The freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1886-18??, 1888-04-18
ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF THE
SALOON.
Bishop s. N. Merrill, IL. D., of the
Methodist Episcopal Church.
From The Chautauquan.

| You request a letter on the eco
nomic effects of the saloon. Truly
a strange topic! What can be
meant by the economic effects Of
the saloon =? sis the first question
that arises. .1
| Two thoughts occur: The first is
the cost of the saloon, and the Sec
ond is the return it makes for its
cost. The proprietor will estimate
the cost by the money invested
He probably sees nothing else in
the business. To his thought it is
a question of dollars and cents, and
he counts his gains as coldly as if
his net profit in cash made up the
whole of the returns. The moral
effects are not in his mind, if, in
deed, he be capable of considering
moral effects. But others than the
proprietor make investments in the
saloon. Every patron puts some
thing into it; all that goes into is
enhances the cost. The cash invest
ment is the gross income. 1t may
be to each saloon only few thous-
ands of dollars; but the cash is the
smallest item in the account. It.
costs precious time, which, who can
estimate? It costs health, char
acter, domestic and social comfort,
industry, business, life. Ask the
despairing wife hose husband has
wrecked his all in the saloon,
the cost of her investment! Ask
the broken hearted mother, whose
darling son has fallen victim to
the enticement of the saloon, and
cast into it fortune and reputation,
and blasted his manhood and his
life, and brought shame and sorrow
to all that loved him, to tell the
value of her investment in the
gilded mockery of trade Nay, go
ask the recording angel to compute
the worth of the souls blotted from
the book of life through the agency
of this horrid traffic, before you
begin to estimate the cost of the
saloon.
What return does this invest
ment yield? To the proprietor,
luxury and gold, with deadened
conscience, degraded life, an i'm
perilled family, and starless night
forever. To the municipality it
turns over a few paltry dollars for
license, or taxes, to pay a small
percentage of the extra costs of
courts, and police, and jails, and
poor-houses caused by the trade. To
the community it returns idleness,
profanity, poverty, quarrelings,
fighting, thefts, robberies, murders,
wretchedness and woe.
The economic effectsW Who
dares to think of dollars in connec-
ton with the saloon? Think
rather of pestilence and famine, of
moral desolation and every evil
thing. He who lives on the in
come of the saloon is a pauper.
He lives at the expense of others
and gives in return nothing that
can help or bless. His trade is
blight. His prosperity entails
want and grief. Count the cost
of the saloon if you can, but count
it not in dollars.
FROM DR.. ]. H. sEELYE, PRESIDENT
OF AMHERST COLLEGE.
In my judgment there can be
no question that the economical
effects of the liquor traffic are most
disastrous. Enormous profits are
undoubtedly made by the liquo,
seller, but his gains, though sc
vast, are outweighed thousand
fold bv the loss which his business
inficts upon the community
The paralysis of industry, the in
crease of pauperism and crime
directly due to the liquor traffic
are the heaviest economic burdent
our modern society bears, greatly
outweighing all the burdens caused
by war or famine or pestilence.
It is clear to me also that the
tax put by the government upor
: the manufacture or sale of intox'
icating liquors, either in excise
or license, is economically unwist
as we'll as officially wrong; for, THU
|