New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-02-29
written for the Review
Effects of Stimulants and Narcotics
on the Human System.
XI.

i25. Cost OF ALCOHOL. - continued)
| According to the internal revenue re-
| ports, the production of distilled spirits
in 1870 amounted to about 100000 600
gallons. DR.. Hargreaves is we'll aware
of the fact that about one-half Of tliis
quantity was alcohol used for mechan-
ical purposes. But it would be really
too bad to have so respectable a figure
diminished to about one-half in consid-
Grafton of a fact too we'll known to be
| concealed. 1t is absolutely necessary,
therefore, to obtain about 35,00O,0OO
gallons over and above all statistics, as
an offsetto the alcohol used for mechan-
ical purposes. DR.. Hargreaves is
equal to the occasion. He estimates
that ten per cent. Of water is put by
| dealers into domestic and imported
liquors sold at 10 cents a glass. He
further estimates that 13,000,O00 gal
Ions Of domestic and imported liquors
were not reported Adding 100000
gallons of water to these 10000 900
gallons and assuming as self-evident
| that 100000 gallons of domestic
wines were not reported, we obtain
about 35,000.O0O gallons not included
in the report. and are, therefore, fully
justified in making no deduction for the
alcohol used for mechanical purposes.
To so capacious an intellect as that
of DR.. Hargreaves, it appears self-evi-
| dent that in the ''three-cent liquor
dens' (page 56) liquor is sold at ten
cents glass. He carefully fixes the
Average price per gallon of distilled
and fermented drinks as follows: Do
mestic liquors, Sc; imported liquors,
$40; wines. SIS; imported beer, So; do
mestic beer, 80 cents. To the 73 mil
lion gallons of domestic spirits he adds
the imported alcoholics and the domes-
tic fermented beverages; multiplying
by each item the above average"
price, he obtains,
Cost of domestic drinks 5000, 10000
Cost of imported drinks. 63,000,000.
Total cost in 1870 ...... .S6l9, 900, 900,
The total value of manufactures of
the U. S. appears from DR.. Hargreaves' S
statistics as follows:
Domestic drinks. ....... 1914, 900, OO0-
All other manufactures 4, 13S, 1926. 442.
Total value of manufact-
ures, 1870 S4, 232, 1926, ,442.
Our mathematician next divides this
total by $619,O00, 1000. The quotient is
6 and 937-thousandths. According to
the Hargreavean arithmetic, this is
nearer than T. The learned gentleman
thus arrives at the following conclu-
sion: "This cost for drinks is nearly
One-sigtb of the value OF the manafact-
ures of the United States in that year,
which was $4, 232, 1926, 49," The read
er will readily see that the amounts COM
pared are of different denominations. In
one, the dollar includes the profit of sol
percent.;in the other, it represents manu-.
facturers' cost price. If the comparison
is fairly and correctly made on the basis
of the figures given by our authority,
the result will be far different Deduct
ing that peculiar profit of 591 per cent.
from the 63 million dollars at which
imported drinks are said to have been
sold at retail, the cost price of import
ed alcoholics is found to be several hun
dred thousand dollars less than eleven
millions. Adding II millions to 81
millions, the cost price of all alco-
holics produced and imported by the
nation in 1870, is 1O5 million dollars, or
only one-fortieth of the total cost price
of manufactures for that year, instead
of zone sixth AS rule, the brain
of an ass cannot be compared with the
liver of a goose.
It should be borne in mind that neither
the quantity produced nor the quantity
taxed in any one year is equal to the
quantity consumed in that year. The
production of distilled liquors was ex-
ceptionally large in 1870, as is shown
by the statistics of the preceding and
following years. According to DR..
Hargreaves, the product of distilled
spirits as given by the internal reve-
nue. report for the next year, 1871, was
than in 1870. AS Dl. Hargreaves as
sumes that the amount produced in 1870
equaled the amount consumed that
year, it would seem that the same rule
should hold true for 1871 In this case,
according to our authority's own fig
ures, the bill for distilled drinks should
be l6 million times So, or 100000, 900,
Tess in 1871 than in 1870. In regard
to domestic fermented drinks and i'm
ported alcoholics, the variation between
the two years is but slight as compared
with this sum, all the more so because
it is mainly due to an increase in the
production of beer, of which, at the
! given prices, y gallons are required
to offset one gallon Of domestic spirits.
/ am far exceeding the truth if | place
the entire offset from all possible
sources at S27, 100000, Subtracting
this from $96, 100000, there remains, &C
cording to DR.. Hargreayes's own meth.
ods, an absolute reduction of the drink
bill by at least 500, 100000, and the en-
tire amount, therefore, cannot exceed
$3.50. .0O0,0C for 1871.
| But DR.. Hargreaves cannot suffer the
drink bill, which he has swelled to 61t
million dollars for 1870, to go down tx
$50 millions in 1871. He is struggling
for recognition as an authority on th
subject, and his case would be a hope
less one if he could not show an in
crease of say ten per cent over the pre-
vions wear. With his own figures an,