FIGURES OF HELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 17, 21 August 1885, Page 11

FIGURES OF HELL.

(From the Catholic World.") Longman said — and that famous publisher ought to have known that "it was the title that sold a book." I was reminded of this saying when I chanced to glance at a book, with the nn winning and uncannytitle of « Figures of Hell, 1 that somehow had strayed into my library — often seen there, but never opened once because of its title. For the first time I recognized in the name of the author one of the most celebrated women of this country, and, wondering what she had to say about intemperance, I read a few pages and then I read the book to the end. Since Helper's ' Impending Crisis' no unprofessional^ writer has shown a greater power of massing facts and hurling them with Grant-like force on the enemy, than Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson. They first repel, then attract, then astound tbe reader ; for, the first repugnance to statistics overcome, the story they tell amazes by its revelations and arouses the moral sense to aggressiveness by its lessons. Without quoting more than one figure in a hundred, and arranging them in a new order for a swift review— referring to the book itself for the amplest statistical proofs— let me present some of the startling facts that this writer has marshalled in war-like, stern array. The year selected ended June 30, 1881— the last year of authenticated Federal returns available at the time the book was written. Tbe totals would be at least ten per cent, higher for the year that ends in June, 1885. In 1881 these facts were undisputable : Gallons, We imported of different liquors ... ... ... 7,556,603 We manufactured of distilled spirits ... ... 69,127,206 We manufactured of fermented liquors ... ... 443,641,868 Making in all ... ... ... ... 620,325,677 gallons of intoxicating liquors that were imported, manufactured, and sold in tbe United States in a single year I In round numbers— as we were then fifty millions — we consumed ten gallons and two-fifths of a gallon for every man, woman, and child ; or, reckoning families as groups of five, one gallon each and every week for each and every family, making three drinks a day for each and every member. This estimate leaveß out of account all secretly-made or " moonlight " whiskeys, and others. Every day we drink 1,425,550 gallons— 2B,sll,ooo glasses ; or every second we drink 330 glasses, never stopping a single second, night nor day, from the New Year's birth to the Old Year's death. So much forqu ntity ; now for cash cost of it. Dollars. Our imported liquors retailed lor ... •.-.. ... 67,274,032 Our home-made spirits retailed for ... ... ... 207,381,618 Our home-made fermented liquors retailed for ... 443,641,868 Showing that we paid in one year for intoxicating liquors the vast sum of ... ... ... 718,297,518

--! i.v.*.\ — rrtrrz — ( : Striking off, tomake round numbers,»the eighteen^ Id millions, and estimating population at fifty millions, .these figures show that we spend for drink no less than 1 idols, for each and every person in the United States, 70doJs. for each and every family, 1,967,938d015. daily, and every second— " every time the clock ticks." m Mrs Thompson puts it— 2276dols. I * These figures, striking as they are, do not tell the whole story ; they show the money-cost only of the liquor-traffic to the people. There are other and almost as serious consequential damaged to bo estimated in considering the gross expenses of the drinking habit. There is an army of no less than 909,980 persons— adult males for the greater part—employed in the manufacture and sale of liquors in the United States. This is one to every sixty of the entire population—one adult person to every group of twelve families. These men (and nece sarily they are mostly able-bodied men) are taken from productive — that is to say, wealth-producing — employments ; they are a tax on the workers, adding no one element of prosperity to the common wealth of the nation. At the low wages which all of them could earn they would receive every year of 300 days (thus allowing a large percentage for holidays and sick-days) the great sum of 272,994,000 dole. Who can estimate the annual loss of permanent wealth that trrs aggregate of wagts implies and suggests ? Supposing that every man employed in making and distributing intoxicating liquors should remain a good citizen, as many of them, are apart from their traffic, yet we cannot regard their withdrawal from the normal and wealth-producing industries as the most serious consequential damage done to the nation by the drinking habit. There remain the more direct damages of crime and its cost, which include the grievous burden of the expensive machinery demanded for its repression and punishment. The Federal statistics show that there are in the United States " 600,000 persons daily incapacitated for labor by reason of liquor." This number includes the drunkards, the criminals, the insane, and the paupers who have been dragged down into the ranks of these classes by the direct and recognized influence of using intoxicating drinks. At one dollar a day, in a year of 300 days, this army of 600,000 persons placed hors dutravadl by the drinking habit, could have earned 180,000,000 dols., which, added to the other totals of moneycost and the loss of services of the army of makers and sellersestimating these services on the wage-basis only — amount to the stupendous, aggregate of 1,171,291,518 dols., per annum 1 •' This vast sum," writes Mrs. Thompson, "is 23 dols. per capita for every man, woman, and child in the country. It is nearly equal to our entire gold, silver, and paper circulation combined. It would build and equip 30,000 miles of railroad— nearly one-third aB many as are now in operation ; pay th« coßt of the public-schools for fifteen years, erect and maintain twelve thousand colleges ; send out and support 1,200,000 missionaries ; pay, the entire national debt in two years ; pay the entire debt of the country, national, State, municipal, in less than four years ; construct 600 first-class ocean-steamers ; erect and maintain 3,750 hospitals, libraries, or homes for the aged ; provide one-third of -the people in the United States with homesteads of 160 acres each ; Tun the Post-Office Department for 34 years ; support the navy for 75 years ; pay our foreign consular service for 1,725 years ; purchase, at seven dollar* a barrel, 167,327,359 barrels of flour, and pay the salary of the President of the United States for 23,425 years 1" More than two-fifths of the arrests in New York city are of persons " intoxicated," or persons "drunk and disorderly." Uniting the fguresof these two legally- separated offences — yet coming from the same source— the total number of arrests of liquor criminals was 28,669. (The total number of arrests for all offences was 69,632.) Who pays the expeuse of supporting two-fifths of the p >lice force thus employed, and for two-fifths of the prison accommodation thus rendered necessary, and for two-fifths of the costly machinery of justice^ otherwise unneeded, that the liquor-traffic forces us to maintain ? Tbe liquor manufacturers or importers, or wholesale dealers or retailers ? No ; tbe labouring classes aad the law-abiding directors of industry. The maudlin or noisy drunkards were not the only persons in New York who were thus lodged in public institutions at the public expense because of the traffic in intoxicating drinks. No less than 120,083 " indigent persons " were forced to ask for lodgings at the station-house. That is to say, a number, during the year, that represents one-twelfth of the entire population 1 About 58,000 were men, over 62,000 were women 1 Mghty-five per cent, of them admitting that their poverty had come from drink. Wbo paid for the lodgings of these victims of drink ? You and I, readers, and the r^st of the workers of New York. And how much 1 The rost of keeping up the police is 3,280,053d015. Two fifths "of it must be charged directly to the liquor-traffic. " The cost of the various courts," alsi writes Mrs. Thompson, "made necessary by reason of the traflic in liquors in New York city alone, reached the sum of two millions of dollars 1 " "S The cost of maintaining the Department of Public Charities and Correction is 1,262,616d01e. " Over 90 per cent, of it was made necessary by reason of the traffic in liquors." '. Did you ever try to guess how many liquor-stores there are in New York City ? If they were built side by side in one street, and on both sides of it, that double-lined, death-dealing street would stretch all the way from Kingsbridge to Battery I There are fewer liquor-shops in the Sixth Avenue than in any other business avenue in New York ; and yet in five consecutive blocks, and in the most respectable part of it, you can count twenty-nine different places where intoxicating drinks are publicly sold ? There are over 8,000 of them in New York city. - , The statistics of character of the keepers of these shops are almost as startling as the other " figures of hell " that we have quoted. No one can get a license to sell liquor unless he can " certify " that he has a " good moral character." If you try to find out what the word " uacred " means as applied to the kings of England from a study of their records, you are apt to believe that it means a person wbo wears a crown and has broken all the Commandments. A similar

