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The Commoner
VOL. 15, NO. 5
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THE JITNEY JOY REDE
Don't Be Bamboozled by Booze
A Recital of Startling Figures
There are many explanations in
these days of expensive living, for
for the increase of taxes. Each state
thinks it is being victimized by some
act of its legislature that has in
creased the cost of living by increas
ing taxes for some purpose. It may
be this or that which gives excuse
for kicking about our taxes, but we
are prone to complain on the
grounds that if we don't the politi
cians will turn the tax screws just a
little tighter.
I am not going to discuss your le
gitimate taxes, though they might
bear scrutiny in some states. We
can well afford to forget common
complaints for the moment and delve
into one of the real problems that
needs solution.
I am unwilling to admit that booze
is as bad as any preacher, any re
former, any rabid prohibitionist ever
said it is, and then I'll say it is worse
than that, and not take any more
space to villify it. What I want to
show is that booze increases your
taxes and gives nothing in return
but woe, woe, and more woe! When
you "dig up" a dollar of tax money
you expect that dollar to go to some
purpose for the public welfare. No
body really dislikes to pay taxes if
lie gets his money's worth. But
when that tax money is squandered,
or stolen, you have a right, a duty
to complain and atop it,
THE FARMER'S INTEREST
According to the statements eman
ating from the liquor interests it
would be an awful calamity upon
the farmers to close the distilleries
arid breweries because they buy the
farmers grain and horses.
"Think of what an amount of
grain is consumed by the breweries
and distilleries, which would be
dumped upon the market in competi
tion to the grain they sell else-
whore!" "It would ruin the market! "
Let'sseeif itwould. Less than two per
cent of the grain goes into booze.
IX a good year increases the grain
production two per cent over the pre
vious year, or above normal, does it
ruin the farmers? If hoppers, or
chinch bugsi or rust cuts the grain
production, two per cent in any year
doe it put the farmers out of busi
ne? You know it doesn't.
But there's another feature that
the liquor men never mention when
they try to scare you into support
ing the saloon. They forget to tell
you that with no saloons or brew
eries the two per cent of grain would
readily be consumed in legitimate
trade because of the increased buy
ing, ability of the people who got on
the "water wagon."
Every time a working man pours
a glass of booze down his throat and
hands the bar keeper a nickel or a
dime for the drink, he puts -that
much money where he can't spend it
for food, clothing, fuel or shelter.
This country isn't cursed with over
production, but if anything, with un
der consumption, and one of the
chief causes for under consumption
is booze.
Trie town of Nelsonville, Ohio,
voted to go wet after being dry, and
R. A. Doan says, "I do not think it
exaggeration to say we see fifty in
toxicated men on our streets to one
when the town was dry. Merchants
report collections very much worse."
Of course collections are worse!
S. M. Wilson, a shoe merchant of
Waterloo, Iowa, said, "We've been
dry a year and I'm still in business.
My business in twelve months of no
saloons shows a gain on tea months,
ana a loss on only two. No saloons,
means more shoes and less booze."
Here are some more figures from Wa
terloo that show what "dry" means
in cash. Tax sales fell off 29 per
cent; postal receipts gained 10 per
cent; building improvements gained
46 per cent; bank clearings gained
14 per cent; cost of maintaining the
poor fell 23 per cent; savings bank
deposits increased over 10 per cent;
cost of running the city fell $12,737,
40, which can be accounted for by a
decrease of 35 per cent in arrests o
all kinds; a decrease of arresta fr
drunkenness of 52 per cent, and a de
crease of arrests for vagrancy of 54
per cent.
After the saloons were driven out
of Coatsville, Tu., one merchant had
an increase of $7,000 in his business
in May, Juno and July as compared
with tho same months the year pre
ceding, when the place was wot. One
baker in the same town reported an
i average increase of $150 a week, and
ono butcher had $500 monthly in
crease in his business. There was a
decrease in applications for aid of
seventy-five per cent over "wet"
days.
WOULD FLOAT A BATTLESHIP
We consumed 139,469,331 gallons
of distilled liquor, 56,424,711 gallons
of wine, and 1,932,531,184. gallons of
fermented booze in the year 1912, a
total of 2,128,452,226 gallons, or a
per capita consumption of 2198 gal
lons. Beer retails at five cents a drink
and there are, let us say, three drinks
to the quart, or twelve drinks to the
gallon. That is sixty cents. Whew,
what a booze bill! $1,159,518,710.
40 for beer or fermented drinks
alone! But wait. Let us figure
that all the distilled drinks sell at the
low whiskey price of ten cents a
drink. It is conservative to say that
there are ten drinks to the pint or
eighty to the gallon. That figures up
$1,115,970,648 for that kind of woe.
The wine bill amounts to, let us
roughly estimate, fifteen cents a
drink. There are many prices, for
wine is indulged in by high society,
so fifteen cents is conservative. To
tal $667,086,532. The total drink
bill, figured on these conservative
lines amounted to the awful sum of
$2,952,575,890 in the year 1912.
Practically three billion dollars!
