Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-08-29

RUM. CRIME AND TAXATION.

the use of strong drink. We are taxed
to support police officers to take care of
riotous drunkards; we are taxed to
support judges and lawyers and juries
while trying drunken criminals; we
are taxed to support jails, prisons and
reformatories, peopled with the victims
of strong drink; we are taxed to sup
port asylums for the men whom rum
has made maniacs; we are taxed to sup
port almshOuses which are peopled by
broken down rum-sellers and drunkards, |
and the wives and children of those who |
have been ruined by drink; we are
taxed to support reform-schools. into
which drunkard's children drift for re-
straint we are taxed to pay coroners
for holding inquests on dead drunkards;
we are taxed to make up the stcalings
of ungodly officials who are elected to
office through the influence of rum shop
caucuses, and whiskey bought votes
and we are ceaselessly taxed by the
poor around US, whose poverty and suf-
fering result from the intemperance of
those who should protect and provide
for them.
Said Gov. Long, in his annual mes
sage to the Massachusetts Legislature,
81 cannot forbear to call your attention
generally to the terrible evil of intern
perance, and its devastation of crime,
insanity and pauperism. The Bureau
of Statistics has, during the year 1880,
added to its admirable work by con-
Quoting an original inquiry into the
causes of crime. 1t has made personal
investigation of every case in the nine
criminal courts Of Suffolk county which
were selected as a sample, and the re-
suit constitutes the strongest Indictment
against the use of intoxicating liquors
that has been drawn. Of the 1896
cases, more than seventy-two per cent.
were for various grades of drunkenness,
and in addition of these more than
twelve per cent. were offences committed
by persons under the influence of liquor
leaving only some fifteen per cent. Of
crime to represent what would be the
total amount but for the use of intoxi
eating liquors.
Warren Jenkins, chaplain of the Ohio
penitentiary, in his report for 1866
says: "Of the 932 now confined within
these walls less than 200 claim to hav
been strictly temperate, and of the 81!
received during the last year only sew
enty-three laid any claim to having bee,
exempt from the use of lntoxlcatin
drinks. About one-ffth of the Who'll
number may be set down as temperate
of the remaining four-ffths, one-hal
admit themselves to have been inten
perate, or habitual drunkards, while tn
remainder claim to have been moderat
drinkers.
During the ten years ending wit
1876, there were 13,413 prisoners i
the Albany. N. Y. penitentiary. &C
that number" says A. Worlock, 40
2l4 have admitted that they were of il
temperate habits, while 3,199 elaine
to be temperate"
The number of licensed and unlicen
ed drinking saloons in New York Gil
is placed at 1926, or one for ever
ninety-six persons in the city. Prob
bly, S6O.00O,O0O are spent in these s
looms annually. an. average of $50
year for each person in the communit
In 1877 the police made 1929 arres
5l.957, or six-tenths of the whole,
ing for intoxication and disorderly co
duct. There were 51,696 commitmen
to the city prison in the year, 1874
being persons of Incorporate habit
seventy per cent. of the males and Gig
ty-seVen per cent. of the females
Blackwell's Island workhouse we
brought there directly through the
fuence of intoxicating liquors a
eighty per cent. of the inmates of
lunatic asylum there were broug
through habits of intoxication. 7
expenditure for the poor-houses in I
State of New York, in 1877, was 5
100000. Careful estimates reach
conclusion that ninety-seven per ce
of the inmates of the penal and chart
BILE institutions of the State were brous
there directly or indirectly through
use of strong drink.
The following significant facts W
lately submitted by the clerk of the {
cult court of Edwards county, Illinoi
There has not been a licensed
loon in this county for over twenty-i
years. During that time our Jail
not averaged an occupant. This CO.
ty never sent but one person to the p
itentiary, and that man was sent up
killing his wife while drunk, on whi'
obtained from a licensed saloon in
adjoining county. We have but v
few paupers in our poor house. Sol
times only three or four. Our ia
are thirty-two per cent. lower than t
are in adjoining counties where salo
are licensed. Our people are prosper