The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1901-08-23
It's Relation to Crime and the Waste
of Money.
An Interesting Talk by Capt. RUSSELL
at the Tabernacle Some Start
hing Facts Presented.


The threat ming weather, but his address
was thoroughly entertaining, and he
presented some startling facts bearing
upon his subject.
Capt. RUSSELL said it had been long,
long fight with him against the liquor
traffic, but the outlook was far more en-
couraging now than it was twenty
years ago. The reason the saloon had
been permitted to live so long, was be
cause the people did not know the facts
IN relation to it. Repe ated at empts
had been made to get statistics through
Congress, showing the extent and eff
fects of the traffic, but the whiskey men
had fought it desperately. and in con-e.
quence it had never been done. The
sentiment against the saloon in Colum
bia, he said, was stronger now than it
ever had been; it was Lot a sentiment
of mere temporary ex stence, but it
was a reform that would not die-a re
form that is part and parcel of this
age.
Referring to his experiences as At
torney General in this district for six
teen years, and as practitioner in
the courts before and since that period,
he said that he would not undertake to
tell about the tears he had seen flow, or
the wrecked and ruined families that had
been caused by this terrible traffic The
whiskey traffic, he said, is a social bust
ness not an industry. When a man
spends one dollar for whiskey, he en-
riches the whiskey traffic one dollar and
makes himself one dollar poorer; he doe s
not get value received for his money
The statistics showed that during last
year in the United States, there were
p keg of beer and 1619 gallons of
whiskey used for every man, woman
and child. The saloons employed one
it is conservatively estimated that dur
ing the year twelve huudred million
dollars were expended for drink. The
people who spent that enormous amount
did rot receive one dollar in return: but
the whiskey traffic was made that much
richer. During the same period the
people Of this country expended for
| breau, SJO5, 900, ,000 for meat, S303 000,-
GOO and for sugar and moIasses, Sl55,-
| 600 600, making in the aggregate, 1868,
0O0 600. Subtract this from the Ma
| tons drink bill and we still have left
! $237 100000. The amount spent for
| boots and shoes in this country during
! that period was $l96 000.0 600. Take this
from our balance of $237 900 600 yet we
! find that the money spent for these
necessi les of life did not amount tD as
much as the money spent for whskey
But let us go further While we were
spending 81 POO, ,000, 900 for whiskey, we
! bo
for public education, and s. 800 COX
for missions, aggregating 90,50O,000
Take this from our drink bill
and we find that we spent $l,1O9,
100000 more for whjskey than We
DID to educate our boys anC
girls and enlighten the heather. "Ir
the light Of these figures" said the
speaker, you talk about christian mer
holding their mouths and keeping quiet
1t seems to me sometimes that if
should, the very stones would cry out
And yet am saying nothing about the
men who were ruined and the homes
that were wrecked by this traffic"
! The Legislature has no more right t.
license the saloon than it has to license
a man to keep maddogs. 1t is contrary
to the Constitution of the United States
and contrary to the laws of God. Tht
Constitution does not allow a.y Legis
lature to make laws that are Injurious tt
the public, and that will rob the people
of their health, happiness and pros
perity.
This battle that is now being wageC
against the saloon is not Premature
The time has come for the saloon to go
its terrible effects have been brough
home to US, and we have been made u
feel it in our hearts. 1t is for ou
neighbors' sons and daughters that W,
stand out to-day and make such BATH
as we never made before.
| During the time he served as Attor
ney- General, Capt Fussel said that b.
, ascertained from the books of tn
Whiskey men that during one. year TIN
, amount of money spent for whiskey il
, Columbia was S225 600. lie had takel
the trouble to investigate, and founC
that the cost for criminal prosecution il
Maury county for the year endini
August |, 1901 was IS, 253 II. He esti
mated that 70 per Gent of that amour
was on account of whiskey. The cost
paId by the City of Columbia 70
amount paid the City Marshall an
police was $1,000. Fully 80 per cent. G
the 1913 % was on account of whiske,
while, if the city had been withou
whiskey, the cost paid our peace officer
would have been fully 10 per cent les,
The speaker aid he had talked wit
r. a saloon man who knew, and they est
I mated that there we're seven saloons j
e Columbia that sold during the yea
70 SlJ.COO worth Of whiskey each; the n
4 manning eleven, at low estimate, sol
5 $1,000 worth each, making a total {
n Sl7l,OOO. lncIuuing the eleven saloon
T. at Mt. Pleasant, at an estimate ot$5.A
each, this would make the total amOur
expended for Whiskey in Maury count,
during the year, S2is.OOO. And n
men " who spent thas money did not ri
i ceire one dollar IN return.
b With this amount the people eCuI
p have bGiIt an orphans home wort
s sl- DUr. "a ma' % ti-h school worth slC