RELATIVE STATISTICS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Mar 15, 1887

RELATIVE STATISTICS.

The prohibition sentiment is making more rapid progress at the present time throughout the country than ever before. Already a number of State legislatures have passed bills providing for the submission of a prohibitory amendment to a vote of the people. In Michigan the amendment will be voted upon April 4, and the Sickle earnestly hopes to see it carried. The more this question of prohibiting the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor is discussed, the stronger do the arguments appear in behalf of such prohibition. As containing some very convincing evidence on the subject, we give below an extract from an address delivered by Mrs. M. E. Pengelly before the State Convention of W. C. T. U. held at Manistee, Mich., a few months since:—

“I now turn to the published reports, acknowledged only approximately correct, as it is absolutely impossible to arrive at the definite amount expended in this liquor business. So much of dishonesty is resorted to to evade law, that it is truly a “herculean task” to dig into the depths and bring to light of day this nefarious business.

“First, then, from the report of the Auditor-General of Michigan, 1885, I learn the number of dealers

in liquor, wholesale and retail, including brewers, to be 4,180; amount of tax paid, $1,058,898.85.

“The expense to the State in 1885 of the following institutions over and above their earnings is as stated below:—

Institution	Amount
Detroit House of Correction	$2,030 81
State Public School	41,092 86
Michigan Insane Asylum	183,980 39
Eastern “	139,637 84
Appropriated for Building Northern Insane Asylum	152,266 46
Appropriated for Insane Criminals	26,940 92
State Reform School for Boys	74,055 72
Industrial Home for Girls	50,924 85
State House of Correction	129,204 23
Michigan State Prison	106,891 32
Poor-houses (very low estimate)	1,088,099 13
Jails, for arrest, board, and prosecution of criminals	541,000 00
Transportation of the same	33,360 47
Total Expense to State	$2,569,485 00
Total earnings of Prison, House of Correction, Reform School, Industrial Home for Girls and State Public School	132,002 69
Taken from gross expense leaves net total expense	$2,437,482 21
Good authority states that nine tenths of the net expense of these institutions are due directly or indirectly to the liquor traffic. But to be safe in these calculations, I place the percentage at three fourths, amounting to	$1,828,111 65
From which subtract revenue	1,058,898 85
Leaving net loss by liquor trade to taxpayers over and above all revenue	$769,112 80
Dead capital invested in these institutions, at a low figure	4,514,396 30
Three fourths at 5 per cent interest	169,289 86
Add the above loss	769,212 80
And we have a net total loss to taxpayers of the State of	$938,502 66

“Thus it is readily seen that for every dollar of revenue from the trade, it costs the tax-payer at least two dollars.

“The New York Tribune estimates that in the United States, labor fails to earn (through the drink habit) $200,000,000. Michigan being about one thirtieth of the population, on this ratio, fails to earn $6,666,666.

	Amount
The sum spent by consumers in Michigan last year is estimated at	$30,000,000 00
Add to this the failure of earnings	6,666,666 00
The three-fourths expense of humanitarian and penal institutions	1,828,111 65
The interest on three-fourths dead capital therein invested	169,289 86
And lastly, the amount paid for poor, made so by drink, and not otherwise reported	36,182 81
And we have before us this stubborn fact, namely, that the liquor trade, so often quoted by business men, and especially by political party leaders, as a source of revenue to the State, is an actual, annual source of poverty to an overwhelming amount, that for 1885 being	$38,700,250 32

Relatively the figures stand thus:—

	Amount
The liquor industry of the State pays into its treasury	$1,058,898 85
Takes out of the wealth of the State	38,700,250 32

“Appalling as are these figures, I cannot close this report without emphasizing the fact that the legalized liquor trade is not only accountable for this amount of values destroyed and lost to all legitimate lines of trade, and therefore largely responsible for the present state of society among the working classes, as evidenced by the strikes, boycotts, and anarchy of the day, but also for at least three fourths of the crime, and a large per cent of the idiocy and insanity of our State, to care for which we now have four asylums full, besides twenty-eight private institutions devoted largely to caring for the ruin of the trade!”

“These statistics should be sufficiently alarming to arrest the attention of every sober father, every intelligent business man, every Christian layman, and especially every minister of the gospel, who holds within his hand the power and the only power to dethrone this King of Crime, and arouse him to immediate action against this enemy of our government and our homes.”

In the light of the foregoing incontrovertible testimony, we fail to see how any voter, of even ordinary intelligence, can do otherwise than work for the passage of the prohibitory amendment.—Reader, study the foregoing statistics, and reflect upon their full significance.