The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1875-06-04
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC VS.. THE
PUBLIC WELFARE.

PUBLIC WELFARE.
We take the following extract
from an article by Rev. VIM. Good
ell published in late number Of the
"National Temperance Advocate" /:
ITO every legitimate interest, in
dustry, enterprise, and honest voca-
ton Of productive, beneficial labor,
the LIQUOR traffic is hostile, by ab-
sorbing the capital and diminishing
the amount of labor that -wOuld 9TH
crwise be employed for the useful
purposes Of their production, but
which is now wasted, and worse
than wasted, in the disiilleries and
breweries, the liquor stores, the sa>
looms, and grog>shops, where capital
and labor arc employed in manuiac-
turing and distributing among the
people tbs direst plague that curses
them and which, instead Of being
purchased for use, had better be
spilled on the ground or cast into
tho sea. The cost Of this poison to
the persons who drink it i, various
" estimated at 5000, 200, 100000 to
$1,000, 600, 100000 every year, by
saving of which our national debt
might soon be paid,
10 this loss must be added the loss
of productive labor by the standing
army Of the idlers enrolled by the
liquor dealers, the sickness, and the
premature deaths inseparable from
consumption of strong drink.
Every dollar expended for it by
the consumers, as above stated, IS 50
much substracted from their ability
to purchase wholesome food, com>
f,rtabIe clothing, useful and decent
furniture, or suitable dwelling places
for themselves and families, now
constituting pauper population to
be provided for by charity or taxa
tiop, or left to starve and freeze I'M
needed, or, st no distant day per-
haps, to be confronted as interna-
tional communists demanding bread,
and incapacitated for labor if it
could be furnished them.
Make a calculation Of the amount
of articles Of food, clothing, and
necessary comforts of life that would
be purchased with the hundreds of
millions of dollar, now expended for
drink, if paid into the hands Of the
agricultural producers, the manu-
features, the mechanics, the mschine
lists, the importers, the wholesale and
retail merchants, by whom those ar
ticles would be furnished. Would
business be dull, or labor uucalled for
or unproductiye, or money scarce,
or tariffs CT imitation needed, if the
importation, manufacture, and traf-
Gc Of intoxicating liquors for drink
Jog purposes were abolished Z
is it not evident that the lormid-
able question Of capital and labor
can never be safe Y or satisfactorily
settled until this vast loss, waste, OF
misdirected OF both capital and labor
are abolished ? Is it improbable tha
such an adjustment would, of itself
80 very far toward a solution of tha
very difficult aud important problem
or al least indicate the direction il
which lie additional remedies, if any
shall be needed Wo may witt
confidence conclude that the guilty
cause Of that arrangement chiefly
lies in some such waste, loss, or mis-
direction of capita! and labor as that
of which the liquor manufacture and
traffic disclose such gigantic specl>
men
We complain of heavy taxes
But where can we point to any 9TH
or tax, or even catalogue Of taxes,
than those Unidentified with the Ii
quor tax, or traceabie to 1t as It's
cause 7 Remove that curse and
what tax of formidable magnitude
would remain to be complained of
Costs Of pauperism costs of punish
Ing or restraining crime, costs Of di-
reef or indirect commission OF crime,
thetts, robberies, buigIares, commits
ted under its influence loses by
nsgIccts, carslcssness, inattention,
stupidity and reckless contlagrs>
grations, shipwrecks, railroad col
lisions, aud kindred disasters, come
from this one cause. Powers of
arithpetical calculation, and powers
Of conceiving Of the estimated
amounts, break down under the pro-
cess"
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