Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-08-28
ACENsUs REVELATION.
Facts and Figures Arrayed. A gainst the I'm
portation, Production and Useof
Liquors.
From the Catholic World.l

unprofessional writer has shown greater
power of massng facts than Mrs. Eliza
beth Thompson, (author OF Figures OF
Hello They first repel, then attract and
then astound the reader.
The year selected for the statistical
proofs and startling facts of this writer
ended June 30, lSSl-the last year of au-
thenticated federal returns available at the
time the book was written. The totals
would be ten per cent higher for the year
that ended in June, 1850.
In 1881 we (the United States imported
of different liquors i,556 COB gallons. We
manufactured of distilled spirits SO, l2i 206
gallons, and of fernented liquors li3,6il,-
S6S gallons, making total of 5?O,2S56U
gallons of intoxicating liquors that
were imported, manufactured and sold in
the United States IN one year. AS we had
then 81, 900 600 inhabitants, we consumed
O2-5 gallons for every man, woman and
child, or reckoning families as groups OF
five, one gallon each and every week for
each and every family, making three
drinks II day for each and every family.
This estimate leaves out of account all
secretly made or "moOnlight' WHISTLES
and other liquors. Every day we drink
1,425,55O gallonS-2S3l 900 glasses. 50
much for quantity; now for the cash cost
of it.
Our imported liquors retailed for So,
214, 032 ; our home made spirits for 500
3Sl ,6lS our home mode fermented liquors
retaied for $40, 64l SOS, showing that we
paid in one year Tor intoxicating liquors
Sis. 29i ,5lS.
Striking off, to make round numbers,
the eighteen odd millions, and estimating
the population at 5O,OOOOOO, these figures
show that we spend for drink no less than
$l4 for each and every person in the nited
States, so for each and every family, ST.,
967 93S daily, and every second-"every
time the clock ticks as Mrs. Thompson
puts it-S22i6.
The report of the United States commits
sioner of internal revenue shows a coutin-
,fual increase of these figures. For exam
pie, according to the latest, that for the
fiscal year ended June 30, 1854, the total
revenue from distilled spirits amounted to
SIC, !W5, 3S5.26, an increase over 1888 of 81,
536,6lO.O6 From fermented liquors the
receipts for 1884 were SlSOS4,954.ll, an in
crease over 1883 of 81, 1s4,33s.3 30 The total
production of distilled spirits the last fiscal
year was %, 40, I39 gallons, an increase Ov-
er the production OF 1883 of ~ ,43l gal
Ions. The total production of fermented
liquors for the fiscal year 1854 was lS,9SS,-
6l9 BARRELS AN increase over 1888 of l.24O,
~ barrels The number of distilleres
operated during 1881 was t ,13S; the mum
Der of brewers 2,24O.
There are 909,9SO persons, adult males
for the greater part, employed III the man
utacture 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 productive,
that is to say, wealth-producing employ.
ments. They are "A tax on the workers
adding no one element of prosperity to the
commonwealth or the nation. AT the low
wages at which all of them could earn
they would receive for the 300 working
days of the year S2i2 1914 600. Who Can
estimate the loss of permanent wealth that
this aggregate Of wages implies and sug
geSts
The federal statistics show that there
are i'll the United States 100000 persons
daily incapacitated for labor by reason OF
liquor" This number includes the drunk
ards, the insane, the criminals and paup
ers dragged down to these classes by the
direct and recognized influence of using
Intoxicating drinks, At 81 Il day ina yea
of 300 days these 100000 persons, PLACED
hOrS du trUrdU by the drinking habit
could have earned $50, 900 0O0 which, add
ed to the other totals of money cost, ant
the loss of the services of the army of max
ers and sellers, estimating these services
on the wage basis only, amount to the az
gregate OF SLID, POI, 5lS per annuln.
'This vast sum- writes Mrs. ThOmp
son, rs S-3 per capita for every man, won
an and child in the country. 1t is nearl,
equal to our entire gold, silver and pape
circulation combined 1t would build ant
equip 10000 miles of railroad ; pay the cos
of the public schools for fifteen years
erect and maintain 1000 colleges sen,
out and support 100000 missionaries
pay the entire national debt of the country
national, state and municipal, in less THAI
four years construct 600 tirst-cass ocea
steamers erect and maintain $3.50 hosp
tails, libraries or homes for the aged pre-
vide one-third of the people in the Unite
States with homeSteads of 100 acres each
run the postOflice department for THIRTY
four years; support the navy for seventy
five years pay our foreign consular sci
vice for l,'25 years purchase at - ban
rel l6i ,321 ,359 barrels Of flour, and pay tn
salary OF the president of the United State
for %, 42j years.
More than two-fifths of the arrests i
New York city are of persons Intoxicated
or persons "drunk and disorderly.n Uni
ing the figures of these two legal y-sepa
ated o1enses, yet coming from the san
source, the total number of arrests of
quor criminals was 2s,GG9 The toti
number of arrests for all oienses was q!
632. Who pays the expense of supportin
two-lifths of the police force thus emplo
ed, and for two-lifths of the prison accom-
mOdatiOns thus rendered necessary, al
for two-ffths of the costly machinery
justice, otherwise unneeded, that the
quor traffic forces us to maintain TT
liquor manufacturers or importers
wholesale dealers or retailers ? No; IL
laboring classes and the law-abiding 4
rectOrs of industry.
The maudlin or noisy drunkards we
not the only persons in New York wi
were thus lodged in public institutions
the public expense because of the traffic
Intoxicating drinks. No less than l2O 4
''indigent persons" We're forced to ask f
lodgings at the station house. That is
say, IA number during the year that repl
sents one-twelfth of the entire populatio
About 5000 We're men-over $1,000 we
women! Eighty-iive per cent of them Il
mtted that their poverty had come fro
drink. Who paid for the lodgings of the
victims of drink You and IA reader, al