The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1918-10-11
THE COST OF CRIME THROUGH
THE USE OF ALCOHOL
County Prize Temperance Essay

| SOAlOA UNolOVo OS1AkS tiAO SlVotSot
ace to education and good citizenship
is costing the United States a vast
amount of money.
The cost Of manufacturing alcoholic
beverages may be considered in this
connection, because none is manufac-
tured unless it is to be used, and the
drinking of Intoxicating liquors is a
crime within itself. Seven hundred
and seventy-two million dollars in
capital are invested in plants and
equipment for the manufacture of dis
titled malt, and vinous liquors. Even
a larger amount is probably invested
by the retail and wholesale establish
ments for the sale and distribution of
the product. These liquor manufac-
| turing establishments have an annual
| output in excess of two and quarter
billions of gallons. At wholesale
prices these liquors are worth six
hundred million dollars. At retail
the consumers pay therefor over two
billion dollars and the money is worse
| than wasted.
Thru the increased tax placed on
beer and other intoxicating liquors by
the emergency revenue act. the bust
ness this year will pay for the support
of our various governments not less
than four hundred million dollars.
Looking at these figures alone it
would seem that the liquor business
aided rather than hindered the govern
nent hut there is something else to
consider. To support the vast bust
ness, to pay dividends on the capital
invested therein, to pay two hundred
and fifty million dollars annually in
salaries and wages and profits to the
people engaged therein and employed
thereby. and to contribute annually
four billion in taxes for the support
Of our various governments; to do
this, it is necessary that one million
of our people shall be drunkards, that
four million of them shall be regular
heavy drinkers. and that nineteen mil
lion of them shall be moderate drink
ers, and that the country at large
shall suffer an economical loss esti-
mated at fifteen billion dollars. The
license fees of Ohio's 1856 saloons
alone. if invested in bread, would make
a bread lihs 11,209 miles in length.
In 1881 an amendment was added to
the constitution of Kansas, the first
fourteen words of which are:
"The manufacture and sale of in.
toxicating liquors shall be forever pro-
hibited in this state"
This is given the credit for the fact
that in 81 of her 105 counties there are
no insane. In 54 out of this number
are no feeble minded. Ninety-siS
counties have no inebriates, and in the
others they are very scarce. Thirty
eight county poor-houses are empty
and the most of these have been fo1
the best part of a decade. At one
time not long ago the jails in So coun-
ties were empty, and 65 counties were
on roll as having no prisoners serving
sentence in the penitentiary. Some
counties have not called a jury to try
a criminal case in ten years, and the
attorney general says, "A grand jury
is so uncommon that half our people
wouldn't know what it is and how Ia
use it."
Alcohol causes 25 per cent. Of all
insanity, 81 per cent. of pauperism
and 49 per cent. of crime. In an in.
vestigation of crime carried on in 1896
under the direction of Prof. Henry W
Farnum of Yale University, for the
committee of Fifty on the Liquor
Problem, the conclusion was reached
that liquor was the first cause of 81
| per cent. of the criminals studied, ant
that it entered in as a cause, directly
OF indirectly. in so per cent. There il
also very great cost to the user O.
alcohol himself. The laws of toda.
say to industry. eff a man in your EN-
ploy loses finger, an eye, or limb
, you and your insurance agents ar
liable for the payment of heavy in
demnity."
Consequently all the large factorie
and those paying the best salaries vii
not employ men who drink becaus
they know that liquor is the cause 0
most of the accidents which occur i
their factories. One of the larges
steel companies in Westmoreland cou
\ ty, Pennsylvania, after an exhaustiv
examination of the cause of accident
in the mills, makes the broad state
nent that S5 per cent. Of such acc
dents are attributable directly, or ii
directly, to liquor. This same con
pany has secured from town officia
a record of the prosecution and tria
' in the town where the plants are K
Gated. This record covers period {
At days and shows total number {
106 cases, out of which 80 might (
attributed to the use Of alcohol and
I were the direct result of drink.
After the town of Coatesville, p
had been dry for half year, M
Charles L. Huston, vice president of
big steel and iron plant, located
that point, in speaking of the chant
in the mills since saloons were gon
= said:
"The decrease of accidents in Of
steel mills for the past six mont
with Coatesville dry, compared wi
the same period of last year wi
Coatesville wet. is 81 per cent. tt
decrease in applications for aid duri1
the same period is rs per cent. ]
} surance companies say that an absta
: er is from 30 to 40 per cent. bett
risk than a drinker."
This all goes to show that the nj
who drinks, pays the price and it
:; a high price. He continually faces t
y choice. "The Drink or the job"
J. If the drinker himself were t
| $3.50 b. a,,4a.. fnx. bic oy,srnoo