The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-10-24
The Business and Wealth OF Maine.

~ Ut6 EuuOT OJ u1e FTeSS:
Everything which concerns the business and
wealth of the State is of great interest to all of
US. There are many of us who do not consider
riches the supreme good, but who look upon
moral and religious influences and tendencies,
and domestic and social peace and happiness as
far, very far more important to State and peo-
pie. But yet we are all interested in everything
calculated to promote the business of the State
aud increase its wealth, but there are a great
many most intelligent, active business men
among US who have not seen in its true light
the relation of the Msine law to the prosperity
of every industrial enterprise; but 1t is quite
time now that we should understand it fully.
Not long ago gentleman of Raymond told
me this story :-"Atthe time the State was can
vassed in every part by missionaries, whose
purpose it was to work up public opinion
against the liquor traffic, we had frequent pub
lie meetings for the purpose in our town. At
one of these L made the statement that the
people of Raymon consumed in drink the en-
tire valuation of the town in every period of
twenty years. The people present laughed at
me, and considered nay statement merely ss an
exaggeration of o temperance fanatic Well,
l said, have made no calculation about it,
but that is my opinion; and 1 know pretty
nearly the quantity of liquor brought into town.
Ut came by the Cumberland and Oxford canal)
Before the next meeting will make careful
examination, and will be prepared with the
facts and the figures" At the next meeting he
said that he held in his hand statement Of
the liquors brought into town and the cost.
mo doubt some liquors are brought here BY
other than the ordinary channel of conveyance.
Of that L know nothing; but OF the liquors
ia Nhnro fav ,.,;ak
about it, and the cost amounts to the entire val
| uation of the town-of all real and personal
property in every period of eighteen years,
eight months and twenty-five days. The peo-
BlS Fas, did not laugh any more it was hidsOu'
1 was myself astonished at his statement.
had never thought of the matter exactly in that
light before, AMI began to see more clearly
than had ever done the intimate, necessary,
inevitable relation of the liquor traffic 10 the
poverty and pauperism of the people, as well
as to the crime, wretchedness and ruin which
always are found in its wake. Now, appre-
hend that no one will dispute the statement
| that in the old rum time the people Of Maine
| consumed their full share of strong drink in
proportion to their population. 1 think it is
| moderate to say that, only our share. With
| our present population, our share of the ma
tional drink would be about $13. 100000; that
| of New Jersey, with q population not much
larger than ours, is stated at S37, 100000, and
| that of New York at $75, 100000. Now S13,-
l coo, 900 year, with annual compound interest
| at six per cent, will amount in ten years to
| $170,319, ,525, and in twenty years to the enor-
nous sum of 1853, ,S54, ,420, and the valuation of
| the State in 1870 was only S224, ,822, ,913.
Some persons whose sympathies are always
| and anyhow, for whatever reason, with rum
sellers and grog shops may say that the sums
as the amount of the national drink bill are
| too high. know nothing Of that, but the
| figures are supposed to be only those which
| pass through the Custom House, as the guam
l tty of liquors imported, and through the de-
| partment of Internal Revenue as the quantity
| of liquors manufactured at home; and they do
| not include liquors smuggled nor crooked beer
/ nJr whisky, the amounts of which are certainly
| very large. In England the statistics relating
to this matter are perfectly reliable and accu-
l rate to gallon and shilling, and by them we
| learn that the British drink bill for 1876 was
nearly e150, 900, ,000-$750, 600 900 in gold with
| a population six millions smaller than oars. L
| think therefore we may safely accept Mr..
Young's figures for the cost of our drink bill as
very nearly accurate.
But do not take the statement Of the actual
amount of the national drink bill as accurate to
| dollar, nor to O million dollars perhaps, but
l it is proximate; consequently we cannot esti-
| mate exactly che drink bill of Maine. But this
| is my point: so far as the wealth and pros
perity of the state are concerned the liquor BILL
4 whatever the amount, is dead loss to the
| community, the whole of it, and far worse than
a total less, because we get with the liquor we
buy poverty, pauperism, suffering, degradation,
| crime, all of which involve additional loss and
cost to an indefinite amount.
1t is no answer to say that the brewer, distil-
l Ter, rumseller make money and thus add to the
/ wealth of the community. They create no
| value, they earn nothing; the money which
l they gather is so much scraped up of the earn
/ ings of other people; and for every dollar they
get they destroy at least another dollar Of other
l peoples property. 1t is a low estimate to say
Il hot tha llar int f6a
| erty of other people who have earned it two
/ dollars for every one be puts into his own
| pocket, the whole of 1t scraped up of other
peoples earnings, for which he gives in ex-
change absolutely no value, but in fact an
| infinite evil.
heard the Rev. Mr.. Pierrepont say in the
| High Street Church many years ago, that the
difference between pickpocket and . rum
seller is only this: the former steals the watch,
1 purse or pocket-book OF whatever value, and
leaves his victim in full possession Of health
| and strength of body and mind, to repair his
/ loss by patient industry and to discharge his
| share of public and social duty, while the rum
seller robs his victim and puts into his pocket
an internal torpedo which blows him to the
devil, body and sou, ,and involves his family and
friends in unspeakable misery.
l The brewer, distiller, rumseller occupies in
| the community precisely the position OF the
Barnegat pirate By false lights he allures his
| victims into dangerous waters. among ragged
| rocks and treacherous sands. All mp and down
the shore are these dreadful wrecks, magnifi-
| cent galloons freighted with precious products
of every age and every cline; humber craft
1 without number laden only with the slender
and careful savings Of many years of toll, but
ali bearing precious life and immortal hone,
and boundless capacities for eternal joys. But
down, down they go to the death and wretched-
ness which have no name, while the rumseller
with pitiess eye greedily gathers up from the
sands whatever plunder the waves may throw
upon the shore.
Observation-Disclosures you are-in the
/ gilded saloon or in the miserable doggery-
say-have 1 Exaggerated the horrors OF your
| trade? Have mistaken or misstated your re-
| lation to the common welfare? Your trade is
| the gigantic crime of crimes. N. D..
Removal Of CleOpatra's Needle.
It is not uninteresting to notice the removal