Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-12-20

tatoes, even at the high price for which
they are now selling, or it would give
to every family Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary and a fine family Bible.
The amount paid for liquors in two
years would buy for every family in the
county a good COW. 1t would build,
every year, in every township in the
county a church edifiee costing S3, 900,
and paya minister for the same a salary
of 81, 900 per year.
The people viii be called on dur
ing the next month to pay the Decem-
Der installment of taxes, and it viii be
8 heavy burden. Yet the amount Of
money paid for liquor during the year
1878 would pay every cent of that tax.
In the year 1876 there were raised in
Ashtabuls County 1928 bushels of
wheat, which, at S1.25 per bushel,
would be worth S99, ,O97.50, or 81, ,2S5
less than our people pour down their
throats to make maudlin fools OF in
furiated demons of themselves. Call
ing buckwheat and rye one dollar per
bushel, maple sugar ten cents and wool
forty cents per pound, we find the
value of these four products for the
wear 1876 S84, AT, or S25, ,855 less than
the amount paid for liquid damnatiOn
the same year. There has been ever
since can remember a great hue and
CRY about so many sheep being killed
by dogs. 1t was such great loss and
damage that our Legislature has felt it
to beSa solemn duty to and has levied
special and unconstitutional tax of one
dollar on every dog, and has provided
that this shall be used to pay the own
ers of sheep killed by dogs for the loss
thereby sustained.
On examination l find that in 1876
there were as many as LAG sheep killed
by dogs, which at five dollars Per head
would amount to the vast sum of S745.
Changing the language ofthe Roman
Just a little we are led to exclaim in
holy horror, 80 what loss was that,
my eountrymen. About 1-150 part as
much as was paid the same year to
shorten the lives of our people. Only
$40 less than is paid in two days for
intoxicants. The value of the apple,
peach and pear crop is about the same
as the amount paid for liquors.
The value of all the sheep and hogs
is little less than the amount wasted
to confuse the brain and destroy the
moral sensibilities of our people.
We might carry on these eompari-
sons Gd igJfisitunl, but it is probably
useless.
As the Hon. G. T. Stewart said in his
late speech at Cleveland, ''If the mill
ions slain by this damning traffic could
burst their cerements and rise and
speak in our ears the terrible story, if
all heaven should speak, if all hell
should speak, they could tellu nothing
more of statistics than though scores
of years have been rolled on the public
mind"
The people of this country would
consider it a great less. as indeed it
would be, if some fearful epidemic
should pass over the country and carry
off every sheep and swine, or all the
wheat through some mysterious agency
be burned or destroyed, yet neither Of
these would be as great a calamity as
the drink traffic and the drinking Gus
toms of society are every year, for the
money paid for drink would more than
replace either.
1t is SURPRISING strange how any peo-
pie can stand such constant financial
drain and waste. No wonder at hard
times and bankruptcy.
We pay to these So persons who are
educating US in crime $110, 1922 and
to the 81 ministers of the Gospel about
S35, 900, or less than One-third the
amount paid to whisky vendors.
In 1876 we paid district school-teach-
ers S4,351.7S for teaching graded
schools, high and primary we paid $15,-
9S7.96, making total paid school-teach-
ers $50, ,2ss.74
What can be said of a people that is
annually paying more than S25, 10000
more for alcoholic beverages than it is
paying for school-teachers and minis
ters of the Gospel. The total expendi-
lures for school purposes in 1876 were
S78. .8S276. The total value of all
school property for the same year was
S177, ,425.
When we attempt to estimate the in
direct costs we are lost at once.
We have first the value of the time of
the AZ saloOn-keepers 1--WE viii say moth
ing about the drug mem. Of course
these men are engaged in a business
that IS entirely useless, of no benefit to
society.
IF we estimate their time worth S400
a year each we have S1S,SO0. Our
county hes lost that much worth of la
Dor. Let US suppose (and think the
supnositiOn p very libersl Onelthat each
Of these saloons nave spending their
time there at least two persons besides
the proprietors, which persons would be
at work did not these saloons exist to
entice them to dissipation, and let us
suppose that they would earn $500
per year each, this would make $685.
200, which is lost to the industry of the
county. We have in the infrmary
something over 100 persons. Seventy
Der cent of these at leasf m aIzino sevan