Alcohol and Its Effects
By W. H. Riley
ALCOHOL; ITS HISTORY, AND ITS EFFECTS UPON SOCIETY.
By W. H. Riley, M.D., Superintendent of Colorado Sanitarium, Boulder, Colo.
[All rights reserved.] THE quantity of intoxicating liquor sold and consumed in even one day is something almost incredible. In a letter written ten years since by Mr. Powderly, master workman of the Knights of Labor, this statement occurs, "In the city of New York alone it is estimated that not less than $250,000 a day are spent for drink." If a fortune like this is squandered in one day in one city, what must be the total for the country! and what the grand total for the world! Mr. F. N. Barrett, editor of the New York Grocer, made an estimate of the annual "cost of alcoholic beverages to consumers in the United States" (1886), and, after deducting 10 per cent. for various forms of useful consumption, places his estimate at $711,000,000. This estimate is none too low, for one of the purposes of this computation was "to put a stop to the wild stories constantly circulated regarding the enormous sum annually spent in the United States for alcoholic beverages." Yet do these figures look at all flattering? Dr. William Hargreaves, author of "Alcohol and Science," taking figures from the U. S. Bureau of Statistics as to the quantity of liquor used in 1886, prepared the following table:—
Domestic spirits, 70,751,355 gals., at $6 per gal. . $424,508,130
Domestic malt liquors, 20,669,235 bbls. (640,746,288 gals.), at $20 per bbl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413,384,700
Imported spirits, 1,410,259 gals., at $10 per gal. . . . 14,102,590
Imported wines, 4,700,827 gals., at $5 per gal. . . . . . 23,504,135
Imported malt liquors, 2,221,432 gals., at $2 per gal. . 4,442,864
Domestic wines, 17,366,393 gals., at $2 per gal. . . . . 34,732,786
Total, 737,196,554 gals., costing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $914,675,205 The prices upon which this calculation is based are those used by Dr. Young, chief of the Bureau of Statistics, and the estimated liquor bill for the country for the year 1886 must, therefore, be in the neighborhood of $900,000,000. Taking the prices used by Dr. Young, and the consumption of alcoholic liquors in 1896 as given in the World Almanac, we compile the following table for that year:—
Domestic spirits, 69,510,373 gals., at $6 per gal. . . $417,062,238
Domestic malt liquors, 34,752,439 bbls. (1,077,325,634 gals.), at $20 per bbl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695,048,780
Imported spirits, 1,541,594 gals., at $10 per gal. . . . 15,415,940
Imported wines, 4,101,649 gals., at $5 per gal. . . . . . 20,508,245
Imported malt liquor, 3,300,531 gals., at $2 per gal. . 6,601,062
Domestic wines, 14,599,757 gals., at $2 per gal. . . . . 29,199,514
Total, 1,170,379,448 gallons, costing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,183,835,776 This immense sum of money is beyond our comprehension. Assuming the population of the United States to be 70,000,000, the amount spent for liquor would average $17 annually for every man, woman, and child in the country,—enough to pay the salaries of the 400,000 public school-teachers for five years. The eleven hundred million gallons would fill a reservoir 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and 12 miles long, and would float all the war ships of the United States. The reports for 1896 show 216,358 retail and 10,397 wholesale liquor dealers in the United States, making a total of 230,476 engaged in this business, or one liquor firm to every 60 voters. The capital invested in the liquor business is estimated at more than a billion dollars. The grain consumed in one year in the manufacture of malt liquors would, if made into bread instead, supply each family of the land with 150 large loaves of bread. And, large as these numbers are, they are increasing. The accompanying diagram of the nation's drink bill for twenty years makes this very evident. From 1881 to 1896 the annual consumption of liquor has increased from 538,000,000 gallons to 1,170,000,000 gallons—more than 100 per cent. During the same time the population has increased from 50,000,000 to 70,000,000, or 40 per cent. Thus the consumption of liquor has increased two and one-half times as fast as the population. To what will this in a few years bring us?