Temperance by E. J. Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 11, 1883

Temperance.

By E. J. Waggoner

A Case in Point.

THE NEW YORK Evening Post, although far from being radical on the temperance question, presents an argument in its favor that cannot be refuted. It is based on the difference in the expenditures of two towns nearly equal in population. The one, Vineland, N. J., actually as well legally prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquors; the other, Yonkers, N. Y., licenses 145 saloons and has in addition 70 places where liquor is sold in violation of law. Here are the figures:—

“Vineland has about 12,000 inhabitants and Yonkers less than 15,000. Yonkers spends on its police $37,000; the police duties of Vineland are performed by one constable at the annual expense of $75. Yonkers has a police judge with a salary of $4,000, and a clerk who is paid $800; Vineland has no police court and needs none. The paupers of Yonkers cost the town $12,000; Vineland has a corresponding expense of $400. Altogether these articles of expense cost in Yonkers $53,800; in Vineland $475. Making proportionate allowance for the difference in population, the government of Yonkers, so far as these expenses are concerned, cost more than ninety times as much as that of Vineland.”

If we carry the computation a little farther, it will be seen that in Yonkers the cost to each man, woman, and child is more than three dollars and a half; while in Vineland it is less than four cents to each individual. And this, we must remember, is only one of the ways in which whisky indirectly robs the people. No account is taken of the enormous amount of money which is spent every year in these 215 places where liquor is sold. Two thousand dollars a year would not be an extravagant estimate for the average receipts of each place. Some receive many times this amount, and none of them could keep up their running expenses, pay taxes, rent, and help, besides their living, on much less than this. So we have at the very lowest calculation $430,000 additional expense, or nearly thirty dollars for each man, woman, and child in the city, all of which the citizens of Vineland save.

These figures speak for themselves. They make a strong plea for prohibition. Not the strongest plea by any means, for the want and suffering, the sickness and distress, the sorrow and anguish of heart that is caused by this accursed liquor traffic, plead for prohibition in language stronger than words. But yet figures appeal more strongly to many minds. They are the only things that are taken into account by the liquor-dealers. These men say that municipal and government expenses could not be paid were it not for the liquor traffic. But Vineland and Yonkers are standing witnesses to the falsity of this claim. Just remember that for every cent which the citizens of Vineland pay into the city treasury, the citizens of Yonkers pay three hundred and sixty. And then when whisky makes this great expense, it takes away the money with which it should be met, out of the pockets of the citizens, so that their burden is increased a thousand fold.

Thus it appears that whisky is both a pauper and a robber. It does nothing for its own support, but lives off from the community; and when men put their hands into their pockets to pay for its keeping, they find that it has stolen their money besides. Can we afford to support such a thieving beggar any longer?

E. J. W.