West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1883-07-25
SIZE OF THE TEMPERANCE
QUESTION.

1t does no good for men to sheer
at the agitation in regard to the
liquor traffic. The subject is toe
important to be laughed down. 1t
may be that prohibition is not the
right way to settle it, or that
license is not, or that taxation is
not; these are fair questions upon
which a difference Of opinion be-
tween sincere and candid men is
possible. But the subject has be-
come altogether too important to
be ignored, or passed over without
any serious attempt to settle it.
Aside from the law-defying spirit
which it has elected. aside from all
it's moral and religious aspects, the
question considered purely as one
Of dollars and cents, in it's effect
upon the National prosperity and
wealth, is one of the most import
ant that can be named.
Directly 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
profit of all it's 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 Pension bills, our wasteful
local governments, and all Nation
al, State, county and local debts,
besides all the schools in the coun-
try. In fact this Nation pays
more for liquor than for every
function of every kind of govern
ment. How is question of that
size to be put aside with a sheer?
AS these statements may seem
surprising to those who have not
looked into the matter, few fig
ures may be Of service. A glass of
beer costs the customer 5 cents,
and there are at least twenty in
the gallon and GAO in the barrel, SO
that beer retails at $32 barrel,
while it costs still more. The con-
sumption of beer and ale last year
was about 100000 barrels; cost
to consumers about $4S0,00O,000
The cheapest kind Of liquor used,
ordinary whisky, is rarely sold at
5 cents, and averages at least 7
cents a drink; at half q gill to the
"horn," this makes S4,4S per gal
lon. The consumption last year
was about 100000 gallons; cost
to consumers about 1913, 100000.
Adding wines, there is certainly
spent for drink mare than $780,
100000, and the entire sum raised
by taxes of all kinds, National,
State, county, city, town and
school district, is stated on authori-
ty of the Census Bureau to be not
more than about S700,000,000.
But the cost of the liquor drunk
is not by any means the whole cost
of the liquor traffic. An official
report, prepared with much labor
by the Bureau of Statistics of Mas
sachusetts, under an authority
from the Legislature, state 81 per
cent, of all the crimes and criminal
expenses in the State comes direct
ly from the abuse of liquor. There
are at least one in twenty of the
able-bodied men in this country
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 employed,
over s200,000,000 yearly. The pro-
portion of persons, in hospitals
who reach them because of excess
in 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 ignor-
ed by the economist. 1t may be
assumed that the entire wealth of
the country has risen from $780,
000,O00,000 in 1870 to s50,000,O00,-
900 in 1880, about one-half being
in real estate. Probably it does
not average profits exceeding 4 per
cent. yearly, taking bad invest
ments with good, but at that rate
the yearly interest on all personal
| pronnrfy of all kip6c iS op1v O00