Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-08-01

Facts and Figures Arrayed Against the
Importation, Production and Use OF
LIQUORS.

Liquors.
From the Catholic World.
Since Helpers '1mpending Crisis" no I'M
professional writer has shown q greater power
Of massing facts than Mrs. Elizabeth ThOmp-
son (author Of Figures Of Hell.O They nrst
repel, then attract, then astound the reader.
The year selected for the statistical proofs
and startling facts of this writer ended June
80, 1SS1-the last year Of authenticated fed
eral returns available at the time the book was
written. The totals would be ten per cent
higher for the year that ends in June, 1885.
In 1881 we (the United States) imported OF
different liquors .556, e0s gallons. we manu- manu-
making total Of so s25, e77 gallons Of intox-
tured and sold in the United states in one
year. AS we had then so OOO, 900 inhabitants,
we consumed 10 2-5 gallons for every. man,
groups of Ave, one gallon each and every. week
for each and every family making three drinks
as s ss s9a al
or moonlight" whiskeys and other liquors.
Every day we drink 1,425, $50 galons-2s.-
for the cash cost of 1t.
Our Imported liquors retalled for SCI Pa.
our home made fermented liquors retailed for
year for Intoxicating liquors sis, 597, 51s.
StrlkluR Oh, W MAKE TOuuu uuiuUcESs tuC
eighteen odd millions, and estimating the pop
ulatiOn at $4,000, 900, these figures show that
We spend for drink NO less than $14 for each
and person in the United States S7o for
every secondS"every time the clock ticks, as
Ms 1spo4e nntsa staess
of internal revenue shows continual increase
of these figures. For example, according to the
1884, the total revenue from distilled spirits
amounted to SIC. 9O5. 3s5. 90, an increase over
increase over 1859 Of s1.1s4,3Ss:so The total
production of distilled spirits the last fiscal year
p %ss Of 1855 Of ~ gallons. e the
total production of fermented liquors for the
fiscal year 1884 was ,99s, 6l9 barrels, an in
number Of distilleries operated during 1854
was 4. 7ss; the hen plumber ngd Of brewers, 2'24o 49,,
There are persons &C, adult males for
and sale of liquors in the United States This
IS one to every sixty OF the entire population.
These men, mostly able-bodied, are taken from
employments. They are tax on the workers.
adding no one element of prosperity to the
at which all of them could earn they would
receive for the 300 working days Of the year
1922, 1894, 900. Who can estimate the loss Of
permanent wealth that this aggregate of wages
implies AID suggests?
The federal statistics show that there are in
the United States "6O0, 900 persons daily inca
pacitated for labor by reason Of HquorS This
number includes the drunkards, the insane,
the criminals, and paupers dragged down to
fiuence of using Intoxicating drinks. At 81 a
day in a year Of 300 days these 6OO, 900 persons,
placed hors ds husga by the ed drinking habit
to the other totals OF money cost, and the loss
Of the services of the army of makers and SELL
ers,. estimating these services on the wage
SLIT ,291 ,51S per annum.
This vast sum-" writes Mrs. Thompson, ais
fNrn
in the country. 1t is nearly equal 10 our entire
gold, silver and paper circulation combined.
1t would build and equip 10000 miles of rail-
road; pay the cost OF the public schools for fifteen
years. erect and maintain II, 900 colleges; send
out and support 100000 missionaries; pay
the entire national debt Of the country, national,
state and municipal, in less than four years:
construct 800 frstelass ocean steamers; erect
and maintain 8, $50 hospitals, libraries or homes
the United States with homesteads Of 100 acres
each; run the Post Office department for thirty
four years; support the navy for seventy-fve
1.725 years; purchase at 81 a barrel, 1877 ,327,-
359 barrels OF hour, and pay the salary Of the
President of the United States for 2S,425
years.
More than two ffths Of the arrests in New
York city are of persons Intoxicated" or per-
figures of these two legally separated offences,
yet coming from the same source, the total
number of arrests OF liquor criminals was 2s.-
$50. (The total number of arrests for all Of
lenses was So, 1927 Who pays the expense of
supportsng two-fifths of the police force thus
employed, and for two-fifths Of the prison &C
Communications thus rendered necessary. and
for two.fifths of the costly machinery OF Justice
otherwise unneeded, that the liquor traffic
rers or importers or wholesale dealers or retail
ers? No. the laboriDg classes and the law-abid-
ing directors Of industry.
only persons in NewYOrk who were thus lodged
in public institutions at the public expense, be-
less than 100 8S2 "iDdigQnt
forced to ask for lodgings at the station house.
That Is to say, number, during the year, that
About 5000 were men, over 50, 200 were
women! Eighty-hve per cent of them admitted
that their poverty had come from drink: Who
You and a reader. and the rest of the workers Of
New York. And how much: The cost Of Keep
it must be charged directly to the liquor traff,c
THE cost of the various courts, also writes
Mrs Thompson, made necessary by reason Of
reached the sum of 81 ,OOO.OOO!"
The cost 81 the
lover ninety per cent of it was made necessary
by reason Of the traffic In liquors."
These figures tell only such portion Of the
upon ocia Recognition Not every " i, sin Hsesf
Gated" "drunk and disorderly'' is arrested; not
every person made homeless by Intoxicating
liquors seeks lodging in station houses. Nor
Is any account taken in these estimates of the
loss to society Of the productive services of the
men ana women CuuS lOQgoQ or imprisoned.
Tens Of thousands of drunkards, who do not
seek the retirements that a prison grants are
supported, in demoralizing idleness by honest
workers. who are thus robbed Of the fruit of
their toll.
Ninety-three per cent Of the persons confined
in the house OF industry were sent there for
liquor crimes.
In the New York insane hospitals, out of 2s6
patients, 139 were habitual drunkards, 95 mod
crate drinkers, and total abstainers.
1t Is sometimes argued that we should leave
the liquor traffic alone; that education will
cure all the evils that may come from its unli-
censed sale. But the statistics OF education and
crime do not warrant this hope or belief; for, as
Mrs. Thompson has shown, "within the last
twenty five years our teachers have increased
from twenty-five to thirty per cent, and pupils
attending school more than fifty per cent, yet
crime has increased sixty per cent, about keep
ing pace with the increase Of the traffic in
liquors." That's what the French call a reply,
sans republiQue.
Federal statistics show that twenty per cent
United States went mad as the direct result of
the use OF intoxicating drinks, and that thirty.
five per cent Of the remaining number were
made insane indirectly by the use Of liquors.
The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane
tabulated its records for twenty-eight years.
With what result? 1t was shown that IS 9-1O
of the inmates had been made insane directly
from the use Of intoxicating drinks.
Foreign countries tell the same story. Two
that out Of S3 cases admitted SO were made in
sane by liquor; the second, that out Of 405 pa
tents 1857 were known TO have been made In
sane by drinking" In the Middlesex lunatic
asylum exactly One.half were made insane by
drinking. The tabulated reports Of all the asy-