Temperance Column.

Evening Post, Volume LI, Issue 63, 14 March 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

Temperance Column.

[The matter for this Column is supplied by a representative of the local Temperance bodies, who alone is responsible for the opinions expressed in it.] DRINK IN RELATION TO COMMERCE. Mr. J. R. Wigham, J.P., chairman of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, who had been prevented by an unexpected business journey to the United States from attending a Temperance gathering, sent a letter, in whichhe said:— "Friends and foes alike admit that intemperance is one of the greatest obstacles to commercial prosperity. I venture to think that there is no greater fallacy than the notion that the drink trade is one giving reproductive employment to the people, and that, therefore, it should be fostered and encouraged. In tne city of Dublin, as everyone knows, we have enormous breweries and distilleries. They have been held to represent our staple trade, but, we may ask, is the general population the better for suoh manufactures or the worse ? No doubt they give employment to labourers and artisans, but in proportion to the capital invested much less employment than most other trades. The butchers, dairymen and bakers, are the tradesmen who supply what may be termed the common necessaries of life, and yet altogether they only number 700, as compared with the 708 liquor shops comprising ' the trade.' It has been computed that these 708 liquor shops in the city of Dublin take over the counter about £20,000 a week. This money comes chiefly out of the pockets of the working classes. What do they get in return ? Not the necessaries of life— clothing, food, books, and even the innocent luxuries, but that whioh deprives them of the power to purohase these things, and sends many thousands every year into the workhouse, the gaol, and the lunatic asylum." Mr. E. Priestman (Bradford) read a paper on ' ' Drink in Relation to Commerce. Starting from the standpoint that the olaim which any trade or industry had to public approval and support was to be determined by the advantages which it conferred upon those in any way associated with it, Mr. Priestman pointed out that the liquor traffic was an important faotor in social arrangements, and had an important bearin»" upon commerce and industry. It had an" invested capital of not muoh less than that of the entire railway system of the country, and a turnover nearly double in amount; limited liabilitiy companies in which people of all olasses of society were interested, and 200,000 centres of influence throughout the country, -whioh contributed to the support of at least as many families. The principle of Free Trade, when applied to the liquor traffic, no longer held good._ It was the misfortune of those engaged in it that the more business they transacted the greater -was the mischief produced, and such was the nature of the artiole sold that it had been found needful to impose limitations of the most stringent nature, and heavy penalties where these were exceeded. It was open to doubt whether all other causes of depression combined had not been more than outweighed by the wasteful and ruinous expenditure on intoxicants, which had done so much to reduce the spendingpower of the wage- earning olasses. Three thousand millions, a sum greater than the value of all the land of Great Britain, represented less than the amount which had been spent in drink during the last quarter of a century, fully half of that havingbeencontribut ed by the wage-earning classes. If onertbird of that amount had been spent upon the products of yarjous in* dustrtes they would bavo been less do. pendent upon foreign demands for their goods, and several other, benefits would have arisen. An extra expenditure of £2,000,000 in the worsted , industry had just produced a striking improvement, and if that were so, tho result of the expenditure of £40,000,000 could be realised in some degree. The fact that in the manufacture of drink less money was paid in labour than in that of almost any other commodity was but a small part of the question. Jt was also unprofitable labour, since it turned a valuable product of nature into that which was poverty-producing.