The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-27

in our country from liquor,n and no won.
der, for sciencc states that alcohol is an
"acrid narcotic poison" and in these
United States every year on an average
over five quarts of purest alcohol In
drinks are consumed by every man. vo,
man aud child in the Nation. or ut that
rate. Can we wonder at the extraOrdi.
nary sick and death rate when oar peo.
pie are drinking liquid poison9 Now
the money val0e OF those who die by
premature death from liquor--at least
100, 600 persons every year-and Of those
who are sick and invalid and disabled,
and the value of their sick bill aud the
value of the time of those who nurse
them, DC, &C., must run up into incal-
culable millions of dollars--an utter loss
70 the Nation. Then the money value OF
tho time and industry of the perhaps
10000 men, variously Idle or employed
all over the land, as direct consequence
of the liquor traffic, iailors, detectives,
policemen, Watchers constables, Jury
men, witnesses, clerks, judgesEtwo.
thirds of whom are necessitated by in.
temperance-men diverted ifotn prOduc-
tive works--and the money vaIus of the
hundreds of officers and servants and
nurses, ETC., ETC., over and 10 onr State
and county institntions-so faras Obliged
to be 30 employed by li4uor-wonld run
up TO scores Of millions of dollars more.
Aud we have, at the very lowest, between
two and three million Of men wasted
every year,to the nation by and in cou.
sequence OF the liquor business.
And now what is the appalling aggre-
gate Of our natural waste? $l,000,00O,-
600 unemployed capital in the country
lin 1867 invested in the horrible busi.
ness. do not know what it ia to. day.
Between thirty and forty millions of dol.
lars annually squandered In grain; over
800, COG, 900 spent every year for strong
drink direct. Hundreds Of millions of
dollars of lost time and labor, through
men engaged in the business, or, directly
and indirectly employed outside of pro-
ductive work in consequence of it. And
the va;ae of the various buildings of the
entiys country, so far as they are obliged
u e.sist, on account Of kquor, penitentia-
ries, woEk-bonses, lock-ups, asylums,
alms-houses, private charitable institu-
tlons, ETC., together with the amazing
sums directly taken from the people in
taxes, TO maintain and protect society
irom the periis and insecurity caused by
this universally disturbing traffic, aud in
addition to this the money value to the
people oftaii the property, public and
private, destroyed on the land and on the
sea by the haS;s of intemperance, and
we are obliged to state the national waste
caused by liquor, directly and Indirectly,
at several thousand millions of dollars
every year.
In file words of another: ''The liquor
traffic IL marshaiied against civilization,
liberty, justice, humanity, morality and
religion. Itproduces poverty, ignorance,
crimes of every degree, idiocy, vice, in.
sanity, madness, disease and DEATH"
], AT least $4,000, ,0e0, 600 every year. are
lost to the american people by this uni
versal and iniqaitous Institution. Will
not heavens awful retribution descend
on the nation unless there is repentance
and reform7