The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1891-09-07
OMEN To MEMO.
)IToR BULLETIN -

EDITOR BULLETIN
Memo having finished his quota
tiOns | wish to finish my reply, by
taking up the financial side of his
argument. Memo tells us that sa-
loon keepers, brewers, ETC., pay over
SIS 10000 into the United States
treasury and that this not only pays
for the "keep" of all the criminals,
paupers and insane persons, made 50
by liquor, but that it leaves wide
margin. Whenever | read of or hear
liquor dealer telling how they aid
the government by their license fees,
duties on liquors, etc, | am always
reminded of comparison made by
j. B. Finch. He says, in substance
the liquor dealer is like leech.
A man take3 leech, makes a scratch
on his own body and then puts the
leech on the scratch. 1t at once
fastens itself to him and soon sucks
its fill of blood. He then takes the
leech and squeezing out few drops
of his own blood from its body into
his mouth smiles with contentment
at the thought of how easily and in
expenslN ely it was done.
So it is with this liquor business.
The law makes scratch upon the
body of the people and fastens this
liquor leech upon it. 1t only too
greedily sucks its fill of the money,
and Likelihood of people, and then
when the lawn order to make some
show of decency-squeeZes out a
small fraction of the enormous gains
In the way of duties and r. n,es, we
have liquor men pointing proudly to
the fact that they pay so much to
the government. AS matter of
fact they pay never cent.
The people, usually the laboring
classes, pay the saloon keeper hun
dreds of dollars for every one that
he hands over in taxes on his BUSH
ness. If it were as other businesses,
it would be different, but this
business takes peoples money and
gives them-what? Misery, wretch
edness, loss of respect, happiness
and loss of life. If Memo objects to
this then can only quote to him his
own article where he gives AZ 1877
criminals, paupers and insane per-
sons as the product of this liquor
business in the United States. Every
one knows that those are ridicu-
lousy low figures. But Memo for
gets few things. He tells about
what liquor men give to support
criminals, etc. Who supports the
liquor dealer, his bar-keeper, etc !?
Who pays for his fine homes and pro-
perry? What satisfaction it must
be to know that for the most part it
comes out of the hard earned money
if men whose home are very often
dcns of misery. It's the case of the
leech all over with the addition that
this business takes what was intend
ed for the fattening of pigs, cattle,
etc, and turns it into means of
destruction to men. In The United
States there are over 10000 liquor
establishments. The proprietors
with their employees number about
247 900. This immense army is fed,
clothed and often grows wealthy by
pandering to the low appetites and
vices OF the people. Why don't
Memo quote some paper that will tell
US how many men have been lifted
out of the gutter and restored to
manhood by this liquor traffic? The
answer is easily gwen. The liquor
traffic shoves men down into the
ditch and leaves them there. Memo
talks of paying so many millions of
money into the United States treas
ury, for the keep" of these men.
How much money does he think it
would take to buy back the life of
one victim! How much money would
the liquor men of Honolulu have to
pay for the lives of three or four
able men who have within a short
time died of what is politely called
"Alcoholism' in our hospital? Men
are not beasts to be deprived of all
that is noble and good in them and
then maintained at SO much per head.
Memo tells us nothing of what the
liquor traffic costs the United States.
He says nothing of the cost of
arresting, convicting, ETC., the
victims of drink. In New York
City, from 1889 80 there were 333,-
026 arrests. OF these over $500
were for drunkenness, and crimes
growing dir It Y out of liquor. The
cost to the clty was over Sl3, 600, 900.
In others words in four years it cost
New York Ii,y over S9,750,000 to
take care of the victims of the liquor
traffic. The Chicago Champion"
leading liquor paper, admitted that
nine murders week Is the average
number d r,cty due to whiskey in
the United States for the year 1890.
DO the liquor men pay for these
ONES.
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