Temperance by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 24, 1883

Temperance.

By Editor

Drink as a Factor in Pauperism and Crime.

Soon after the publication of an article on the "Sources of Crime," the Herald received a note from a prominent citizen, in which he says, in regard to the sale of liquor: "It would be interesting to know, further, what it costs the city to sustain the various courts of justice and places of correction and punishment; to meet the crimes caused by this traffic; and, in contradistinction to this cost, what revenue the city receives from licenses, so that the public might be able to judge whether the license system is a profitable one to the city."

With regard to the proportion of crime and pauperism properly chargeable to the abuse of liquor, opinions vary. Some good judges say that 90 per cent. of all crimes are instigated directly or remotely by drink. Others say 80 per cent., and none will go lower than 70 per cent. With respect to pauperism it is safe to say that 75 per cent. is directly or indirectly chargeable to the use of liquors. In a recent report of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction, the chief of the medical staff of the Homeopathic Hospital says:—

"The cause of pauperism and consequent disease and crime have received careful and thorough investigation by those long enjoying favorable advantages of observation. Many reasons for this painful and rapidly increasing pauperism among the people have been assigned, but that which takes precedence above and beyond all others is the curse of intemperance. It is this which robs the pockets of the poor man; it is this which benumbs his brain and destroys his faculties, and this which predisposes himself and his children to fatal disease. It is this which breeds sensuality in all its protean and disgusting forms; this which induces shiftlessness and irresponsibility among the masses, and it is this which saps the life from those who would otherwise be healthy and vigorous. The statistics of alms-houses, work-houses, penitentiaries, asylums, and hospitals all attest this dark and gloomy fact. A sure remedy for this sweeping scourge, so devastating in its deadly influence is beyond human ken. Yet if the malignant character of this enemy of the people's health, and its far-reaching tendencies toward disease and death, were more thoroughly understood, a revolution in sentiment on the question might the more speedily be inaugurated. If the masses of intelligent citizens will examine carefully the records of the case books at your hospitals, they will find in them most convincing evidence that a large proportion of pauperism and life-destroying disease is caused by the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. The creation of an almost popular sentiment that shall not only uphold the passage but insure the enforcement of restricting laws is the most hopeful remedy."

In another report the Commissioners say, referring to a large number of persons committed for simple acts of intoxication unaccompanied by disorderly conduct or breach of peace:—

"The law imposes a penalty of $10.00 upon every person found intoxicated in the public streets, and in default of payment they are committed to the work-house for ten days. A large proportion of the inmates of the work-house are common drunkards. They are sent up by the magistrates, clothed in rags, covered with vermin, and broken down in health by their debauchery. They must be clothed at the expense of the city, and by the time they are discharged from the care of the physician, and are capable of labor, their term of imprisonment expires and they are released, to be in a few days sent back, their clothing destroyed, again to be re-clothed, and assigned to the hospital. It would be difficult to devise a more expensive or ineffectual means of reformation than is by law established."

In their report of 1875, the Commissioners of Charities and Correction say of the Inebriate Asylum:—

"This establishment has been given a fair trial, and no means have been spared to make, if possible, one successful Inebriate Asylum. The conclusion the experiment has led to is that habitual drunkenness is not to be regarded as a disease, but as a habit practically within the control of each individual case. The majority of those admitted during the year were so demoralized by excessive drinking that their discontent was only appeased by the knowledge that their time of commitment would soon expire and they would again be at liberty to return to their former imbibitions. There is little need of asylums for the cure of this infirmity, for the very small number who desire reformation can attain the object at home with their families. The Commissioners, from past experience, are of the opinion that the public funds can be put to a much better use than in equipping and maintaining an inebriate asylum."

PRISON STATISTICS.

Out of 51,566 persons committed to the city prisons in a single year, 34,316 were of foreign birth, and 17,250 natives; of 19,324 females, 14,077 were foreign born, and 5,265 natives. Of all the males, 19,937 were intemperate, and 12,187 temperate; of all the females, 12,770 were intemperate, and 6,572 temperate. In the same year, 31,491 were sent to the First District Prison—the Tombs. These were from the lower part of the city, where the foreign element largely predominates. The arrests directly or indirectly caused by the use of liquor were:—

	Males.	Females.	Total.
Assaults.	2,058	295	2,353
Delirium tremens.	14	—	14
Disorderly conduct.	4,679	4,159	8,838
Intoxication.	5,462	7,593	13,051
Vagrancy.	1,007	645	1,652
Total.	13,220	12,692	25,912

Of the 254 persons admitted to the Asylum for the Insane in a single year, 127 were intemperate, 69 moderate drinkers, 55 unknown, and only 3 abstainants. Another year's record shows 280 intemperate, 90 moderate drinkers, 17 abstainants, and 11 unknown. If we assume, and we believe it to be much within bounds, that 70 per cent. of the crime and pauperism of the city is chargeable to the use and abuse of intoxicating liquors, we shall have to charge to liquor that percentage of the cost of the police department, of the department of charities and correction, of the criminal courts, and properly a considerable fraction of the health and fire departments. In 1880 the following appropriations, excluding the money for street cleaning, were made:—

For Police Department. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,459,917 Police Courts and General Sessions, about. . . . . . . 350,000 Charities and Correction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,618,680 Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,428,597

Awarding 70 per cent. of these items to liquor, we find the figures to be $3,800,015. With various items that cannot be precisely classified, we may put the round sum at $400,000,000, or $3.30 for each man, woman, and child of our population.

What does rum pay back? In plain terms, hardly one cent on a dollar. The Excise Board do not seem to know how many places they have licensed, nor to have any definite idea of how many rum shops there are in the city. But in 1877, the year of the smallest receipts for licenses, a census was made by police precincts. This showed in the whole city 7,874 liquor shops, of which 2,177 had licenses. There were at that time in the Fourth Precinct 440 liquor shops to a population of 20,000, and in the Fourteenth, 387 to a population of 30,000. Here was a "gin mill" for every sixty inhabitants. The Ninth Precinct had just about as many inhabitants, with twice as much territory, and 250 liquor shops—one to every two hundred inhabitants. Now, the records of police arrests for the last six months of 1880 show this comparison:—

Liquor Arrests.	Shops.	Men.	Women.	Total.
Fourteenth Precinct.	387	2,153	1,361	3,514
Fourth Precinct.	440	2,072	1,259	3,331
Ninth Precinct.	250	889	182	1,071

The precincts named correspond almost exactly to the wards of the same numbers. The two rum-ridden precincts (the 4th and 14th) furnish almost 20 per cent. of all the arrests in the city. It is needless to say that more than seven-eighths of the arrests were chargeable to drink. It only remains to say that the present system of excise has not reduced the expense of the city for the support of pauperism or the punishment of crime to the amount of one dollar. It was never intended or expected to do so.—N. Y. Herald.