The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-11-24
Money Wasted on Whisky.


The DAILY Report of San Francisco
takes exception to the testimony of Mr..
Med.ll before the Senate Committee on
Education and Labor, and tries to show
that he makes the very common mis-
take of looking at the question of wages
squandered for liquor and tobacco from
one point only. A grog shop organ re-
joicing in the name of the Journal of
Freedom and RaghtS approves the views
of the Daily Report, as might be ex-
pected. 1t says:
He [Mr. Medill1 apparently considers that
all money expended by workingmen for
liquor and tobacco Is lost to them, whereas
that vast sum-say five hundred millions per
annum-dd not leave the ranks of the work
ingmen to any great extent. 1t changed
hands, 1t is true, and perhaps passed through
several Intermediates, as the saloon-keeper
and the distiller, but comparatively little
stuck to either of those gentleman; most of it.
passed straight on until it reached the labor
ers who did the work and the farmers who
sold the corn or barley. Economical.
ly the money is not lost, 1t is merely trans
ferred to other hands.
" a large portion of the money paid by the
laborers for their liquor goes to other labor
ers who raise the hops and the grain from
which these invigorating beverages are made,
and to the distillers, brewers, coopers, dray-
men and others connected more or less di-
rectly with the brewing and dstiery bust
ness"
The San Francisco journal, it will be
seen, does not deny that about $780,
900, 900 of the earnings of the wage
classes go for intoxicants, but contends
that it is not lost, 60 it is merely trans
ferred to other hands''-to the hands of
| the 250, 900 grog-venders of the country,
who are consumers of other products.
The money, it is admitted, "passes
from the workingmen.' 1t is lost to
them, to their wives and families. But
| this $500, 100000 is not all the loss.
While spending the amount the wage
earners spend time, impair health, and
render themselves incapable of effective
and skillful work. Time is also lost in
getting over the effects of the liquid
| poison. This waste of time and energy
and health is sheer loss, not only to the
workinomen, but to the community in
which they live. 1t is not too much to
say that the impairment to health by
the Incorporate use of intoxicants is
fully equivalent to what is spent in
+ money. So that while the apparent loss
to the workingmen is but $500, 100000,
the real loss is double that amount
81, 200, 900, 900!
AS to the return of the money paid
over the bar to other laborers. to
farmers, brewers. etc. Not twenty-five
per cent of it passes from the hands of
the grog-venders. 1t is moderate es-
innate to say that siXty-six per cent of
the misspendings of the wage workers
are absorbed by the Ii Iuor retailers.
There is no other business in which the
retailers profits are so great. These
persons who produce nothing are highly
organized absorbents. They are sponges
that yield nothing. They are droneS in
the social hive who subsist on the honey
gathered by the working bees. They
live off others. They add not one penny
to the public wealth The effect of their
business is to iniure the wealth-pro-
ducers and disable them. The grog-
vendors dispense that which damages
them mentally, and their customers
physically and morally. Their opera
tions result in adding burdens to the
community. If the liquor traffic should
be suspended in this country, the farm
ers might grow less barley, perhaps,
but they would grow more oats, and
raise more cattle, hogs and poultry, and
the workingmen would have more
money to invest in meat and bread,
clothing ard furniture, in building
houses, and in adding to their creature
and social comforts, and thus giving
profitable employment not only to the
farmer and the manufacturer, but to
one another. The brewer and distiller
would invest their capital in productive
business, which would give employment
where there would be no risk of work
ingmen becoming sots and then burdens
on the taxpayers. The amount of corn
employed in the manufacture of whisky
is hardly worthy of consideration. 1t
is not one per cent. of a years CROP
Chicago Iritane.