The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-05-14
CRIME. WAR AND DRINK.

y
the current monthlies. I'VE spent on
account of war about $300.Oo0.000. To
meet the losses and expenditures of
crime. we expended more than 5000, 000,-
600. Our drink bill during the twelve
months amounted to the monstrous
sum of 1900. 900. Cast up together
we have here an annual expenditure of
more than $1,000, 100000 all of which is
as wholly lost as though it were poured
into the sea. Our drink bill was nearly
as much as our total exports. 1t was
more than the total production of
wheat and corn. 1t was more than the
sum total of all the gold in the coun-
try. The marvel is that our country
and our countrymen can exist at all in
the face of such gigantic losses as
these"
And here we find curious confound-
ing of moral and economic questions.
Nothing would be wider from the truth,
says the Kansas City Journal. than the
belief that money expended for war,
on account of crime or in the purchase
of drink is material loss to the cour-
trv The mere statement OF the totai
20 nroof enough that these sums arr
not taken from the resources OF TN
country for it is obvious that no such
snm as s.. O0o, 900, 900 could be lost eacn
year in the economy of our existence
without bringing everybody TO ruin.
The Journal says that the expenol-
+,ra of money on war, crime or drink
10 in an economical sense, no more
than taking something from one dlvl-
sion of the population and giving 1t TO
another. The money paid for drink,
for example. filters through thousands
of hands. many Of them undeservins,
NO doubt. but it does not leave the
conntrv. and is not lost from the total
of our assets. From the economic
the production and sale OF
liouor is no more to be demonstrated
INTO a dead loss than is the production
Of sugar. -.
We are not saying, however, tna'
there is no economic Phase 10 the
drinking of liquor. Anything which re
1uces the strength of an individual In
his productive capacity is pouno -
have a bad effect on the material Wei
fare of the whole. The vast quantities
Of earnings which daily are swallowed
up in the vortex of drink have peen'
diverted largely from the support g
families. It is notorious That most Oh
the money spent for drink comes from
those least able to pay. and that py
drinking they are rendered even more
inefficient. And in this sense the ques-
ton of intemperance is profounoiy
one.
while we may not agree with our
writer in this foolish view that money
spent for war, on crime or fJr llduo.
;s aas wholly lost as though 1t were
noured into the seas we may at least
appreciate some of his statistics. For
example, his showing that crime cos.
the United states a round 5000, 900, 900
every year is cfsdeepest Interest. he
tells us that no less than 25e,0Oo peo-5
pie in the United States are making
their living by criminal practices. Eacn
takes. on the average, 800 worth OF
property, making an aggregate OF S4oo'-
Doe. 900. of which honest people are
despoiled To this he adds s290,0 ooo
expended In maintaining prisons, orer-
ating courts and maintaining the po-
ice and other guardians. But, strange
" enough, he overlooks another Gle
ment of cost which would swell the to-
tai expense on account Of crime by per-
haps hundreds OF millions. This Is
the vast expenditure which is met by
the private citizen in buying safes.
,trongboxes, locks and other Tarapher-
MALTA for the protection of his property
If we could reach an absolutely ideal
existence, and abolish every species of
crime, the total saving would be near
>r 81, 000, 0o0, 900 per annum than $780,
VOC, 900. At the same time the safe
makers, locksmiths. police, jailers, ct al,
would be minus their jobs and compel
ng for a living with the rest of us.