The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-01-02
TEMPERANCE.
FROM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT,

FROM A BUSINESS STANDPOINT
What the Establishment of q Grog-ShOP
Means, and What 1t Costs a Commune
ty to Support It-An Appeal to the Bus
iness Mans Pocket.
The establishment of grog-shop in
any community means the taking from
the dry-goods man, the grocer, baker
and butcher. just the amount taken in
daily for whisky. Every five-cent piece
passed across a counter for intoxicaptS
is just that much taken from the bust
ness of those who deal in the neceSsa-
ries of life
The brewers and distillers build mag
nifcent palaces in which to live and do
business, but how is it with their VIC
tins? Do the drinkers of the hell broth
they manufacture build either for them
selves or any one else? Do their VIC
Tins build cottages in which to shelter
themselves, or places in which to trans
act business? Does the money which
flows through the till of the whisky
seller do anything toward up-building
the community in which it is sold?
Does the dry-goods IMAM, the grocer,
the hardware merchant, the bookseller
and newspaper get any patronage from
this class of people? Is not every man
who is made drunkard just one taken
from the class that support by their pa
tronage every decent business?
The moment man gets the appetite
upon him that moment he ceases to be
aproducer and begins to be consumer
only. Not only the luXuries every fam
lily should enjoy, but the necessities of
life are sacrificed to this one appetite.
He is of use to the rumseller, and an
incubus upon everybody else. The men
following respectable occupations lose
him entirely, and what he earns, begS
or steals goes to the support of the one
business that made him what he is.
Every drunkard is a loss to the commu-
nifty not only by what he would earn
were he not drunkard. but the cost of
his maintenance.
And yet the men whose business it is
to debauch humanity, to thus pile bur
dens upon burdens upon the general
public, claim that they have the right to
follow this business, to 60 on and on, to
the end of the chapter, in this horrible
traffic! They claim that their trade,
destructive as it is of everything that is
good in man and valuable in COM
munities, shall be prosecuted mre-
strained by law and uncontrolled by
the public.
The city of Toledo. with a popula-
ton of 0,00O has 500 whisky and beer
shops, to support which the people pay
annually something over three millions
Of dollars! Can you comprehend these
figures! Three millions of dollars taken
from the merchants and mechanics of
the city and sluiced through these hell
holes! Three millions of dollars!
But this sum, enormous as it is, does
not represent the loss to the city occa-
stoned by this traffic. Add to this the
amount of time wasted by the drunk.
ards, add to this the cost of the police
force, of the courts, of charitable insti-
tutions You can keep on adding
figures to this enormous sum till paper
fails you.
All this is taken directly from legiti-
mate trade. Every cent of this would,
were it not for this traffic, be used in
the purchase of other goods in legiti-
mate way. The merchants would sell
more goods, and get their money for
them, houses would be of better class
and rents would be paid promptly,
school children would be more comfort
ably clothed, half the police force could
be discharged Immediately, the infirma-
ries could be almost closed, and the
criminal courts would have nothing to
do. The business man should remem-
Der that the taxes for the maintenance
of these costly Injuries come directly
upon him.
As it is in Toledo so it is everywhere,
proportionately Rum and beer make
an item of expense which mounts up
far above all the other expenditures of
life combined.
In this indictment of the liquor inter
est we have not touched upon the crime
and misery it produces, only the cost Of
ii. We have simply made an appeal to
the pocket. The cost of it is enough, or
should be, to enlist every business man
in the crusade against it. Every man
who is prosecuting a legitimate bust
ness, every man who has a dollar in
vested in legitimate business, should
no more refuse to aid in destroying this
absorbent of capital and labor than he
should neglect insurance. - Toledo
Blade.