New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-06-28
Taxation that Kills.


ner, superintendent of the Virginia board
Of public instruction. for 1873. and we find
in II, arrayed in startling figures, state
ment of taxation for liquors, drank within
the State. which fully accounts for the
poverty, not only Of Virginia but of all the
Southern States; while it lso gives the
reason for the straitened ctcums .ances of
millions in the North. Therare 1850 retail
liquor shops in the State. Il these shops
sell the average amount of liquor sold by
the liquor shops OF the Cntei States, and
there is no reason to suppoA they. do not,
the annual amount consumed is $50, 622,-
85S. There are additions 10 be made to
this from wholesale deales and patent
medicines which are bought and consumed
for their alcohol, that raise he aggregate to
$l2 600, 900. There is no,dobt that the sum
total exceeds these terrific figures, which
leave out entirely the alcohd used for me-
chanical and manufactbrlngpurpose This
cum exceeds the total valueof all the farm
productions, increase in I've stock, aud
value of improvements of the year 1870.
according to the United Safes. census in
the seven best counties in tie State, and by
just about the same amour, the value OF
the productions of forty-in smaller coun.
ties during the same year. The wheat crop
of Virginia, for 1870. was lnround numbers,
5000. 900 bushels. This, atel 50 per bushel,
which is more than was received, makes
exactly $l2.000,000. In brief, Virginia
drank up its entire wheat crop to the last
gill!
Mr. Rutfner 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 Tor dumb, blind
and insane, public schools aud interest on
the public debt only reaches the sum of
So, 500, 900, while to add to this sum all the
local taxation, would not equal the burden
which the people voluntarily lay on them
selves. But this is not all. The injury
done to public oder, and to private health
and enterprise, ito be taken into account.
Mr. Ruffner beliTes that the time wasted,
the injury done business and the cost of
crime, pauperlsn, insanity and litigation
more costly thin the liquor itself. Then
the superintendent, with figures furnished
by the DISTINGUISHED English actuary,
FeisOn, in the interest of life Insurance,
shows how muh valuable life is thrown
away in the tate. Between fifteen and
twenty years { age, the number of deaths
of temperate md Incorporate persons is
as ten to eihteen; between twenty one
and thirty, tie to tifty-one; between thirty
and forty, tertO forty. At twenty years of
age a temperte persons chance for life is
442 wears; temperate, 1876; at thirty, the
temperate ussl's chance is 36.5 years; in
temperate, is; at forty years, the proper
tiopate chapes are % to 1.6 years. Thus
money, heath, morality, industry, good
order, and fe itself, in enormous sums, 90
Tito this botomless caldron. L. there any
return of god for ali this expenditure!
None. TIL loss is entire and irremediabie.
If the who had gone over Niagara Falls
somethingsould be picked up on the shore
below, bunothing is LETT from this waste.
A bushel grain transformed into alcohol
and swallEed as a beverage is bushel of
grain anplilated. If all that is spent for
liquor VIE put into huge furnace and
burned, 9 should have the ashes; but, as
it is, we ave no ashes except such as, with
shame al tears. we are obliged to bury.
We hse not displayed these figures for
the Sped purpose OF reading lesson to
Virgins, for that State is no worse than
the resrf the States of the Union, but one
of her fthful officers has brought out the
statistiI and the country ought to feel
yery mch obliged to him for them. They
give ukhe facts that account for all our
publicdstress. Our taxation for the legit-
innate arposes of government and the pay
mentf the public debt is a mere bagatelle
by Tn side of the taxation to which they
voluArily subject themselves tor that
whic harms them. We consume, as a ma.
t,on. $500, 000, 900 a year in spirituous
ious, sum which only needs very few
implications to pay the whole public |
debOf the country. # this tax could be
entay abated the impetus that would be |
givL not only to our prosperity. but to
Capitalization, would soon place us in ad-
va,e of every nation under heaven. Lii |
ia of tho haitian nf All Our Dnvartv IF
til bax for it were lifted there would not |
GU bread. If it could be lifted from |
tn Southern States alone, it would |
nc take more than five years to make |
tin not only prosperous, but rich. There |
c< not be a more pitiful or contemplate |
sht, than a man quarrelling over, and be- |
naming his taxes, while tickling his palate,
al burning up his stomach and his snD- |
since with glass after glass of whisky. |
m dread the cholera, the yellow fever |
a the smallpox, and take expensive pre-
utions against it, while the ravages of all |
them in a year do not produce the mis- |
lief that intemperance does in a month. |
iis worse than plague, worse than fire,
inundatiOn, or war. Nothing but sick !
nd frightful waste of resources come of |
J. Nothing noble is born Of it. Meantime |
ur public men are timid about 1t, our |
hurches are halt Indifferent over it, our |
minister's talk about the scriptural use of |
zine, our scientific men dispute about the |
utritive properties of alcohol, our politi. |
ians utter wise things about personal |
lghts and sumptuary laws, and the people |
re going to the deviL-Dr. j. G. Holland.
4 Scribner's for July