Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-04-02
The Liquor Business.

The quantity of intoxicating liquors
annually produced in the United
States, and for the most part consum-
ed by the people as beverage, added
to the large importations of such
liquors of various kinds from other
countries, constitutes the continuous
supply out of which arises a larger
evil to the community than from any
other single cause, and, perhaps, than
from all other causes put together. 1t
amounts to hundreds of millions of
gallons annually produced, and, for the
most part, annually consumed as bev-
erage. The production is immense,
and the consumption keeps pace with
it.
By the liquor business we mean the
capital and labor employed, not only
in the manufacture of these liquors,
but also in their distribution among
consumers by wholesale and retail
dealers. The production is business,
and the sale is O business, each de-
manding capital and labor; and the
two together constitute the liquor bus
mess. AS a business, in each form,
it demands large amount Of capital,
and gives employment to great many
laborers, while it furnishes a market
for portion of the products of the
farmer 1t supplies demand, and.
like every other business, is pursued
for the sake Of profit, and yields a profit
to those who pursue it. Thousands
of families get their living out of this
business: and some manufacturers and
some dealers accumulate large fortunes
from its profits The men who pursue
it are not necessarily knaves and rogues.
Many of them may be as honorable in
their business transactions as any
other class of persons
Why, then, should any body select
the liquor business for special condem-
nation and attack? Why should law
interpose its power and put the busi-
ness under special restrictions not ap-
piled to the silk business, or any other
kind of business2 Why not let men
manufacture and sell intoxicating
liquors under no restraint other than
that which is applied to all other forms
of industry, giving them the usual pro
lection, and holding them to the usual
responsibilities of law, but not placing
any special hindrance in their way, or
any special mark upon their business!
There is but one answer to these ques-
tions; and that we regard as all sutli-
cient. The plain matter of fact IS that
the liquor business, in the article pro
duced and dealt in and consumed, is
an enormous curse to the general COM
munity. Its record in the result there
of is expressed in two words-woe and
crime-and that, too, on scale so vast
and various, that thought, in the effort
to fix its measure, staggers under tie
load. The evils of the business to
to human society are simply incalcula-
BILE; and these evils are connected with
no adequate offset in the way Uf com
pensatDg benefits. The business
steadily supplies the material which
the liquor consumers of the land use,
and, through this use, produces a long
and dreadful catalogue of evils. The
manufacture and sale of intoxicating
liquors, and their common use as a
beverage, are connected together IN
the relation of cause and effect. The
one leads to the other. This ls the
fact, as everybony knows.
How shall these evils be prevented !
One method, and certainly a good one
so far as it goes, is by moral suasion,
addressed to those who are in the habit
of using intoxicating liquors. If these
persons would all abandon the habit
the demand would cease, except for
mechanical, chemical and medicinal
purposes, and consequently the supply
would cease, except for these purposes.
But, unfortunately, the remedy by
simple moral suasion is not strong
| enough to do the work on a scale at al
equal to the magnitude of the evil
All experience shows that mere preach
ing and writing against intemperanc'
is not sufficient to reform the drinking
habits of the people and shut up th'
grog-shops of the land. We believe IL
such preaching and in such writing
but the work to be done is too great tt
be accomplished by either, or both pu
together.
1t is hence necessary for society, il
it's organized and political character
acting through the agency of law, t
employ the element of legal suasion
and attack the evil in the cause whic
furnishes the temptation and the faciI
ity. The cause is the liquor busines: