The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-01-22
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT.
EDITED BY THE WOMEN IS CHRISTIAN TEN.
PERANCE UNION.
OUR MOTTO FOR GOD AND HOME AND
NATIVE LAND.
THE BUSINESS END OF TT.

country in the movement looking to the
extirpation of the Rum Traffic is some
thing singular. 1t IS to be expected that
a family whose sons have been drawn into
the Rum whirlpool would be active in their
efforts to save their other children and it
is reasonable to expect philanthropists and
lovers of humanity to do what they can
toward killing the one overshadowing vice
of the time, but the business man has a
direct pocket interest in destroying the
Rum traffic which no one else has.
The establishment OF a 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 whiskey. Every five cent piece passed
across the counter for intoxicants is just
that much taken from the business of those
who deal in The necessities of life.
The Brewers and Distillers build mag
nilicent palaces in which to live and do
business, but how is it with their.victims
Do the drinkers of the hell-broth they
manufacture build either for themselves
or any one else ? Do their victims build
cottages in which to shelter themselves, or
places in which to transact business? Does
the money which flows through the till of
the whiskey-seller do anything toward up
building the community in which it is
sold Does the dry-goods man, the grocer
the hardware merchant, the bookseller.
and newspaper men get any patronage
from this class of people? Is not every
man who is made a drunkard just one
taken from the class that support by their
patronage every decent business.
The moment a man gets the appetite
fixed upon him that moment he ceases to
be producer and begins to be a consumer
only. Not only the luxuries every family
should enjoy, but the necessities of life are
sacrificed to this one appetite. He is of
use to the Rum-seller, and an incubus
upon everybody else. The men following
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 community not only by what he
would earn were he not a drunkard, but
the cost Of his maintenance.
And yet the men whose business it is to
debauch humanity to thus pile burdens
upon burdens upon the general public,
claim that they have a right to follow this
business, to go on and on, to the end of the
nhaptar in fbic horr;hlo trof}iof rI,l,axy
claim that their trade, destructive as it is
of everything that is good in man and val
liable in communities, shall he prosecuted
unrestrained by law, and uncontrolled by
the public.
Down in Maine, where they have given
prohibition 80 years. trial, they know all
about this, and the business men, as a rule,
all voted to incorporate prohibition into
the constitution of the state. The retail
ers of the villages do not want Rum to come
in and take from them their trade. They
do not want a restoration of the old times
when the farmers crops went into the
Rum mill, and the mechanics were alb
sorbed by the groggeries. Those who did
uuoiuCoo oV yCdIo dSO. hllOH uHO ullIClCIlCV
in the volume of trade, and the difference
in collections. The money of the work.
ingmen of Maine now goes to the pur-
chase of the necessities and luxuries of
life. The windows of the farm-houses
have now glass in all of them. the fences
are in order, and there is always cash with
which to purchase necessaries. The re-
taller may give credit with certainty of
getting his money, albeit there is bat very
little credit asked, for the people, not
have as a rule, money to pay for what they
want.
IN Portland, the largest city in the State,
the houses formerly occupied as rum shops
are now devoted to legitimate business,
and there are twice as many laborers own
ing their own homes as before. There
are trades followed in Portland which can
not be found in other cities of the same
class, because this eternal and Internal
sucking away of the resources Of the city
money to dress their wives and children
properly, and moreover, they can save
money, now, with which to buy homes for
themselves.
The city of Toledo, with a population of
sc, 200, has 800 whiskey and beershops, to
support which the people pay, annually,
something over THREE MILLIONS OF
DOLLARS! Can you comprehend those
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 oc-
casioned by this traffic. Add to this the
amount of time wasted by the drunkards,
add to this the cost of the police force, of
the courts, of charitable institutions
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 goods in a legitimate 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
comfortably clothed, half the police force
could be discharged Immediately, the in
firmaries could be almost closed and the
criminal courts would have nothing to do
The business man should remember that
the taxes for the maintenance of these
costly luXuries 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 interest
we have not touched upon the crime and
misery it produces, only the cost of 1T. We
have simply made an appeal to the pocket.
The cost is enough, or should be, to enlist
every business man in the crusade against
it. Every man who is prosecuting a legit-
innate business. every man who has dollar
invested in a legitimate business. should