Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-05-09
OUR DRINKING HABITS.
Some Liquor Statistics of the Past FIT
ty Years.

OF the small vices of Americans-if con-
sumption of spirits or tobacco is vice
are given in the Statistical Abstract
of the United States for 1902, which has
just been published by the bureau of
statistics of the treasury department.
The book is entirely composed of rows
and columns of figures, with the proper
explanatory titles, and is wholly with
out ordinary reading matter. But the
stories which the figures tell are many
and varied.
1t is learned, for instance, that
whereas a half a century ago-in 1850,
to be precise, when the first report was
compiled-the American of the times
was satisfied to get through the year
on an average per capita consumption
of 40S gallons of wines and liquors, his
successor of today requires 19.4S gal
Ions This comparison, however, would
not be complete without the further in
formation that in 1850 the American
citizen consumed. take him all around,
223 gallons of distilled spirits-whiSky
and brandy-as against only 1.36 gal
Ions by the American of 1902. 1t is in
malt liquors, beer, that the American
of nowadays has so far outdistanced
| the American of 1850, raising the aver
age from an insignificant 1.5S gallons
| to 11.40 gallons.
! In the matter of wine, the citizen of
the United States has never been
very large consumer In 1850 the per
capita average was but a paltry .27 Of
a gallon, and in 1902 it had risen to only
! SO. Parenthetically, it is noted that
during the last ten years there has
i Ii fol
the quantity of wine imported from
other countries. In 1898 the imports
amounted in value to $10,205,353, while
last year the value was only $S,921, 1873.
Concerning champagne, the figures
show that in 1898 the value of the i'm
ports of champagne amounted to
$5,579,054. and that in 1902 the value
Twas but $4.93076S.
! That American taste in whisky has
undergone a change of recent years is
probably known to those who have an
Interest in such matters. 1t is graphi-
lcally shown in the figures in the Sta
Itistical Abstract. Ten years ago-in
1SY3-the production of Bourbon
whisky in the United States amounted
to 40,S35,S13 gallons, as against 16,702,-
I240 gallons of rye whisky; last year the
production was 20.336,250 gallons of
Bourbon whisky and 21,5S7,221 gallons
of rye.
| 1t is, perhaps, not uninteresting to
know from the same source that to
Illinois belongs the distinction of being
the greatest whisky-m making state in
1.-THE Union. This is no new honor which
has come to Illinois, for she has MAIN
tanned her lead from as far back as the
records go, and well in advance of that
| great whisky state Kentucky. Last
year Illinois produced SO, TAP, SIC gallons
Of distilled spirits, and Kentucky,
which ranked second, 26,019,1 66 gallons.
But, then, the Statistical Abstract
takes no account of whisky which is
made by moonlight, so, after all, Ken
| lucky may have been first.
Just how much tobacco the present.
day American smokes as compared with
the American of the past is not so
easily determined from the figures
given. Duties and taxes are paid on the
Iquantity of the weed imported and
IgrOwn each year. but, of course con-
siderable quantities remain in stock at
all times. In imported tobaccos and
| cigars there has been no appreciable
increase. In 1898 the value of all i'm
portations was $17,61S,546 last year it
was $17715, 493. In tobacco of domestic
growth. however, the increase was, ap-
parently at least, marked. Deducting
the value of the tobacco exported from
the value of the crop grown, there re-
manned in this country in 1902 tobacco
to the value of $53, 591, 261; in 1893 the
value of the crop retained amounted to
s26.S62, 1873.
The American Grocer presents it's
annual estimate of the retail cost of
stimulating beverages from which it
appears that the nations drink bill is
at high water mark. Since 1880 the
use of alcoholic beverages has nearly
doubled, having increased from 1909
| gallons per capita to 19.4S gallons, a
gain of over SO per cent.
The use of milder stimulants has not
4 grown SO fast, that of coffee rising
from SIS pounds per capita to 1897
pounds, a little over So per cent, while
tea dropped from 1.39 pounds to 0.94
pounds, Il decrease of nearly 4S per
cent The supplanting of the milder
for the stronger stimulants does not in
dictate greater national regard for bet
ter social and higher physical condi :
tons.
The total bill of the nation for stimu-
lants in 1902 was $1,369, 09S,276; the
average yearly expenditure for the past
five years, $1,239 10S,955. The record
for 1902 represents a per capita expen-
diture for stimulants of $17.33 for the
1908, 900 inhabitants of the United
States, or Al cents per day. The users
of alcoholic stimulants are estimated
to form one fourth the total population,
on which basis the per capita cost of
alcoholic beverages $69.S2, or 10 cents
per day.
Bringing together into one group the
cost at retail of all beverages, we find
that the United States consumed in
1902 alcoholic and non alcoholic stimu-
lants to the value of 81 369,09S,276, as
follows:
| Dollars.
Alcoholic drinks, S1,l72,565, 13i
Non alcoholic stimulants-
| Coffee, SAG, S91 $50
! Tea 39.G420l1