The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-07-25
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
The Interests of the Nation and Welfare
of the People.
AN ADDRESS BY THE HON. NEAL DOW.

The Westminster Review said some
time ago: THE question how the people
are to be properly fed; indeed, how
they are to be at all, is an important
problem, the solution of which may we'll
challenge the closest attention of our
ablest statesmen" This was said in con-
nection with the almost boundless pow
crty and pauperism of great numbers of
the English people. Trade was and is
greatly depressed in the United King
dom great many working-people are
without employment many mills, forges,
and factories are closed; grim want stares
the people in the face. Without the
starvation or deportation seem to be the
only alternatives to great masses of the
English people. The reviewer may well
say that the question of food for the peo-
Pile has become matter of immense i'm
portanoe in England, and may we'll chal-
lenge the anxious care and thought of
her ablest statesmen.
1t is quite curious to see that the Eng
lish press in the discussion of this sub
ject, generally ignores the prime cause of
all this tremendous mischief at the same
time that it is obvious to the most care
less observer.
The newspaper writer's and the review
ers say that England has lost her trade
largely through the sharp competition of
other countries, and especially through
that of America. They say that the ig-
norant, stupid, and drunken work people
of their own country cannot compete
successfully with the shrewd, sharp edu-
Gated workingmen of America. They
say also that the loss of English trade is
largely due to dishonest practices in the
adulteration of English goods, of what
ever kind; so that American goods, even
at higher prices, are preferred in foreign
markets. They say also that the rapid
improvement in the manufactures of the
United States, and in their constantly
improving modes of production, enable
American manufactures to undersell
British goods even in British markets.
A great deal of this is true-indeed, the
whole of it is SO; but these speculations
do not touch at all the great cause of the
loss and depression of English trade and
the extreme want of and misery of great
masses of the people. Even when trade.
ten years ago, was at its highest point of
prosperity, when all England's working
people were employed at wages so high
that the country had never seen the like
before, causes were in active operation,
under the fostering care of the govern
ment, which prevented the working
people from deriving any important ad-
vantage from their circumstances of ex-
ceptional prosperity, and they were kept
in such condition that q reverse in
trada--the coming Of a dul time-would
throw them, in a week, upon the parish
for support or into circumstances of great
distress.
The British Government during all
these years has been encouraging and
fostering with jealous care ahd exception
al anxiety one particular BRANCH of trade
the liquor traffic-which has suffered
no depression during all these dark days
of financial confusion, disorder, and dis
tress; but which, on the ontrary, has
been growing, fourishing, and prosper
ing, as never before in the history of the
country. The facts fully justify the re-
mark: AS the liquor trade hourishes and
grows every legitimate industry languish::
es and dies The liquor trade seems to
be interviewer with every habit of Brit
ish society, with every fiber of the British
constitution and the present British
Government has been truly said 10 repre-
sent in special manner that particular
trade, which is in deadly hostility to
every interest of the nation and the peo-
plea trade which lives and thrives only
on the poverty, pauperisn, degradation,
vice, and crime of the community.
In 1857 the liquor bill of the United
Kingdom was about $500, 900, 900; in 1866
it was about S4l5, 100000 in 1872 it was
about s65OO0O,0O0 in 1877 it was about
$75Q,000,Q00, growing with frightful ra,
pidity, while every other trade is suffer
ing extreme depression, and while i'm
mense numbers of the people are without
employment and almost without food and
other absolute necessaries of life. The
liquor traffic in Great Britain is increas
ing much more rapidly than the popula
ton, with all the tremendous evils re
sulting from it-poverty, pauperism, suf