The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1905-02-24
W. C. 7. U. COLUMN.
What it Costc.
HAPPY F. BRANCH.
Edited By Palatka Union.

in a small degree the great needs
The financial depression reached tC
village and hamlet; and it seemed
that there was literally no money in
the United States.
Under these circumstances it was
startling to read the following Off
cial statements: "The drink bill OF
the United States in one year is nine
hundred million dpllars!"
Think of that; nine hundred mill
ions. Not the dollars and cents OF
the wealthy class alone, but of the
poor working man"-many of whom
are and have been for months out of
employment. 1t is enough money to
have kept all the idle factories run
ning-enough to supply all the desti-
tute men, women and children with
the neces stiles and many of the lux
urieS Of life. 1t is more than is paid
for bread, shoes and stockings, pub
lie Schools sugar and mOlasses,
rlergyrlen's salaries, home and for
rign missions combined! If you
should lay these standard silver dol
lars on the ground, edge down, you
would have three rows reaching
from Buffalo TO Chicago. Or, if
piled one above another, they would
make II column which would reach
800 miles into the air; more than
two hundred and fifty times niger
than the highest mountain peak of
the world. Twenty-eight thousand,
two hundred and nincty-three and Il
half times higher than the dizzy
heights TO which the Ferris wheel
carried its many passengers.
Imagine this glittering pile of sill
yer us it towers into the air, the
topmost dollar of which Is far be-
You'd the vision of the naked eye,
and what monument it is. Beau
tifuI, were it raised to commemorate
deeds of charity and love-most
worthy and inspiring if it spoke of
battles for the right. But its story
is far different one. 1t stands a
monument to ruined hopes, darkened
homes, wasted lives and blighted
ambitions. 1t represents more bitter
tears and sad hearts hears than all
the marble monuments in the ''silent
cities" of our land. Is it any wonder,
then, that there is scarcity of money
when such enormous sums are
wasted every year? This is what it
costs in dollars and cents to furnish
the United States with liquor for
one year.
And what does this represent in
the grain of which the liquor is made?
Only this, that five billion pounds
annually are used, or cighty-nine and
one-fourth millions bushels of fifty
six pounds each. If this grain were
put into cars, each car being thirty
four feet in length, it would require
two hundred and forty eight thous
and two hundred and fourteen cars
to carry it, and would make II train
l,579 miles in length Estimating
this grain to be worth fifty cents per
bushel it would sell for $44 ,l25, 600
Go step farther and convert this
grain into flour, and bake it into
loaves of bread; it would require
seven hundred aid fifty bakers, pro-
ducing five hundred loaves each
hour and working ten hours daily
during the whole year To grow the
grain would require field of more
than two million acres.
These figures represent the cost in
dollars and cents; and also in grain +;
what other cost is involved? What
else does the 5000, 100000 spent for
liquor mean?
Just this, that every year it sends
10000 people to drumkardS' graves,
and 2OO.0 more to the pOOrhOuse.
We hear great deal about the
horrors of war and the great loss of
life which it occasions; of the anX-
hnnpts of
who sent fathers and sous to the
battlefield. Our hearts almost stand
still when we read of the great num-
bers who have fallen in battle; but
read this statement, and comprehend
if you can, how worse than war
and pestilence and famine" is this
great evil. "In the territory now
known as the United States there
have been killed during one hun
dred and fifty years in war, six hun
dred thousand persons, yearly aver.
age four thousand. Rum kills (at Il
low estimate) fifty thousand yearly,
or during the past one hundred and
fifty years, seven million five hun
dred thousand. The great wars of
the world for twenty-five years,
from 1852 to 1877, including the
FrancO-German war and our own
Civil War cost fraction over twelve
billion dollars. The cost of intoXi-
cahts for the same period in the
United States was fifteen billion
dollars, or three billion dollars more
than all the wars of the world For
every thousand killed in battle rum
kills twelve and half thousand"
What waste of life! What
sqnandering of manhood and wo-
too, these figures repre-
sent. Imagine such an army, and
what an endless procession it would
make were it to pass your door 1t
Is SAID it requires two million boys
from each generation TO keep the sa.
looms running, or one boy from every
five families; thirty boys from every
little settlement of one hundred and
fifty families! Think of it! No one
can tell with any certainty which
five or which thirty it will be that
will help swell he two million; but
find in any community five boys who
smoke and swear, who are laking in
moral courage and true manhood,
and they are the ones who will have
= better start in the wrong direction
than the others.
In the face of such statistics and
facts it almost seems as though there
is no remedy for the evil. As though
It would be impossible ever to put il
down or eradicate it. Yet the sub
iect of temperance is gaining ground,
surely if slowly, and the next fifty
years will see decrease in these
figures. Public sentiment is being
'Oused, children are being educated
o work and fight against it, and to
win the children to the cause of tenn
)erance is to save the world from in
emperancr. Another and most pn-
ent remedy is for each person to
Idopt as his own the motto
Il am but one, but am one,