CHAPTER XI. ALCOHOL DESTROYS THE WEALTH OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE. Things Proved and Clear in Regard to the Effects of Alcohol- An Invoice of the Stock in Trade of an Industry of Destruction-The Claim that Temperance Statistics are Inflated and Unreliable-The Demand for a Commission of Inquiry-Col. Switzler's Work-The Liquor Production of the United States-A table Representing a Gigantic Business Transaction-Remarkable Increase in the Use of Malt Liquors-Facts Furnished by the Brewers' Association-Letter of Louis Schade-Mr. Zimmerman's Figures-The 100,000 Annual Victims-The Figures for 1886-The Cost of Drink per Family-The Annual Loss to the Nation -Demands for a Commission of Inquiry. WE and its effects E have thus far confined our attention chiefly to the investigation of the nature of alcohol within the human system. It is clear from the light of experience, observation, science and history that alcohol is a destructive poison to the healthy body; that its supposed benefit as a food is a fallacy; that as a medicine its use is seldom or never necessary, always attended with danger, specially liable to abuse on the part both of the physician and the patient, full of latent and fatal fascination to the patient as yet uncursed by its love, and almost sure to revive the tyranny of old appetite, which may have been by great effort partially suppressed, but which can seldom, if ever, be wholly eradicated; that the food quality in the least noxious forms known, as in the fermented drinks, is so small that its use as a nourishment elevates the practice of extracting sunbeams from cucumbers into a comparatively fruitful industry, and gives dignity to the occupation of those who sup on the east wind; that in an economical view the millionaire would be ruined in the vain attempt to pay his board bill if he were to live upon pabulum of this description, while it would be a manifest impossibility for the physical machinery to manipulate the vast mass of liquid with its homœopathic atoms of fodder, so that the digestive powers of the giant could save the gnat from rapid starvation; that there STATISTICS OF DRINK. 195 is no form of horrid or fatal disease which does not find in its use either its origin or aggravation; that the intellect disintegrates and perishes under its baleful influence; that it eats out the moral nature as with a tooth of a hot iron; converts its victim into a criminal or an imbecile; and makes death more welcome than life; that it casts forth the drunkard upon society, wrecked body and soul, damned beforehand, and already a naturalized citizen of the infernal world. This we have seen to be the natural and almost unavoidable result of the habitual and prolonged use of alcohol by the individual human being. But it remains for us to ascertain, if possible, and to sum up the vast account of crime and misery-to take an invoice, as it were, of the stock in trade of this great industry of destruction and despair. This is no easy task; to it have been given great volumes written in blood, with pens of power on pages lighted with unearthly fire. But there is a magnitude to the subject which the most vivid imagination cannot compass. The figures are like those of astronomy, and their tremendous impressiveness cannot be increased by illustration. To one who comprehends at all the force of mathematical notation-of facts in the form of figures-nothing can be so vivid and overwhelming as the contemplation of a truthful and moderate statistical statement of the extent of the traffic in alcoholic beverages, in our country and in the world. It is to such a statement, with no more of explanation and comparison than shall be necessary to assist the mind, in part, to grasp the significance of calculations and tabulated matter, that this chapter will be devoted. It has long been claimed by those engaged in the liquor traffic and their advocates that "temperance statistics" are inflated and unreliable. It is true that the opponents of the traffic have never been able to secure the services of their own government to assist in obtaining the whole truth; but this has been prevented by the opposition of the traffic itself, which preferred to rest under the weight of what was already proven, and asserted with such proof that it was apparent to all that official investigation would more than confirm its most astounding aggregates. For six Congresses, twelve years in succession, have the enemies of alcohol called upon the government for an impar tial Commission of Inquiry into this traffic. Six times has the American Senate passed the bill, and so far the liquor lobby has strangled the bill-that it might suppress the truth. That truth is stranger and worse than the wildest fiction to be found in the literature of the advocates of the Great Reform-and they who oppose the investigation well know it. The Bureau of Statistics, under its very able chief, who is a broad and liberal statesman, as well as eminent statistician, has given us the most recent and reliable of all official data, ever collected in any country, of the extent of the liquor trade. This invaluable service entitles Col. Switzler to the everlasting gratitude of his countrymen living, and of the generations to come. Henceforth we have a minimum resting upon the solid basis of official mathematics. Above and beyond rises the structure of probability and of demonstration from other impregnable evidence-but there is need of nothing more than these records to convince every honest and unprejudiced mind that the traffic in alcoholic beverages must go. The table on page 197 exhibits the amount of production of fermented liquors and distilled spirits in the United States, together with the quantity of distilled spirits withdrawn for consumption from bond, (where it is placed during the process of evaporation and until required for sale, so that tax may not be exacted for more than is available for use), from 1863 to 1886, inclusive. What gigantic business transactions does this table represent! What misery, crime and despair! Better that the civil war had raged unchecked during the whole period, if this terrible trade could have been destroyed along with the institution which drenched this glorious Union in fraternal blood. The table on page 198 exhibits the annual consumption per capita of population during the years 1840, 1850, 1860, and from 1870 to 1886 inclusive. These per capita exhibits, which, so common in tabulation, are perhaps the best to convey an idea of the extent of the traffic as compared to the whole population, but they also convey a false idea as to the actual injury inflicted by it. The most of the burden of this whole evil is in the first instance concentrated upon individual consumers, and their immediate dependents, being PRODUCTION OF DISTILLED SPIRITS, EXCLUSIVE OF BRANDY DISTILLED FROM FRUIT. a Of not more than 31 gallons. The returns of spirits distilled from apples, grapes and peaches were included in the account of spirits distilled from other materials until July 1, 1884. c Including fruit brandy. No returns of the production of the different kinds of spirits other than fruit brandy were made prior to July 1, 1877. There are no official data of annual production of spirits prior to 1866 except quantities on which tax was paid. There are provisions for exportation of spirits without payment of tax in Acts of July 1, 1862, and June 30, 1864; also provisions for abatement of tax on spirits lost by leakage in transportation in Acts of March 3, 1863, and June 30, 1864, but there are no data in the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue by which the total quantity of spirits so exported and lost by leakage each year can be determined prior to fiscal year 1866-67. Hence the production above given for 1863, 1864 and 1865 is the same as the tax-paid quantities for those years, and represents the true production less unknown quantities exported and lost by leakage. To get production for 1866, the quantity returned for tax that year (14,847,943 gallons) is added to 9,214,762 gallons stock on hand at close of same may have been, and doubtless was, produced in previous years. year (see page ix. Rep. Com. Int. Rev., 1867), making 24,062,705 gallons as production of 1865-66, though some of the quantity in warehouse at close of the year 197 ANNUAL CONSUMPTION OF DISTILLED AND MALT LIQUORS AND WINES IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA 1840.. OF POPULATION. Year Spirits of domes- Imported tic product. spirits entered Total. 'Wines of Imported wines Total. All for con- pro- liquors of entered Imported malt Malt liquors Total consump Total. for con- domestic for con tion of product. a sumption liquors. wines Pr.galls Pr.galls. Pr.galls. Pr.galls. Gallons. Gallons. a Product less exports. 4,748,362 4,873,096 23,162,571 148,272 23,310,843 NOTES (1) The data as to product of domestic liquors and wines for 1840, 1850 and 1860 were derived from the Census. (2) The consumption of |