The Red Cloud chief., 1884-05-17

AZ " oiAoNS pun po'Nc
per annum in :Ee United States are as
follows:
Drink. $500 Goa, 900
Missions, Home and FOrcign........ 4.
Bread. $500 UU
Meat :U3 90, UO
Iron and steel. 2U,Ub,O0
WOOllen goods. 2S1 UU.1 WD
Sawed lumber. 81. UOJ.O 6)
Cotton goods. u 600
Boots and hoe iii. 90 100
Sugar and mOlaSSeS. Ii, ,c0J,U O
Educational purposes. .....-.-.-... 5000. 100
OF the entire list of expenditures for
living the liquor account amounts to
nearly twice rs much as any other item.
1t amounts to nearly twice as much as
bread, three times as much rs meat,
and ten times AS much as education. Ii
is more than the combined cost of bread
and meat. and as much as the combined
items OF bread aud iron, steel. wooden
and cotton goods.
These figures are something so nor
nous Us to invite 3 doubt as to their
correctness. But if any difference,
they are far below what they should be.
One hundred millions more could prop
erly he put on the top of them and they
would still fall below reality.
TIE internal revenue on distilled
spirits in 1888 was S7S, 364, 775; the rate
is 90 cents a gallon; and the quantity
of liquor taxed is, therefore, 81, 6j1, 972
gallons. Some of this, a very small
percentage, was used for scientific and
mechanical purposes, but the most OF it
was drank in the murder factories.
Sold by the glass it would cost the con-
eumer about So Il gallon. The whole
amount, at this rate, would aggregate
S495. 79l, 1882. The same year the tax
on fermented liquors amounted to &c.
900, 6l5, which ut Sl.OO per barrel: rep
resents an equal number OF barrels con-
tanning, at 81 gallons per barrel. $685.
9l9.065 gallons. At five cents a glass,
and II glasses to the gallon, this costs
the consumer S314,35l.439. The i'm
ported liquors, estimated on a similar
basis, cost the consumer at least $780,
0OO,O OO, which brings the total cost up
to more than $500, UOJ 200.
In this estimate no account is taken
of native wines. nor OF liquor, crooked
whisky" and other which escapes tax
alton; nor the dishonest watering of
liquors, all OF which the ragged con
sumner pays for as whisky. But let this
90 to offset that used in the arts and
sciences.
These estimates are all too low. There
are in a gallon of whisky, as they aver
age. 100 drinks instead of 60, and 20
glasses of beer to the gallon instead of
II. and the prices average a long way
above 10 cents. The price of alcoholic
drinks is never below ID cents, and it
runs up all the way to 40. At the bars
in all the sO-called respectable saloons
the price for common varieties of
whisky is ID cents. ard extra qualities
70 to %.
The fact that 1t Is all drawn out of
TIE same barrel makes no difference. 1t
is the label on the bottle that fixes the
price.
1t is perfectly safe to add another
800, 600. 900 to the estimate. and to put
the actual expenditure of the people of
the United States for alcoholic stimu-
lants at n thousand miilionSo Of dollars!
In this there is no account taken of
the direct cost resulting from the use Of
liquors.
Add to it the loss to the country in
the impaired capacity for labor of rum
and beer drinkers.
Add to it the cost Of ninety per cent.
of the courts and police.
Add to it the cost of ever-recurring
riots, like that in Cincinnati. which
would be impossible without rum.
Add to it the cost of Il very large per
cent of the expenditures for insane
asylums, pOOr-hOuses, penitentiaries,
houses of correction and refOrmatOries
of all kinds.
Add To it the cost of the trials or muir
derers and of executions, ninety per
cent. of which is to be carried to this
already enormous account.
Add to it the EOS to the country of
the rotten political rings, all of which
are based upon rum and topped out
by it.
Add to it the cost of maintaining the
hordes of gamblers, thieves. ~outcasts
and in fact the entire criminal class
who are first brought to vice and GRIM
inality by rum, and who afterward de-
pend upon it rs their chief stay.
These additions make an array of
figures entirely beyond human under
standing. and this is only a part of the
money account. Vast as is this there
are other effects that are far beyond it.
Add to this money loss the blighting,
yearly. of the lives of thousands upon
thousands of the best men aud women
of the country.
Add to it the cold hearth stones, the
shOeless women, the rags, squalor and
misery that are inSeparable from rum
and beer.
Add to it the desolate homes, the
h~eart-broken women, the children
reared in ignorance and vice to swell
the account Of panperism in this gen.
GRAFTON. and criminality in the next.
Add to it everyth NJ that is miserable
IN life. everything that is destructive OF
all that is good in man. and some idea
may be formed of the relation rum bears
to the country. The loss liz wealth,
enormous as it is. is the least item in the
accumulated Blade.