Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-10-25
Some Temperance Statistics.

The New York Tribune, in recent srti-
Gle on "The Size of the Temperance Ques-
tion," gives the following statistics which
are not only interesting, but they will at
tract the attention of thinking people, "Di-
rectly and indirectly this country spends in
the liquor traffic every year a sum exceeding
half the national debt. The cost Of that
traffic to the country, direct and indirect, is
greater than the profits Of all its capital not
invested in real estate. 1t costs every year
more than our whole civil service, our army,
our navy, our congress, including the river
and harbor and the pensions bills, our waste
full local governments, and all national,
state, county, and local debts, besides all the
schools in the country. In fact, this nation
pays more for liquor than for every function
Of every kind of government How is a
question of that size to be put aside with a
sneer As these statements may seem sur
prising to those who have not looked into
the matter, few figures may be of service.
A glass of beer costs the consumer five
cents, and there are at least twenty in the
gallon, and $40 in the BARREL so that beer
retails at about s32 a barrel, while ale costs
still more. The consumption of beer and
ale last year was about 100000 barrels
cost to consumers about S0,000,000. The
cheapest kind of liquor used, ordinary whis-
key, is rarely sold at five cents and aver
ages at least seven cents drink at half
gill to the "horn," this makes Si4S per
gallon. The consumption last year was
about 100000 gallons cost to consumers
about S313,000,000. Adding wines, there is
certainly spent for drink more than $780,
100000, and the entire sum raised by taxes
of all kinds, national, state, county, city,
town and school district, is stated on author
ity of the census bureau to be not more than
about $700,000000. But the cost of the
liquor drunk is not by any means the whole
cost of the liquor traffic. The official report,
prepared with much labor by the bureau of
| statistics of Massachusetts, under authority
| from the legislature, states that eighty-four
per cent of all the crime and criminal ex-
penses in that state comes directly from the
abuse of liquor. There are at least one in
! twenty of the able-bodied men in this coun-
| try who are rendered idle by their habits or
incapactated for work, and these persons,
| at the ordinary wages of working men,
would earn, if industrious and fairly en-
| ployed over 5000, 100000 yearly. The pro.
portion of persons in hospitals who reach
them because of excess of drink is very
large, but cannot be definitely ascertained.
A traffic that costs in actual payment and
| in loss of productive labor more than half
| the national debt every year is not to be ig-
| nored by the economist. 1t may be assumed
that the entire wealth of the country has
risen from $50 000,000,000 in 1870 to $780,
| 900 100000 in 1880, about one-half being In
real estate Probably it does not average
profits exceeding four per cent yearly, TAX
ing bad investments with good, but at that
| rate the yearly interest on all personal prop
erty of all kinds is only 81 900, 100000, and