Omaha daily bee., 1899-06-25
DRINK EVIL GROWING LESS.
Results of an investigation Covering
a Period of Five Years.
Philadnlnhia PrnSa

|
A strong committee of fifty men. headed
| by President Seth Low, with abundan
means, about five years ago set about the
systematic study of the liquor traffic in thi!
country, and a volume just published by
| them on the Economic Aspects of the
| Liquor Problem" contains the cheering dec
| laratton that IF we look at the consump-
| tion of liquor for a series of years we find
| marked decline in the more alcoholic va.
rieties."
Drinking spirits is decreasing. 'HOur
| progress has been in the direction of moder-
| alton" Since 1910 malt liquors have been
substituted for spirits. Where each person
| once used, on the average, 1852 gallons Of
spirits year in this country, now the aver
age is only /. This means that 1000 900
people today drink only 3O,OOO,OOO more gal
Ions of spirits than were drunk by 1900
900 in 1910.
Powerful economic forces" says this
authoritative report, almost compel mod
Grafton in modern industry" The Provi-
dence to which our ancestors used to rely
as watching over drunken men in days
of simpler tools has to be supplemented
now by personal sobriety in men face to face
with modern machinery. Out of 6,796 en-
ployers, mostly corporations, to whom the
question was put, 5,363 looked up the drink
ing habits of their employees, and three
quarters, or all but 1874, prohibited drink
iEg. Every year sees this industrial pres
sure for temperance grow.
The drink bill is big here, but not as big
as elsewhere. The total product of all
kinds OF liquors in 1890 was $2S7,775, ,639, of
which S1S2, 775, 500 was malt i,197, 1850 dis
titled and s2,S46,14S yinous. The United
Kingdom in 1890 consumed of spirits 3S,-
100000 gallons or exactly the one gallon
per head per year as in this country; but
the consumption is not decreasing there
The consumption of beer in England, how
ever was thirty gallons per head. Here 1t
is but fifteen. On the other hand, our con-
sumption OF beer has doubled in twenty
years. Great Britain's has slightly fallen.
Today with twice the population, our yearly
draught Of beer is almost exactly equal
to Englands, each person here drinking
half what is drunk there, So the United
Kingdom has its drinking place to every
230 people, Here there Is one to every
800. But the number is large enough
here. In all, the liquor tranc keeps 364-
900 persons busy and supports 100, 900 per,
sons.
But the investigation made on behalf
OF the committee by Mr.. John Koren, and
now published, has its chief interest from
the light II throws on the effect OF liauor
in causing paupersm OF floating vagrants
and persons accidentally needing aid, such
as are helped by the charity organization
societies, quarter come from drink and
81 per cent three out Of eight, of those in
the poorhouse. or the male paupers half
walk to the poorhouse through the saloon
door, and OF the women but a sixth TAX
ing lS4O2 conyicts, half reach for the key
OF their prison cells by first reaching for
drink.
II the drink evil grows less 1t is still
large enough to call for every effort TO re-
press IT, and this report points out that
this can only be done by providing in the
coffee house the socisl wants met by the
saloon. This and hieh license Will make
the American sober people. and NC now
yearly grow more sober.