The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1875-11-27
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\ One OF the facts brought prominently befor,
the world during the last few years is, thai
France is rich. The ease with which she ha,
recovered from the disastrous war with Prus
sia, and the promptness with which she has
met, not only her own, but Prussia's enormous
expenses in that war, have surprised all hel
sister nations. Every poor man had his hoard
OF money, which he was anxious to lend to the
State. How did he save it? Why is it that, in
I a country like ours, where wages are high and
the opportunities for making money exception
ally good, such wealth and prosperity do not
exist7 Thse are important questions at this
time with al of US. Business is low, industry is
paralyized, and the question of bread stares
multitudesin the face.
Well, Fr.nce is an industrious nation, it is
said. Butts not ours an industrious alton too
Is it not Indeed, one of the most hard working
and energetic nations in the world2 We)e ieye
ito be hrder- working nation than the Fr euch
with not'nly fewer holidays but ne holidays
at al, ant with not only less play, but almost
no play all. 1t is said, too, that France is
frugal nation. They probably have the advan-
'age 'i us In this, yet to feed laboring man
and to clothea laboring man and his family
tnere must be definite, necessary expenditure
In both countries. The difference in wages
0us1s psS,' - cover the difference in expenses, and
twics as much, or three times as fh6ticn, as the
French, he earns twice or three times as much;
yet the American laborer lays up nothing,
.,,h; IL tha 1oha nd for
have money to lend their Government. Their
old stockings are long and are full. The wine
and the silk which the French raise for other
countries must be more than counterbalanced
by our exported gold, cotton, and breadstuffs,
so that they do not have any advantage over
US, as nation, in what they sell to other ma
tions? We shall have to look further than
this for the secret We are after.
There lies book before us written by DR..
William Hargreayes, entitled, "0ur Wasted
Resources" We wish that the politicians and
pollcal economists of this country could read
thi. book, and ponder we'll its shocking reve-
lations. They are revelations of criminal waste
the expenditure of almost incalculable re-
sources for that which brings nothing, worse
than nothing, in return. There are multitudes
of people who regard the temperance question
as one of morals alone. The men who drink
say simply, "We will drink what we please,
and it's nobodys business. You temperance
men are pestient fellows, meddlesome fellows,
who obtrude your tuppenny standard of moral
ity upon as, and we do not want it, and will
Ill
there be no more cakes and ale?" Very well,
let US drop it as question of morality. You
will surely look at it with US as a question Of
national economy and prosperity; else, you can
hardly regard yourselves as patriots. We have
a common interest in the national prosperity,
and we can discuss amicably any subject on
this common ground.
France produces its own wine, and drinks
mainly cheap wine. 1t is drink which, while
it does them no good, according to the showing
of their own physicians, does not do them harm
enough to interfere with their industry. Their
drinking wastes neither life nor mon as ours
does, and they sell in value to other suntries
more than they drink themselves. L lfng the
year 1870, in our own State of New 'rz, there
we're expended by consumers for li9 ior more
than one hundred and six millions dollars,
a sum which amounted to nearly tive thirds of
all the wages paid to laborers in agriculture
aud ro.,ouury.-v4-uti the railroads in the State,
the sum of the latter being between sixty-eight
and sixty nine millions. The money OF our
people goes across the bar all the time faster
than it is crowded into the wickets of all the
railroad stations of the State, and where does
it 70? What is the return for it Diseased
stonachs, aching heads, discouraged and slat-
ternly homes, idleness, gout, crime, degrasa-
ton, death. These, in various measures, are
exactly what we get for it. We gain OF that
which is good, nothing-no uplift in morality,
no increase of industry, no accession to health,
no growth of prosperity. Our State is full OF
tramps, and every one is drunkard. There
is decentralization everywhere, in consequence
Of this wssteful stream of fiery fluid that con-
stantly flows down the open gullet of the
State.
But our State is not alone The liquor bill
of PENNSYLVANIA during 1870 was more than
sixty-five millions of dollars, sum equal to
one-third of the entire agricultural product of
the State. Illinois paid more than forty two
| millions, and Ohio more than ffty-eight mil
lions. Massachusetts, paid more than twenty
| five millisns, a sum equal to ive-sixths of heI
| agricultural products, while the bill Of Maine
was only about four millions and quarter
| Mr.. Hargreaves takes the figures of Massachu
setts and Maine to show how prohibitory Law
does, after all, reduce the drinking but it Ii
not our purpose to argue this question.
What we desire to show is, that, with an an
nual expenditure of $500 100000 for liquors il
the United States-and all the figures we CIV
are based upon official statistics-it is not to b
! wondered at that the times are hard and peo
pie poor. Not only this vast sum Is wasted
not only the capital invested is diverted fror
good uses, and all the industry involved in pre-
duction taken from benefcent pursuits, bu
health, morality, respectability, industry, an
life are destroyed. Sixty thousand American
annually lie down in drunkard's grave.
were better to bring into the field and sho'
down sixty thousand of our young men ever
| wear, IMAM 10 nave LuCL 20 tht ga NAO +
cssses of disease, degradation, crime, and az
spair through which they inevitably pass.
With six hundred millions of dollars save
to the country annually, how long would
D take to make these United States rich not oi
". but able to meet, without disturbance ar
r distress, the revulsions in business to which
nations are liable? Here is question for Il
t statesman politician. Twenty five years OF a
solute abstinence from the consumption OF US
less, and worse than useless, liquors, wou
save to the country fifteen billions of dollar
and make US the richest nation on the face
IS the globe. Not only this sum-beyond the II
d aeination to omprehend-would be saved, b
l. all the abominable consequences of miseI
% disease, disgrace, crime, and death, that weu
b flow from the consumption OF such an en'
c. nous amount of poisonous fluid, would
81 saved. And yet temperance men are look
nnon az dsturbers and fanatics And we
o. adiured not to bring temperance into polite
As And this great transcendent question OF ecoi
e. nv gets the go by, while we hug our little
a. sues for the sake of party and of office
]; not JasarvA adversity p Dr. J g. H0LLdi