The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-10-03
TEMPERANCE NOTES.
FIGURES That TALK.
Our National Drink Bill and the Peopis
Who Pay II

"YoE ian not have your cake and eat
1t, too" So reads the immutable law
which we all some time mournfully
learned in childhood. A nation can not
drink its income and have it, too.
What people spend for drink they can
not spend for food, clothing or dwell
ings, books, schools or churches. Ii
man spends 500 year fer drink he
can not spend that S1O0 for clothes for
himself or family, for food or fuel, or
any Of the comforts of life. This is not
. mere abstract argument but a truth
which has awful practical demonstra-
ton in every community. We all know
families utterly wretched because the
husband and father drinks up the earn
ings which might support them in com
fort. The Nation is only a collection OF
families. According to the latest esti-
mates. which have passed unchallenged,
the criticism of those staunch liquor
papers, the Chicago Champion and the
Brewers Journal, the whole Nation is
spending more than Sl,10O, 900, QUO an
nually for intoxicating liquors, and in
creasing the amount at the rate of S5O,-
900, 900 year. BY fair deduction OF
all receipts from State and NatioRaft
taxation of the traffic, it would easily
amount to a clear 81, 900, OOO,0 for
which the Nation receives no return.
If our population is 60,o00,OOO that
amounts to Sl6.66 for every man,
woman and child; at the mill
tary rate of one able-bodied man
for every five persons, that
would give $50 cash loss every year for
every able bodied man in the Nation.
If one-half Of these do not drink, that
will carry the amount which the aver
age drinller wastes up to SlGO annually.
II easily amounts to 500. Few are tho
drinking men who are content with less
than five glasses Of beer day, making
Is cents day and 500 ayear; for men
who drink every other day. got it some
how on Sunday. From their point of
view they must have it. Add in &C.
:asional treats" and 'sprees" and
"whisIlies" at ten to fifteen cents
glass, and you see how easy it is to
Dverrun 500. Now, for the man who
Is earning $500, or even 5000 a year,
think what terrible draft that 500 for
liquor is upon the subsistence of his
family. So is the expenditure of 81, 0OO,-
BOO, 900 terrible draft upon the fami-
lies of the Nation.
Let no man fatter himself that he
docs not have to pay part o. that thou
sand millions because he does not drink
the liquor. If one-half of tho men in
the Nation were to fire off heir wages
In gunpowder as fast as received, would
not the other half have to pay for the
fireworks? Certainly they would, for
they would have TO support the mon
and the families of the men whose
wages had gone up in smoke. 1t is just
the same when wages go down in drink.
This is the greatest cause OF hardship
to the working-men. Far be it from us
to say that all their poverty is caused
by drink. There are thousands sober,
faithful and industrious, toiling with a
devotion that is Sublime to support
themselves and their dear ones amid ill
adjusted social conditions. The drink
ing man is worse rival than the China
man. When he is sober he can do
nearly as good work as another man,
but being always under the harrow he
is glad to work for hand to mouth
wages. So he brings down the wages
of every man who works with him. The
incorporate man does not support his
wife and children. Hence his wife must
60 into the wage-market, to work for
what she can get, and bring prices down
still lower. The sober working-men
must pay for the support of the wives
and children of drunkards, for the ar
rest. trial and convict of drink-crim-
inals, and for the support of their fam
lilies while they are imprisoned, They
must pay, too, for all the idle time and
spoiled goods caused by drink in the
factory, for ell these things increase the
employers Expenses, and are sure to
cut down the workman's wages.
The tradestaen pay their part, too.
We will suppose that at the first four
corners beyond the drinking-man's
home there are four business places.
No. is saloon. No. is grocery, No.
3 dry-goods store, No. a boot and
shoe store. just beyond lives his land
lord. The nottingham receives Sl2 in
wages Saturday night, and starts out to
spend it as follows:
For Groceries NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. &c 90
" Dry-goods. ............ 90
ChlldrenS shoes. .................. 20
% RpOt