Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-07-11

The Nations DrimH Bill-An Eract State
astent.
To the Editor of the Globe.
I notice an article in your issue of July
9Th criticizing my statements in the Baptist
church last Sabbath evening. The article is
full of blunders. I made no such statements
as you publish, and in justice to myself and
the cause it serves, ask you to allow me
hearing.
I am exceedingly particular about the
matter, and desire to be exact on this ques-
ton, and rely entirely on official statements
ct Washington. I said: sin 1894, with q
view of raising public revenue, the United
States Congress recognized and taxed the
liquor traffic. From that time on to the
close of 1878, (the beginning of the woman's
| temperance crusade,) the business gradually
increased till, in that year, the annual drink
| bill of the nation reached the enormous sum
of over $500, 100000. Few of us understand
the magnitude of this sum. have
tried to bring it down to my own compre-
hension, and so I have imagined that the
sum. $6OO,OOO,OOO, the least We have spent
for alcoholic drinks for years past, was mine
to invest and that invested it in flour at $6
barrel, and loaded it in wagons, ten barre!s
to each wagon, and crowded the wagons out
on roadway, 200 wagons to each mile. This
sum would load wagons till the procession
would reach twice around the world-the
procession would be $4,000 miles long. If q
man should undertake to count out the sum,
counting dollar for each second of time for
ten hours each day, and 365 days each year,
it would require over forty five years to
| count the enormous sum expended for drink
in this one country each year.
The liquor question is the most gigantic
financial question of the age, and yet we have
failed up to this time to secure to it the
proper attention of statesmen
and politicians. Ny own State, Pennsyl-
vania, is not without her wise and honorable
men. Last summer one of these men, Mr.,
Grow, issued paper on the financial con-
dition of the country, which had wide
reading in this country and Canada and
Europe. In that paper he tells us that in
the three years, 187l'72.'73 there was built
in this country nearly 10000 miles of rail-
road. And he traces the relation that the
rapid extension, and then the sudden stop
page, of railway building had to our pres
ent financial distress. Extending his re-
searches still farther he found that the
women of the republic in those thre, years
imported $98, 100000 worth of silks, which
he speculated sold at retail at 5000, OOO,O
But while he was searching in the wardrobes
of the women for these silks, right before
his eyes, as it were, in raised letters
was the annual drink bill of tho nation.
$6OO,OOO,OOO. But such is the obliquity of
vision on the part of politicians and states
men that he did not see it al all. find that
the drink bill of the nation for those three
| xuoo 10
! With that amount we could build seven lines
of railroad across the continent, each 5000
miles long, at the present average cost of
building railroads, which is $4,000 per mile,
and put on $1SO,OOO,OOO rolling stock.
Then build a railway around the world and
put on $1OO, OOO,O 900 rolling stock, and one
would still have left 100000, 900 to invest
! in Silks" Now what are the facts that
sustain these statements?
In 1871 DR.. Young, chief of the bureau
OF statistics, estimates the sales of alcoholic
drinks at over $6SO,O36, O48.
| In 1872 there was consumed in the
United States 337, 288,O66 gallons of distilled
spirits and fermented liquors, costing $685.
12O,O48. I have not tho figures for 1873 at
hand, but know that the amount
was over $6OO,OOO,O0O, so it will be seen
| that my statement was we'll within bounds.
The mistake that was made, and is often
made, is in taking the figures representing
| the revenue or tax received by the United
States government for the amount con-
sumed, and in this case of making my
statement apply to one year instead of three,
| as intended. "He that hath ears to hear
let him hear" Nothing is gained by the
mistakes of speaker or reporter. Let the
truth, ugly as it is, appear. Yours very
truly, ANNIE W1TTEMEyFR.