The shameful thing of it is that
most of this sum is paid out by labor
ers who can least afford it men who
make the loudest noise about hard
times and the high cost of living.
There's a wide difference between
what brewers and distillers paid for
the farmers' grain, and to labor, and
our drink bill. Not all drink is made
in this country. A large quantity is
imported, but let me show you some
thing. According to the last census
there were only 69,696 persons em
ployed in all the breweries, and 20,
983 employed in distilleries. That
makes 90,679. The distillers em
ployed only one-tenth of one per cent
of all employed labor, and the brew
ers employed two-tenths of one per
cent three-tenths of one per cent
thus gain employment through
booze. This does not make up for
those who lose their jobs through
booze, or the 110,000 who die annu
ally from the drink, habit.
Here's another point. You know
changing raw material into finished
goods adds to its value. This added
value is 12.2 per cent of the total
value of the products of slaughter
ing and meat packing plants; 14.2
per cent of the total value of butter,
cheese and condensed milk; 9 per
cent of the cane sugar value; 35.2
per cent of the value of canning and
preserving products; 13.1 per cent of
the value of flour and grist mill pro
ducts; but in the case of malt liquors
the added value by manufacture is
74.2 per cent of its total value, and
of distilled liquors 82.4 per cent of
their total value is added by the pro
cess of manufacture.
In other words, liquors sell whole
sale at a far greater profit than other
products that go into our stomachs,
to say 'nothing of the enormous profit
ot the retailer. That's why the li
quor interests have money to burn
when it comes to fighting prohibition.
woman suffrage, commission form of
government and like reforms.
The saloon, the retail end of the
liquor business, is the only concern
which turns out a finished product of
less value than the raw material. A
log, the raw material of a saw mill,
goes into the mill a log but comes
out lumber, something useful. Wheat
goes into the mill and comes out flour
for our sustenance. A real value
has been added. The same is true of
the cotton that goes into the cottftn
mill, the leather to the shoe factory
the iron ore to the steel mill, but
what of the product of the, saloon?
What becomes of its raw product in
hundreds of thousands of caRo
What of the young men and J j
They come out broken in health
their self-respect and the respect of
their friends gone, the confidence of
their employers lost, their future and
fortune ruined, criminals in many
cases, and nothing left except woe
This is the finished product of the
saloon. A few there are who can
trifle with liquor without serious
harm and these talk of "personal lib
erty," but can they not afford the
small sacrifice it would be to give up
their drink for the protection of oth
ers? WHAT BECOMES OF OUR MONEY?
Where does Ihis three billion dol
lars go that passes over the bars of
this country? Only 17.6 per cent of
the value of the. products of the dis
tilleries and 25.8 per cent of the
value of the products of the brew
eries goes into the purchase of ma
terials for the business. And remem
ber these- per6entages are based on
the wholesale prices and not on the
price the consumers pay. The fact
is, the booze business doesn't pay
back anywhere near what other man
ufacturing industries do for mate
rials. Look at this-: In the lard refining
business, outside of slaughtering and
packing plants, 93.3 per cent of the
value of their products goes into ma
terials; cane sugar" refineries, 91 per
cent; peanut roasters, graders and
cleaners, 88.5 per cent; meat pack
ers and slaughterers, 87.8 per cent;
butter, cheese and condensed milk
plants, 85.8 per cent; glucose and
starch, 75.6 per cent; oleomargarine,
79,7 per cent.
The liquor business short-changes
the farmers who sell the grain, short
changes labor, short-changes the con
sumer. You farmers sell good whole
some food products, corn and barley,
and they make it into stuff that de
bauches manhood, ravishes woman-
INSOMNIA
Loads to Madness, If Not Remedied
"Experiments satisfied me, some 5
years ago," writes a Topeka woman,
"that coffee was the direct cause of
the insomnia from which I suffered
terribly, as well as extreme nervous
ness and acute dyspepsia.
"I had been a coffee drinker since
childhood, and did not like to think
that the beverage was doing me all
this harm. But it was, and the time
came when I had to face the fact,
and protect myself. . I therefore gave
up coffee abruptly and absolutely,
and adopted Postum for my hot
drink at meals.
"I began to note improvement in
my condition very soon after I took
on Postum. The change proceeded
gradually, but surely, and it was a
matter of only a few weeks before i
found myself entirely relieved the
nervousness passed away, my diges
tive apparatus was restored to nor
mal efficiency, and I began to sleep
restfully and peacefully.
"These happy conditions have con
tinued during all of the five years,
and I am safe in saying that I owe
them entirely to Postum, for wueu -began
to drink it I ceased to use
medicines "
Name given by Postum Co., Battle
Creek, Mich. Read "The Road to
Wellville," in pkgs.
Postum comes in two forms.
Postum Cereal the original form
must be well boiled. 15c and w
packages. , , , ..
Instant Postum a soluble pow
der dissolves quickly in a cup ofiioi
water, and, with cream and sugw.
makes a delicious bevorage insuuwy
30c and 50c tins. . -..nfnUCi
Both kinds are equally delicious
and cost about the same per cup.
"There a Reason" for Postum.
1 Sold by uruc"
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