The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-17
Prohibition : s2Slws Fail to Stop
 Liquor Traffic
FIGURES TELL THE TALE
Receipts of Internal Revenue Make an Appalling Record In Face of Fiaht Against Traffic All Over
 the Country.

Washington, August 16.-(SpeciaL)-Pr hibition laws, reform waves temperance crusades and anti-smoking and chewing clubs did not make the people of this country any more abstemious in the fiscal year ending June 30 than in other years On the contrary there were millions of gallons more whisky and beer consumed, billion or more cigars used, million more cigarettes smoked and thousands of pounds more of snuff consumed than in the previous fiscal year. Worse than all else there were used many millions of pounds more oleomargarine, filled cheese, adulterated butter, and such.
 All this Is shown by the statement Of the internal revenue bureau as to the re- ceipts of that bureau for the fiscal year that closed June 30. The total receipts from all sources for that year were s269- 664o22.S5, as compared with SPAS. .1O2, 75S for the fiscal year ended June 3o 19O6
 From the different sources the receipts were as follows: Spirits, S156. .a36, ,9o1. .S9 compared with $1i3, Ss4 055.12 for the pre- vious year; tobacco, S51,s11 069.69, against $S 422, 3S; fermented liquors, s59567.- SlS1S compared with 5564l. .S5856: oleo-
 
 margarine, SSS764l.3l compared with $57O.- OS79S; adulterated butter, s12.7436o; last year, s9,25S.4S renovated butter. S161, ,975 79; last year, $12SO7S.O9; miscellaneous $SS6,- o5239; last year, sS26 452. 49
 More Cigars Smoked.
 But in dollars and cents the failure of the people to be impressed by sumptuary laws and moral agitatlons is not shown half as well as in gallons, pounds, num- bers, etc. Take cigars and tobacco, for example. In the last fiscal year there were withdrawn TOT consumption of cigars weighing over three pounds to the lean A total or Sol, ,S62,130, as against S. 37S3 2b6- 213 an increase in that one class of cigar i alone of 1.Ses.595,917 more than a billion and third cigars of this weight smoked ] than in the previous year.
 In cigars weighing under three pounds to the 1000 the increase was nearly as great. The refinement of city life, the lectures as to the indecency of chewing and pipe smoking have all been lost on an independent citizenship In the last fiscal year the people of this country chewed and smoked 369,1S6.3O3 pounds of tobacco, as against 354915- 499 in the previous year, an increase of 14,270,S04 pounds.
 Cigarette smoking did not show a | tendency to stop, IS the increase for the year in the number of cigarettes used was 5,665.537, the total number smoked being l ,159,227, against 9,493,690. In the snuff line 693, ,65S pounds more than in the last fiscal year were used the figures being 23,40i,196 pounds in the year just closed and 22,707,53S for the previous fiscal year.
 Oleomargarine, despite all the op- | far nee etfTn 1ax tw...A |. cent years, showed an increased con sumption of 15,S42 ,191 pounds, the total consumption being 6S,9SS,S50 pounds against 53146,659. Renovated butter process butter, adulterated butter, all had increased market over other years.
 A Dreadful Shock. As to alcoholic drinks, the prohibi- tionists will be shocked. In corn, rye and similar whiskies the consumption was 11.409,252 gallons above the pre- vious fiscal year. The consumption in the fiscal year 1907 was 134,142,074 gal Ions, against 122, 2,732,S22 gallons in the year before. In spirits made from apples, peaches, grapes pears, etc. tn ere was a similar increase as shown by the fact that the consumption was 1,993,6SS gallons, against 1,7S1,643 gal Ions last year.
 In the consumption of beer, which has gradually become the national drink, the increase was 3,S94,474 barrels over the former fiscal year. Each barrel represents 31 gallons, which makes the total increase 116,S33,220 gallons of this beverage. The figures for the re- spective years 1907 and 1906 were 5S,- 546111 barrels and 54,65l,637 barrels. Internal revenue officials say the in- crease would lave been much greater but for an exceedingly cool and wet spring, which reduced the consumption during that neriOd.