The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-29
DRINK LESS WHISKEY
AMERICAN PEOPLE BECOMING
 MORE TEMPERATE.
what Figures of the Internal Revenue Bureau show-Consumpti of
 Beer Increased, But There
 fs Less Drunkenness.


 Washing gton Correspondence New York
 Evening Post.
 The figures of the Internal Revenue Bureau, just made up, indicate that Americans are drinking more beer than whiskey each year. The preliminary report of Commissioner Yerkes for the fiscal year shows that the consumption of whiskey was materially less, and that of beer much greater than in the preceding year. There were withdrawn for consumption during the year, of distilled spirits other than made from fruits, 116,143,732 gallons, as against 116.s4s,372 gallons in the fiscal year 1904 This is a decrease in whiskey consumed of 704,040 gallons. There was likewise a decrease in the quantity of fruit spirits consumed, the total Tor the last fiscal year having been 1,5s5,- 021 gallons, against 1,637.S03 gallons in the year before.
 .Yhe consumption of beer was 4s.45s.- $40 barrels for the last fiscal year. against 4s,20S,1S3 barrels for ls04. The increase Is f,251,407 barrels, each barrel containing thirty-one gallons. H.. A. Taylor, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, believes that whiskey con- sumption is decreasing. He holds that the decrease in drunkenness Is due In great part to the substitution of@beer for whiskey. Mir. Taylor remarked:
 Tn the social life of Washington there Is far less whiskev consumed now than there was a few years ago, while the lighter drinks and beverages, principally beer and wine, are on the increase I lived for years in Wiscon- sin among the German people there. never knew a more sober or ordrly peo- pie, and yet they dank beer pfenttfully and freely. and so did their wives and children. The treating habit causes tro other thing"
 English papers are considering the smaller drink bill of their country, and many reasons are given for the de- crease In 1899 England's bill for liquors attained to the enormous figure of 1855, ,s27,000 pounds. but in five years 1t has declined IT 7,000,000 pounds. The Board of Trade says that the decrease is not due to any fresh reform wave over Great Britain. but wholly to hard times men having cut down their drink bill to meet the necessities of life. Tenn perance workers attribute the decrease to a wave of sobriety. The temperance people are willing to concede that some part of the decrease is due to trade depression, high taxation of wh1sktes and fern snted beverages, but at the same time they declare there has been a change in the habits of the English man.
 Prohibition in san unusual form will be before Congress when the Statehood hill is taken up for passage at the coming session. At the last session of Congress petitions were received ask ing that prohibition should be the con tinued policy in the Indian Territory after statehood was granted. and Sem ator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, made a speech in the Senate favoring that policy. Prohibition bureaus in | and aIGawhara have frank ed out thousands of copies of this speech through the West, and are do- | ing all they can to stir up sentiment in favor of requiring prohibition In the Territory after Statehood has been established. Among Senators and Rep resentatives who have given any thought to the subject, however, it Is regarded as improbable that Congress will make any such requirement.
 The Prohibitionists have inttmated that they will ask President Roosevelt to recommend prohibition in his com | ing message. The President, however, | is known to be somewhat liberal In hiS views as to the use of drink, but at the same time he is jealous in looking after | the morals and future of the Indians. Temperance has been his personal pol lev. but whiskies and wines have not been shut out of the White House, ana have been served at the receptions held | there. The opinion is advanced that the President would oppose the idea
 of requiring prohibition in new state believing that the people or the state ought to decide the question for them selves.
 Senator Gallinger, in his speech said
 that the United States had recognized l for more than seventy years the neces- sity for keeping whiskey away from l the Indians of the Territory. and that ! 1o rnrffh a r.
 ferent tribes clauses were inserted pro- hibitinR the sale or giving away ot whiskey among the Indians. On that
 point the President may be in agree ment, but the question Is brought up
 as to how Congress could possibly ad-
 init a new State Ato Statehood oy pre- | scribing in advance what It's constltu- ton should or should not provide. | Representatives of the brewing in- l terests have been watching the situa- ton. While there has been no official vote in their organizations, 1t IS stated
 that a great many influential brewers would like to see Congress provide Tor
 prohibition in the Indian Territory of strictly alcoholic drinks-that Is. drinks containing alcohol above a cer- tain per cent. E. A. Faust, Second Vice President of one of the great brewery plants. said recently:
 ..The brewers of this country have made one big mistake TUT many Seai S' and that is to have allowed public opin- ion to associate their interests with those of whiskey-makers There IS absolutely nothing in common between the two interests. On the contrary their interests are vitally and seriously opposed Prohibition means invariably | the continual sale of whiskey by illicit methods in a State or Territory, ana the shutting down of sales of beer
 which can be handled only in bulk. II wish I could prevail upon every one to agree to local option laws in eV- ry State-to make common cause with the temperance advocates in this re- | spect-the only condition being that when the question of wet or dry IS submitted to a county there shall be separate and distinct vote as between
 whiskey and beer-that Is, that the
 question should be submitted as tc
 whether the people wanted beer and 1 similar mild drinks continued on sale
 and whether they wanted the really al cohlic drinks continued. am satish' ed that in nearly every local optiof county In the United States the sale oi
 beer would not be forbidden, while th'
 sentiment as to whiskey would prooa bly, remain about as it now Is.
 When Seth Low was Mayor o
 Brooklyn he caused the publication of {
 tabulated statement showing the rati'
 of arrests for intoxication to population and saloons There were two classes
 of licenses in Brooklyn at that um'