirely the alcohol USED
for mechanical and manufacturing pur'
poses. This sum exceeds the total value
of all the farm productions, increase in
live stock, aud value Of improvements, Of
the year 1870, according to the U. S.
Census, in the seven best counties in the
State, and by jus, about the same amount,
the value of the productions Of forty.fve
smaller counties during the same year.
The wheat crop Of Virginia, for 1870,
was, in round numbers, 5000, 900 bush
els. This, at 81 20 yer bushel, which is
more than was received, makes exactly
Sll, 900, 900. In brief, Virginia drank
up its entire wheat crop TO the last gill!
Mr.. Ruffncr presents other illustrative
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, sala-
ries, courts, institutions for dumb, blind,
and insane, public schools and interest on
the public debt only reaches the sun of
$4,000, 600, while 10 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 to public order. and to
private health and enterprise, is to be
into account. Mr.. Rutfuer believes
the time wasted, the injury done to
business, and the cost of crime, pauper-
ism, insanity and litigation resulting from
intemperance, would be moro costly than
the liquor itself, Then the Suporinteud-
'nt, with figures furnished by the distin-
English ac'uniy, Nelson, in the
interests Of Life Insurance, shows how
much valuable life is thrown away in the
Between fifteen aud twenty years
If age, the number Of deaths of temperate
md Incorporate persons. is as 10 10 Is;
between twenty.one and thirty, 20 to 81
between thirty and forty, 10 to 40. At
.wenty years o. age a temperate person s
for life is A 2 ycars-intemperate,
80; at thirty, the temperate mans
chance is for 36.5 years, incorporate,
|3.o; at forty years, the proportlonatc
'hances are 2S.S to ll.6 years. Thus
money, health, morality, industry, good
rider, and life itself, in. enormous sums,
% into this bottomless caldron. Is there
ny return of good for all this expenditure?
None, The loss is entire, and irremedia.
If the whole had gone over Niagara
falls, something would be picked up. on
he shore below, but nothing is left from
his waste. A bushel Of grain transformed
nto alcohol, and swallowed as a beverage,
) a bushcl Of grain annlbilated. Ii all
is spent for liquor were put into a
uge furnace, and burned, we should have
he ashes /; but, as it is, we have no ashes
xcept such as, with shame and tears, we
re obliged to bury.
We have not displayed these figures for
ne special purpose OF reading a lesson to
'irginia, for that State is no worse than
nc rest of the States of the Union; but
ne of her faithful officers has brought out
ne statistics, and the country ought to
bel very much obliged to him for them.
hey give us the facts that account for all
ur public distress. Our taxation for the
'gitimate purposes of government and the
aymept of the public debt is q mere bag
telle by the side Of the taxation to which
ne people voluntarily subject themselves,
,r that which harms them. We consume.
5 a nation. $500, 000, 900 a year in spir-
uous liquors, a sun which only needs a
cry few multiplications to pay the whole
ublic debt of the country. If this tax
ould be entirely abated, the impetus that
ould be given, not only to our prosperi-
7, but to our civilization, would soon place
in advance Of every nation under bea-
en-. Liquor is al the bottom of all our
If the tax for it were lifted, .
lere would no! need to be a man. woman
+ child without bread. IF it could be
fled from the Southern States alone, it
ould not take Eve years to make them
only prosperous, but rich. There can ,
ot be a more pitiful or contemplate sight,
ian a man quarrelling over, and bemoan-