The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-10-05


Labor-Totai Cost of Liquor Business.
The following article is an EXCERPT from
an address delivered by DIR. swallow at
National Park, y. j.. on Labor Day, Sep.
tember 5, 1904:
Abstinence from intoxicants the use OF
OF which as beverage has never helped
one human being, but has ruined millions.
Tor time and eternity, would go far toward
adjusting the difference between labor and
capital
We now crave YOUR Indulgence while
we present few figures culed from the
National Bureau of Statistics at Washing
ton, showing the part that intoxicants play
in the degradation OF labor. We think it,
demonstrates the fact that labors greatest
enemy is the Governmcnt-sharing and Gov
ernment-protecting liquor traffic.
In the manufacture and sale of lduor,
less money is paid for labor in proportion
to the cost to the consumer, than in the
manufacture and sale of any other COM
modify.
If a laboring man buys 500 worth Of
boots and shoes. he buys SPOIL of labor
In buying 800 worth of furniture he
buys S2377 of labor.
In every 800 worth of hardware he buys
S24.l7 of labor.
In every 800 worth of clothing he buys
Sl7.42 of labor.
In every 800 worth of cotton goods he
buys Sl89l of labor
In every 500 worth of mems furnishing
goods he buys sls.34 of labor.
In every 500 worth of worsted goods he
buys $l3.55 of labor
In every 500 worth of wooden goods he
buvs $l2.6S of labor.
In every 500 worth of liquors he buys
Sl,23 of labor.
If eight laboring men spend $500 for
furniture, hardware, clothing cotton.
ta1 nd IL, q. e..
nlshing goods, they contribute sl47.43 to
labor. and at the same time they bring
valuable supplies to their families. thev
stimulate business and add to the demand
for labor
If the $500 is spent in the saloon onlv
1884 goes for labor, the families are made
wretched, and the men themselves are
made worse physically financially and
morally, their jobs are imperiled and they
have wasted their money. Liquor is labor's
worst enemy.
We quote from Rev James IT, Mohorter
OF Massachusetts, the following paragraph:
For every 81 we receive from the liquor
business we lose Sl650. This is the kind
of economy for which the license parties
stand The loss from the saloon business
Is about as follows: Loss from drunken
ness Is estimated at 30 per cent. of the
cost of liquor; loss to sober men, 8 per
cent; loss IN pauperism. | per cent; loss
III insanity ana ulsaDlllty, 30 per cent
in sickness, II per cent; labor OF liquor
makers, 40 per cent; total 1855 per cent.
Thus the indirect cost foots up about l45.5
per cent. of the direct cost. The direct
cost in 1900 was 81 l72 493, 900. This gives
"a the actual cost OF the Nations liquor
business for 1900 the enormous sum of
S2,S04 ,95S 900. The revenue from the traffic
for the same year amounted to 500 900 900,
or just 81 out of every $3.50 cents of the
cost. If this is not business stupidity. will
not some one tell us what is? In 1900 the
city of Boston received sl.o00,000 from the
liquor business, but it paid 1000 900 to
maintain courts, police, hospitals and to
sustain its paupers. Why do we practice
such financial folly? In our attempts to
remedy the saloon i'll by the license we get
the worst of the bargain.
In government where the people rule,
a majority of them have a right to dissolve
the partnership existing between the Gov.
ernment-that is, themselves-and the
liquor traffic. They have a right further,
to prohibit the manufacture, sale, impor.
tation and expectation OF all intoxicants
ior beverage purposes.