The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1913-10-29
NICOTINE AND BOOZE COST
What The Nation Pays to Graf
ify The Two Leading Amer
lean Vices.

Frank Fayant, in the October
number of Munseys Magazine shows
that the smoking and drinking bill
of the American people reaches the
enormous figure of s2,700,O0O, 600
a year.
Since the time when Columbus
braved the unknown seas in search
of the treasures of the Indies, man
has dug out of the earth fifteen
thousand million dollars of gold, .
he says. 'Since the panic of 1907
the American people have spent for
alcohol and tobacco fifteen thousand
million dollars, or to put the two
statements in the form of a math-
ematical equation: the product of
four hundred and twenty years of
human toll, sacrifice and bloodshed,
of daring discovery and exploration,
of cruel wars of aggression and con-
quest, of wonderful engineering tri-
umphs, in the neyer-ending search
for the precious metal, equals six
years easy going expenditure of the
American people for the weed that
soothes and the cup that cheers.
How much is twenty-seven hun
dred million dollars? II, thousand
vaarc hofara tho ,l,, of Ma, -.
Lawgiver, the ancient Egyptians had
begun boarding a treasure of gold,
at the rate of dollar a minute, and
II ever since then-every minute,
day and night for these thousands
of years-the accumulation of this
treasure had continued, the golden
hoard would today be five hundred
years short of the twenty-seven hun
dred million dollars we spend in one
year for alcohol and tobacco.
"A stack of 2,700,0O0,0 900 dollar
bills would tower a hundred and
forty miles in the sky, far beyond
the earth's atmosphere. In thousand
dollar gold certificates the stack
would be higher than the Woolworth
building in New York. If twenty
seven hundred million dollar bills
were strung end to end they would
cover every mile of railroad track in
the country. The same green ribbons
would reach from the earth TO the
moon and a hundred thousand miles
beyond"
Mr.. Fayant says that the bulk of
this money is spent by wage earn
ers. 1t is equal to the earning of
more than four million workers. 1t
is two and one-half times the wages
of the men on all the railroads. 1t
is fourteen times the payroll of the
great steel corporation.
Sir George Paish, the English Geo.
nomist, estimates that the American
people are saving the vast sum of
five billion dollars a year-that is,
that we are putting this money into
new railroads, factories, farms, and
homes and other productive invest
ments, and thus adding to the ma
tional wealth. But we are spend
ing this sum every twenty-five
months for tobacco and alcohol. Our
enormous savings bank hoard is the
wonder and envy of Europe, but we
spend in twenty months as much
money as we have laid by in these
years of prosperity and thrift. Ey-
cry month we spend more than we
add to our bank savings in whole
year.
More than half the total wealth of
the United States is incorporated in
manufacturing and industrial COM
panies, banks and other financial in
stitutions, railroads, telegraphs and
telephones and other public service
corporations. The combined profits
of all these businesses is less than
the expenditure for smoking and
drinking. The twenty-seven hundred
million dollar annual outlay is great
er than the total cost of all our gov
ernment from the presidents salary
down to the crossroads school house
and it is three times the national
debt. 1t is more than all Europe is
spending for war and preparation
for war.
''If our habits do not change"
says the writer, 1--WE shall consume
more alcohol and tobacco in the next
thirty-fiye years than could be pur-
chased for the entire wealth of the
United States today-the total value
of everything possessed by every
body from the Atlantic to the Pa