Health and Temperance by W. H. H.

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 28.

Health and Temperance.

By W. H. H.

No More Tea.

IN 1769, the English Government received less than $1,500 from the American Colonies as its revenue from the tea tax. Yet the American Colonies voted that the sale of tea should be prohibited, and the people refused to drink tea rather than pay to the mother country $1,500 a year tax on tea.

Two hundred thousand liquor dealers, half of them foreigners, have imposed heavy burdens upon the American people. Communities without liquor saloons have little use for policemen, jails, or poor-houses. In one district in Liverpool, of 50,000 inhabitants, without liquor saloons, there were only forty-five persons who had to receive out-door relief. In another district of about the same size, with liquor saloons, nearly 2,000 had to receive out-door relief. When a small town in Illinois excluded the liquor saloon, it reduced its pauper bill from $1,100 to $2.50 per year. In Boston, seventy-three per cent. of all the arrests made by the police are due to the presence of the drink-houses in the city. Eighty per cent. of the criminals, and seventy-five per cent. of the paupers in this country can be fairly charged to the business of the 200,000 liquor dealers, half of whom are foreigners. What benefits do these liquor dealers confer upon the nation to compensate the people for tolerating their presence? What right have they to so greatly increase the taxes of the people in order to raise the money which is necessary to take care of their victims?

Has the character of the American people changed in these hundred years? Are we the worthy children of forefathers who refused to drink tea, and prohibited its sale rather than pay a $1,500 tax to the mother country, when we bow down before 200,000 liquor dealers and bear whatever burdens they may impose upon us? When the American people realize that their taxes would be reduced one-half by the blotting out of the liquor saloon, I believe the people will make short work of the modern grog-shop. As our forefathers said, "No more tea!" so the time is near at hand when the cry of our people will be, "No more rum! No more money to take care of the worn-out victims of the rum-shop! No more young people from our homes to become the slaves of the liquor dealers!"—W. H. H., in Advance.