The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-08-01
TEMPERANCE.
WHO FOOTS THE BILL

OF tho Drink and Tobacco Waste in the
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 lind that we
have four-the agricultural" the
- manufacturing, mechanical and min
ing, the personal and professional
services" and the trade and trans
portation. Attending to these more
infinitely 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, IL; manufacturing, etc,
8; personal and professional services,
8; trade and transportation, 4. In the
third group seven of the eight are in
service or in Semi-seryilc relations and
do not earn to exceed an average of
$500 a year; the eighth is profession
al man whose value we may fully est
mate at 900 year. SO, also, in the
fourth group there are three in trade, at
an assumed income of $500, and one in
transportation at not to exceed S4O0 Il
year. Whatever there is of necessary
hard times must be traccabc in the
condition 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 cX-
tent, but largely by inference. We
readily admit that the 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 no
reason, however, to suppose that these
impcrlections 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 viii not exceed
500 per head for each worker The
wages in manufacturing range from
$3.50 in some lines to $3.50 in Others, the
average for the whole country being
S3jS. The average consumption of
farm products is $50 per head for every
man. woman and child, or $50 per
year for every person engaged in wage
earning occupation. The aggregate of
manufactured products of all kinds
amounts to an average of 500 a head
for every man, woman and child OF the
population, or $500 Il wear for every
worker. 1t is plain from 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 be
worked off as luxury and cXtrav-
agance' by the favored few, or lie in
warehouses as Overproduction. We
may also add that in the present state
of things tie manufacturing operatives
can not expect an increase Of wages. for
the reason that manufacturers are not
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
tensitied by its unequal distribution.
Unfortunately it is quite certain that
the expenditure for drink and tobacco
amounts to $50 or $24 per year for
every man, woman and child in the
country. This, too, in the face of a
growing prohibitory sentiment which in
many localities amounts to substantial
unanimity. Twenty dollars year is
not the drink tax upon the labOrer, but
only a third of it, for, since every work
er has two other persons dependent
upon him he has to pay $50 or even
S72 a year for this waste, which if even
" distributed would be a most burden
some tax but when unequally dis
tributed becomes ruin. Here, for en-
ample, is the agricultural group, which,
at the most liberal estimate, can not be
supposed to consume more than half of
its pro rata of drink 1t is in the rural
communities that abstinence is the rule
rather than the exception, the farming
class beng in fact the sheet anchor of
Temperance reform. 1t is even doubt
full whether the farmers use so much a.
half of their DrO rata of drink. but