p. 117 | R. M. KILGORE by R. M. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 24, 1872

R. M. KILGORE

By R. M. Kilgore

Drunkenness.

REVELRY, surfeiting, and drunkenness, are now the order of the day; and there seems to be no prospect of abatement, but, on the contrary, facts show that they are alarmingly on the increase.

The following statistics furnished by the St. Louis Republican, in regard to drinking, and what it costs, certainly does not give the advocates of the coming millennium great cause for rejoicing:—

“The total outlay for last year’s stock of drinks—including native and foreign wines and liquors and beverages—exceeds one hundred and sixty-two millions of dollars. The profit on this outlay to dealers foots up the handsome sum of five hundred millions, making the total expenditure of the people of the United States for drinking, six hundred and sixty-two millions.”

“From three to four hundred thousand able-bodied men are employed behind the counters of saloons. Those licensed to sell liquors make one in two hundred and fifty of the people, and as each of these has one or two aids, it is estimated that one in about every one hundred and twenty of the citizens is engaged in drink-selling. Leaving out women and children, and making due allowance for teetotalers, the drinkers are less than twelve millions in number, and, on an average, every eighty drinkers support a drinking establishment, and consume four hundred and sixty gallons of spirits, eighty gallons of wine, and two thousand gallons of beer, annually; and pay about sixty dollars each.”

“The statistician whom we have followed, in his result from actual figures, goes further than the money paid out in this line of trade, and makes some speculations upon the principle of indirect damages. He wants to put the three or four hundred thousand persons employed in the saloon business in some other employment, where they could earn from five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars a year each, and add to our productive wealth, and he estimates that the nation would be from two hundred to four hundred millions a year the richer for it. This loss, added to the other sums, makes a total of eight hundred to one thousand millions of dollars annually, as the cost to the nation of the drinks in which our people indulge. Is the pleasure of drinking worth such a sum?”