Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 18, 1902

The following figures pertaining to the liquor traffic in the United States are given in a preliminary report issued by the Census Bureau, says the Lutheran Witness:—

“The whole number of establishments reported is 2,849, an increase of forty-eight per cent over the number reported ten years ago; and the total capital invested is given as $457,674,087, an increase of seventy per cent. The average number of wage earners employed is 44,417, which is an increase of twenty-three per cent. The total of wages paid during the past year was $28,005,484, an increase of twenty per cent. Other general figures are reported as follows: Miscellaneous expenses, $183,099,796, an increase of sixty-one per cent; cost of materials used, $70,512,042, a decrease of twelve per cent; value of products, $340,615,466, an increase of eighteen per cent.”

“Thus does the worship of this Moloch grow apace,” adds the Witness, “while the churches barely hold their own, and must curtail their work for lack of money.”