The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-12-26
Nemperanre.
The Philosophy Of Liquor.

WESTERN contemporary, referring TO
the liquor dealers manifesto issued dur
ing the recent campaign in Ohio, says
"It is one of the most curious documents
ever put in print, and is calculated to COM
pletely reverse ones ideas as TO what really
constitutes the wealth of nations. We
had supposed that to make a people rich
and prosperous it was necessary first to
take something from the soil, aud then
to dig or cut down something, and then to
increase the value OF that something by
changing its form. Thus pound of iron,
worth cent or such matter, by going
through the various processes necessary
to convert it into watch springs, becomes
worth some thousands of dollars, the diff.
ference between the original cost of the
iron and the springs representing the
labor and profits that have been added.
And, moreover, we were laboring under
the delusion that the royal road to wealth
was to earn 81 day and live upon $3.50,
and save the other fifty cents, that that
might accumulate, and, when it had
grown to sufficient proportions, earn some
thing. Following out this theory it would
seem that sobriety would be an important
factor in the accumulation of wealth, it
having been heretofore held that money
spent in unnecessary Injuries was wasted,
and that to properly labor, much less to
do business there could not be too much
sobriety. And likewise the delusion has
always obtained that no man was worth a
cent to community who did not produce
something. The gambler rents rooms
and eats and wears, but as he filches what
he eats from his neighbors he has always
been regarded not as an advantage to a
community, but rather as a nuisance, as
it were. Some kinds of business make a
profit from him, but his location in city
is not to be desired. He tolls not, neither
does he spin, but he eats, and he is loss
to community by Just as much as he
consumes. All these old.time theories the
manifesto of the brewers rudely reverses.
They assert that the proper way for PEG.
pie to get rich is to have so many brew
cries in full blast, and to have so many
able-bodied men to sell their product, and
the entire population swallow this beer
and pay about four hundred per cent
profit on it. They would not have the
drinker cease his work entirely, for if he
did not work he could not pay for beer
but they would have him spend for beer
every cent above the commonest possible
subsistence for himself and children. The
brewers may deny that this is the Logical
sequence of their proposition, but denia
avails nothing in the face of facts. They
know that when a laborer has acquired
the habit of swallowing their product hi:
wages go therefor, that the wives anc
families of those who tarry long at theil
pine tables are not as we'll clothed, as wei
fed or as well housed as those who Civ,
them wide berth. This is a rule t
which there are, of course, few excep
tions. The brewers do give employment
to coopers, to harness. makers, copper
smiths and various other trades, for the
horses cannot pull without harness, no
can they send out beer without casks
, Likewise they do corral great deal o
money, which is natural, as they have
; first mortgage and preferred bond upo
the stomach of every man who ha
acquired liking for their liver.congestin
j beverage. But what avails this accumu
lation of money in the hands of the brew
ers and their beer-sellers, if the result o
their trade is beneficial only to them
selves? The dry.goods man is injured
for the money that would be expended il
the dressing of wives and children
swallowed up in the rapacious NAV O
the beer-seller's till. The shoe men ar
/, hurt, and SO are the bakers, the butchers
the tailors, the masons and the carpenters
The half-boozy man in beer saloon ism
building house for his family, nor is h
buying the comforts of life extravagantly
3 He has tape worm in his stomach whic
t demands everything, and generally gets i
: And then, what avails city to have bus
9 ness on one hand and taxes on the other
r Population is great thing, but suppos
5 that certain percentage of that populi
. ton is in the jails and infirmaries? Whs
good is a population that requires q
army of police to care for it, and whic
y calls for the intervention of judges an
); juries and all these expensive Injuries
7 What good to rent room for salool
! and be compelled to pay that rent to tn
. support of pauperism and the caring fo
criminals made by the saloon? This sol
of 6nanciering is akin to that of takin
money out of one pocket and putting
in the other-with leak in the othe
The less rum in community, the mol
wealthy the. community. No wealth wa
ever made by demoralizing mankind {
Supplying mankind. You don't e
something for nothing, and beer an
-. whisky swallowed is worse than nothing
The beer brewers will have to try sgai
before they convince the public that the
/ business is so important to the world 6
n to require the protecting care of gres
r. party. 1t will take great many man
!. a festos to convince us that the trade, &
5, was slavery, is an absolutely holy instit1
ton to which all men must doff their hat
, and the propriety of which must not /
) questioned. Everybody has something
do with it, and great many people al
making it their especial business this fall
PROHIBITION is good cause, but pr