Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-11-18
TEMPERANCE COLUMN.
EDITED BY JoNEsBoRo W. c. T. U.
The W. IT. o. meets every Tbursdav
100000 FOR BEER.

Inc people OF this country pay Eng
land $4,000, 900 annually in cold cash,
for the privilege of getting drunk. Fol
this vast sum of money we receive not
a dollar in benefit, but in addition we
throw away millions upon millions
more, slaughter our children, debauch
our mothers and damn our souls. 1t
was in 1888 that English capitalists
perceived their opportunity to harvest a
''mulct" tax from American debauch-
cry. Accordingly syndicates were or
g~anized in London, the principal ones
being the City of London Contract cor.
poration, the Executors's Trustees cor
poration and the London Debenture
corporation. These corporations, oper-
ating in harmony and practically one
corporation, sent agents to America to
buy breweries and organize a series of
American corporations, each of which
was placed in charge of several of the
purchased breweries. Thus was the
English syndicate organized. Now it
own "a American breweries which It
has turned over to twenty four Ameri-
can corporations organized for the pur.
pose, of which the English capitalists
our the stock. The breweries purchased
comprise nearly one half the brewing
capacity of all the breweries in the
United States.
The issue of The Brewers Journal of
September l, gave a complete list of all
these purchased institutions as we'll as
of the newly organized corporations,
the capital stock, dividends declared
and information of vital interest to
voters who are studying the issues of
this campaign. The figures given as
the amount of dividends are only APP
proximate. They are computed on all
the stock as we'll as the bonds. Some
of the ordinary stock, perhaps, paid nc
dividend, but on the other hand nc
computations are made on the stock O,
many breweries which paid no diyi
dends, but which, at the same time
paid interest on their bonds, which
amounts do not appear in the figures
1t is therefore likely that the total Of
nearly 100000 0 paid these English
syndicates in dividends will fall con-
slderably short of the amount actually
paid. OF course these statistics do not
include any amounts that English cap.
italists have invested in American dis.
tilleries or wine production. Neither
do they take into consideration the
London syndicate organized to buy all
the leading saloons of Chicago and
which did purchase O large number.
This $4,000, 900 is simply the tribute we
pay England for the privilege of drink
ing beer.-New York Voice.
What is the cure? Who knowsY That
in a new and rich country like this
should be one willing man asking for
work and not able to get it is an in
dictment of our industrial conditions.
But what shall we say of these coudi-
lions when every city in the United
States has always with its contingent
oil men existing in enforced idleness on
the edge of starvation? And many of
these men stand for hungry women
and children as well.
There is something wrong at the bot
tom of things when our civilization
yields such pitiable results. In our
politics we wrangle and grow excited
over the tariff and the currency, which
possesses Importance certainly, but
they are mere wavelets on the surface.
No man with a heart can think of
the poverty cursed crowd that suffers
wherever a city grows without suffer.
ing in sympathy and confessing that
the social machinery needs mending.
1t works excellently for the we'll to do,
but it tortures the unlucky and the
less capable, who are punished for their
want OF capacity as if it were a hide.
u crime.
While we have poverty there will al
ways be justification for the appear
ance of the social reformers-the man
SO constituted by nature that the mis-.
cry OF others hurts as If it were his
own. And our fashion is to stone the
reformer and call him evil names, aud
cry out for his crucifixion. Yet it is
TO the social reformer that we must
look for the remedy, if poverty is to
be cured or even greatly alleviated. II
we trust optimistically to evolution as
the ultimate solvent of the problem,