Cost of Intemperance in California
Mrs. Severance, a writer on economics in the Pacific Ensign, puts the direct cost of liquor and tobacco in California as follows:— “The statistician will confirm my points. In California are 14,000 saloons; at $10 per day, a low average, that means $140,000 per day; in 365 days, the yearly amount spent for liquor is $51,100,000. The tobacco bill of the nation is half its liquor bill; at the same rate, California spends over $25,000,000 for tobacco. The bill for lust is not computed; it doubtless equals the tobacco bill.” Add to all this the indirect costs and consequences of drinking and smoking,—the dire, haggard want, wo, and misery, the brutal crime, expensive trials, courts, jails, etc., together with the utter ruin of the bodies and souls of the thousands who die from the effects of drink, and the thousands more worse than widowed and orphaned. It is horrible.