deductive study would lead to a similar result in investigating the SS 88 * 1 522?! ng ? f "a good moral character" in the certificate of a NewYod| liquor-seller. There aie in New York of liquor shops ... ... 8,034 Of their proprietors who have " served their" time in . , State Prisons there are ... ... ... 2,004 Of their proprietors who have been confined in county prisons there are ... , ... ..;. 2,665 Of their proprietors who have been confined in city' prisons there are ... ... ... ii f769f 769 " 6,438 .. .. , .lieavingonly 1t596l t 596 licensed dealers in intoxicating liquors who have never been in jail 1 Yet they have each and all, thesj 8,034, certificates of « good moral character ! " " They are all honourable men I " Judge Noah Davis, who for a fall quarter of a century sat on the bench of New York, declares as the result of his judicial experience that he had found " three-fiftl* of all cases of violence to be directly traceable Uttroag drinks." Ninety-three per cent, of the persons confined in the House of Industry were sent there for liquor- crimes. In the New York hospiUls of the insane, out of 286 patients 139 were habitual drunkards. 95 moderate, drinkers, and only three were, total abstainers. It is sometimes argued that we should leave the liquor-traffic alone; that education will cure all evils that may come from its unlicensed sale. But the statistics of education and crime do not warrant this hope or belief; for, as Mrs. Thompson has shown, •' within the last 25 years our teachers have increased from 25 to 30 per cent., and pupils attending school more than 50 per cent., yet crime has fncraased 60 per cent., about keeping pace with the increase of the traffic in liquori." That's what the Freuch call a reply "tarn rjpligtie" r A wider range gives the same or similar results. Federal statistics show that 20 per cent, of the insane in all insane asylums of the United States went mad as the direct result of the use of intoxicating drinks, and that 35 per cent, of the remaining number were made insane indirectly by the use of liquors. The Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane tabulated its records for 28 years. With what result? It was shown that 13 9.10 of the inmates had been made insane directly from the use of intoxicating drinks. Judge Allison estimates that four-fifths of the crimes'committed in the United States are direct.y attributable "to the influence of rem. There is not one case in twenty," he says, " where a man is tried for his life, in which rum is not the direct or indirect cause of the murder." Foreign countries tell the same story. Two insane asylums in Liverpool report — the first, that oat of 83 cases admitted 50 were made insane by liquor ; the second, that out of 495 patients •* 257 were known to have been made insane by drinking." In the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum exactly one-half were made insane by drinking. The tabulated reports of all the asylums of England and Scotland showed that " more than 20 per cent, of the patients were made insane by intemperance." Dublin found that 115 oat of 286 patients in her lunatic asylum were made insane by the ÜBe of liquor. St. Petersburg, where brandy is the popular liquor, gives a terrible report. There is one brandy-shop in the Russian capitar for every 293 persons. During five years the five chief hospitals in that city treated no less than 3, 241 cases of delirium tremens I Canada repeats the mournful story. "Out of 28,289 commitments to the gaols for the three previous years," says an official report, " 21,236 were commited either for drunkenness or for crimes perpetrated under the influence of drink." I objected to the title before I read Mrs. Thompson's little book, from which I have selected my statistics, but a study of it shows that she was not far astray naming it as she did :— Figures of Hell.