The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-05-19
BITTER WAR ON lNTEMPERANCE
SOLDIERS FIGHTING THIS CURSE
GREATLY CHEERED.
What Caused the Hard Times?

WnaC CauSeO the darQ times
Financial panics and business de-
.pressions are chargeable to the liquor
interests more than to all other
causes combined. From 1852, when
the Government of the United States
first put tax upon the manufacture
and sale Of alcohol and beer, down
to the present time, there has never
been a panic in business that has
not been largely due to the actual
waste Of money spent for whisky,
spirits, beer and other alcoholic
drinks. 1t is apparent. therefore,
that the United States Government
and the liquor and beer manufacture
ers and dealers form the greatest
&-ust, or combination, that this coun-
try, or the world, has yer known.
Compared with it, those three great
combines-the Standard Oil Com
pany, the United States Steel Corpor-
alton, and the Hartman railroad in
terests-are insignificant.
This assertion cannot be success
fully contradicted. It car be proven
through the Internal Revenue De-
partment that the taxes paid upon
beer and alcoholic liquors represent
q product value to the manufacture
ers Of $500, 000 900 annually-an
amount almost beyond the compre-
hension of the ordinary mind. It
represents an amount equal to the
debt Of the Government at its highest
point during the Civil War.
It can no longer be questioned
from an economic point of view, that
this fabulous sum Of money ex-
pended for liquor is, worse than
wasted. If spent in the regular lines
Of business-the production Of food,
clothing, and furniture for the
homes; in fact, for the development
and uplift Of the people in all walks
Of life-it would bring about such a
prosperity as this country has never
seen. 1t would not only give en-
ployment to every man, woman and
youth in the country needing work,
but would make necessary the immi-
grafton of millions annually to sup
ply the demand for workmen Of the
mills, mines, spindles, and the hum
dreds Of industries operated only
In times Of prosperity. Panics, as
cribed to over-production, imitation
Of values, and speculation in Wall
Street (the real cause is rarely spoken
Of by press or people,, would be i'm
possible.
The sale of liquors produces, It
has been stated upon good authority,
8 million drunkards annually and Is
responsible for an annual death rate
Of 100000 men. And these figures
are conservative. -
What an incalculable loss in wages
is represented by these drunkards
through loss of time and inability to
DO a reasonable days work. This
item Of labor lost by .incapacity
reaches an appalling figure, as every
employer Of labor knows.
And what, may we ask, is the loss
to the Nation in keeping up the
courts, jails, orphans asylums. in
sane asylums, homes for the desti-
tute, etc., the necessity for which is
directly chargeable to the curse OF
drink? 1t may be safely said, I be-
Iieve, that $500, 100000 will not be
more than sufficient to cover the loss
In wages and the maintaining Of the
above-named institutions, making a
total of 100000 900 chargeable
against this monster trust composed
Of the liquor interests and the United
States Government.
Does the sane man question that,
If the facts are as stated, this worse
than waste of billions Is responsible
for business depression, and is the
promoter of panics and hard times?
If the money now spent to pauper-
lie the people and make a nation OF
irunkards were spent in building up
the family life and the prosperity OF
the home, would it be possible to
produce a panic?
If an example is needed, take. the
town of Portage, In this county (and
it is no worse than the average min
ing town in Pennsylvania, where
ten coal mines are operated. OF the
wages annually expended in produc-
ing coal, fully $4,000 is paid for
liquors and beer to the seven saloons
in the town or to the breweries and
wholesale dealers whose wagons de-
liver it to the homes of those in the
mining camps.
And that Is not the total effect,
though it is the cause. Because OF
drunkenness among the workmen en-
gagged at the mines not less than
10000 days labor was lost during
the past year, the loss in wages
amounting to 100000, making a
total loss Of over a half million dol
lars. And this upon a 50OO-acre
tract in q small corner Of Cambria
County. The same conditions prevail
in every coal, coke, iron and steel
producing community in the country.
excepting, Of course, in Prohibition
States.
We have touched only upon the
money side of the question. What
Is to be said of a National Govern
ment that permits the misery that
Is heaped upon the weak, innocent
sufferers from this diabolical traffic?
This suffering is beyond the power
of man to conceive.-From an au-
thorized interview with John c. Mar
tin, of New York City and Portage,
Pa, in the Johnstown (Pa.) Tribune.