The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1885-07-30
TEMPERANCE
WHO FooTs THE BILLY y

Country. and Upon Whom the Burden
Bears Heaviest.
The economic aspect Of the drink and
tobacco waste. already presented in
these columns. show that the direct
burden thus unnecessarily laid upon
labor is something enormous. As al
ready stated it amounts to fully one
sixth Of the entire productive labor of
the United States, SO that the wonder is
not that we occasionally have hard
times, but that we ever have anything
else, When we divide the community
into its representative groups. or units
of commercial relation. we find that we
have four-the agricultural" the
manufacturing, mechanical and min
ing" the personal and professional
services" and the trade and trans
portstion." Attending to these more
minusely we find that the first two
groups furnish the substance of COM
merce, and that the second two groups
derive their support from services rem
dered to them, in the way Of facilitating
the interchange Of products or Of per-
forming certain personal services for
them and for the more prosperous OF
their own members. The proportions
of these groups are nearly as follows:
agricultural, Is; manufacturing, ETC.,
8; personal end professional services,
8; trade and transportation, 4. In the
third group seven Of the eight are in
service or in semi-servile relations and
do not earn to exceed an average of
$500 year; the eighth is q profession
al man whose value we may fully est
mate at 81 900 q year. So, also, in the
fourth group there are three in trade, at
an assumed income Of $500, and one ia
transportation at not to exceed $40O a
year. Whatever there is of necessary
hard times must be traceable in the
condit IN of these elementary relations,
and if the drink and tobacco waste have
any injurious influence upon CONNER
cial prosperity it must be possible to
show how and where. The tables last
presented already do this to some ex-
tent. but largely by inferepce. We
readily admit that tho figures them
selves are not infallible. The grouping
of facts in the census returns are i'm.
perfect, and no doubt the aggregates
are wanting in accuracy. There is nc
reason, however, to suppose that these
imperfections affect one part OF the
conclusions more than another. Some
Of the positions are wholly reliable, es-
pee ally the following:
Upon the average the total annual
production Of the farms will not exceed
S465 per head for each worker. The
wages in manufacturing range from
$3.50 in some lines to $500 In others, the
average for the whole country being
1858. The average consumption o.
farm products is $50 per head for every
man, woman and child, or $3.50 pei
year for every person engaged in wage
earning occupation. The aggregate Of
manufactured products Of all kinds
amounts to an average of 800 head
for every man, woman and child OF the
population. or $500 . year for every
worker. 1t is plain nom the facts al
ready given that certain large classes
of workers do not and can not take and
pay for tier quota Of manufactured
goods. The unused surplus must bt
worked OF as luxury and extrav
agance" by the favored few. or lie In
warehouses as overproduction. w,
may also add that in the present state
Of things t manufacturing operatives
can notexpect an increase, Of wages, fol
the reason that manufacturers are no
making money. These are the essen
tial conditions of the industrial situation
as it:exists
The fatal disturbance which waste
brings into the commercial world is in
tensifed by its equal distribution
Unfortunately it IS quite certain tina
the expenditure for drink and tobacco
amounts to 500 or 1924 per year TO
every man, woman and child in thu
country. This. too, In the face of ,
growing prohibitory sentiment which il
many localities amounts to substantial
unanimity. Twenty dollars q year i
not the drink tax upon the laborer, bu
only third of it, for, since every work
er has two other persons dependen
upon him he has to pay $50 or evel
&72 year for this waste, which if even
~ distributed would be q most burden
some tax but when uneQually dis
tributed becomes ruin. Here, for ex
ample, is the agricultural group which
at the most liberal estimate, can not b
supposed to consume more than half O
It's pro rata Of drink. 1t is in the rlra
communities that abstinence is the rul,
rather than the exception, the farming
class being in fact the sheet anchor o
Temperance reform. 1t is even doubt
full whether the farmers use 50 much q
half.of their pro rata Of drink; bu
whatever amount they may leave, i
must be charged over to the account O
the other classes, the aggregate amour
of the consumption resting upon evi
dence which does not admit of our dis
counting it at all.
We have, therefore, in our tables Of
elementary commercial relation an er
ror in the drink estimate equal to {
half quota for sixteen agriculturalists
which must be added to the consump
tien Of the other classes. Now it is evi
dent that the trade and transportation
class can hardly be expected to d,
more than to drink its average, al
though possibly it might smoke consid
erably beyond the pro rata Drink il
not the vice of this class. One-fourtl
of its members are railway operative
and employees, who upon many road
are abstainers by contract if not upol
nrinninle. The remaining three-fnurth