The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-18
"WAsHINGToN, June q, 1873

loving letter:
''WAsHINGToN, June q, 1878.
"SIR-Your letter of the 18th inst. to the hon
orable the Secretary of the Interior, asking for
some statistics in regard to the liquor traffic in
the United States for member of the English
Parliament, was referred to this Office on the
18th inst. In reply, have the honor to state
that the only official information L can give
the Treasury Department of the quantities of
domestic spirits and malt liquors on which the
taxi tax has & been paid and imported liquors that ,
returns for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877,
are as follows:
Spirits distilled from whatever materi-
Ale beer lager beer and porter barrels e902$5S
Imported spirits of all kinds gallons. ,396G76
imported wines in casks and bottles,
5S23,4G9
"The following is n statement of the amount
of special Or license taxes paid to the govern
ment by dealers in liquors during the same
year:
Retail dealers in spirituous liquors, s25
Wholesale dealers in spirituous liquors.
Retail dealers in malt liquors excu- ' a-s
Wholesale dealers in malt liquors eX-
clusively, $50 each ch~. ~ 42,OO1
49," "Thus it appears there were upward of $780,
600 liquor dealers in the country that year.
From the above and other data, Hon. Ed
estimates the amount of money annually ex-
pended in the United States for liquors by con-
sumers to be nearly 596,000000. Respectfully,
"GREEN B. RAUM, Commissioner.
"Prof. Henry A. Ward, Rochester"
We have few comments to make on
the above. These figures only show the
amounts actually returned, while it is
notorious that very large quantities are
manufactured in the rebel States, where
the law is openly and notoriously defied +,
and no taxes paid. Then, the above is
only the wholesale price, while the retail
price is more than double the above. We
have not the least doubt that the people
of the United States pay every year fif-
teen hundred millions Of dollars for to-
bacco and strong drink. But we will
place it at one thousand millions, which
is surely too small Now if the United
States contain forty millions of people,
they thus worse than waste, each year,
twenty-five dollars for every man, woman
and child. If jackson county contains
25, 900 inhabitants, and they thus waste
their share, it would be $685., ,000 In ten
years they would thus waste more than
the value of all the property, real and
personal, in the county.
Dlu you ever see Il Ildu SebtllS 1ypC
How fast he can pick them up. He can
pick up ten thousand pieces in ten
hours, 10000 in week, or three millions
in year. Now if man twenty years OF
age had commenced picking up dollars
as fast as printer picks up type, when
the fathers landed on Plymouth Rock, in
! 1920, and had worked at it ten hours a
day for fifty years, and at seventy died
and another man of twenty had then
commenced and worked at it fifty years
and so on for all of the 25S years since
the first settlement of New England un
til the present time, it would still take q
life of fifty years moro to complete the
job, or more than 300years of continuous
work for one man to pick up the number
of dollars wasted each year by the Amer
ican people. And we mouth about HARD
times, Sherman's policy, greenbacks
Congress, and every thing but the rea
cause of all our depression. Times will
constantly continue to grow worse anc
worse, while we see the new crop coming
on-boys of from to 10 years of age, al
| smoking.