Publishing. Slaughtering and Meat Products. Tobacco. Woolen and Worsted.

Among the industries distributing a smaller amount of wages than the beer industry, the following may be mentioned: Agricultural Implements. Brick and Tiles. Carpets and Rugs. Coke. Cutlery. Dyeing and Finishing Textiles. Flour and Grist Mills. Glass. Leather Goods. Paper and Wood Pulp. Pottery. Ship Building. Silken Goods.

Is it conceivable that the sudden cessation of an industry which annually distributes more than forty-one million dollars in wages could take place without causing wide-spread misery, not to mention that no other industry pays so liberal a wage? And let us remember that the question is not merely of the amount paid wageearners. To this sum must be added the more than twenty-two million dollars paid annually to salaried employees. The number of persons who would be directly affected, including both classes, is more than 66,000. Assuming that each one of these represents, in addition, three dependents, which is probably a low average, we have an army of about 200,000 whose livelihood would be gone.

The displacement as breadwinners of the numbers just considered would be serious enough, but if we could add the numbers in affiliated industries and agriculture who would be wholly or partially displaced, the total would swell to such appalling proportions that one hesitates to speculate about it. Yet the depression and ruin certain to grow out of the annihilation of the brewing industry would be felt in much wider circles than those indicated, as we shall presently show.

VALUE OF PRODUCTS.

The census gives the value of the products of the beer industry for 1909 as $374,730,000, since which time there has been a considerable growth of output and, consequently, in total values. In other words, the beer industry ranked seventeenth among all the industries of the United States in point of the value of products. To attempt to minimize the fact by saying that beer should have no place as a commodity of life is, of course, to beg the whole question. Whether beer is a necessity or merely a "food-luxury" is not under discussion, but solely its economic importance as a product of industry. One may remark parenthetically that if our industries were of a sudden to be restricted to what would come under a strict

definition of necessaries of life, our country might as well declare general bankruptcy at once.

It must be conceded, however, that from a purely manufacturing standpoint the value of the beer product is somewhat exaggerated as it includes a very large amount of tax paid to the Federal government. On the other hand, this taxable quality of beer gives it a peculiar economic importance. Moreover, in its distribution and sale, it takes on new values which by no means adhere to all manufactured products, and which affect us all directly or indirectly. To the Federal government the beer product constitutes an exceedingly important object of taxation which in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912, yielded a total revenue of $63,268,770.51. The Federal corporation tax paid by the brewers should be added to this amount, but the exact sum can not be stated. If the Federal government were deprived of these taxes it would be necessary to devise new forms of taxation more directly constituting a burden upon the citizen.

Let us further consider that the breweries and their appurtenances represent a vast amount of property which is taxed for State and local purposes. Should the manufacture of beer be generally forbidden, this property would necessarily shrink to next to nothing in value, besides greatly lessening the value of property held by other affiliated industries; and a readjustment of State and local taxes would necessarily follow in many places. The validity of this statement is not in the least affected by pointing to States where both the sale and manufacture of beer are outlawed. All such places necessarily share the economic benefits of the manufacture of beer elsewhere. Even prohibition States can not help supplying brewers with their products. North Dakota and Kansas still provide barley, Maine its staves, Tennessee its coal and iron, etc. All share the Federal revenue from beer and participate in a score of other ways in the economic benefits of the beer industry. Besides prohibition, even when demanded by the Constitution and the statutory law, is a theory rather than a practice.

The beer product is a very important item in transportation. In the first instance, there are the vehicles necessary for its removal from the place of manufacture, implying the use of a large number of horses, wagons or of automobile trucks, the latter assuming a highly significant place in the automobile industry. Once more the farmer (the stock-raiser) is affected and with him the manufacturer

of wagons and trucks. Next comes the transportation of beer by railroad companies, express concerns and others. Merely the number of special cars needed for this purpose, their refrigeration, etc., count up large sums. In short, the loss to transportation companies would be markedly felt.

When the beer product has reached its final destination and is to be distributed, one may say that it becomes a new object of taxation through the license fees imposed upon the places where it is sold. The exact total of the license fees in the whole of the United States can not be stated, much less can we separate the sum paid solely for the privilege of selling beer. For present purposes it suffices, however, to say that, exclusive of the Federal tax, the liquor license fees in this country amount annually to more than eighty million dollars and that the greater part falls upon the sale of beer.

We may put the case differently by saying that if countrywide prohibition were enacted, we should have to discover other taxable sources yielding an annual revenue of more than eighty million dollars for State and local purposes. Is it not evident that we all have a share in the value of beer as a yielder of revenue? The common retort that the abuse of intoxicants causes social ills entailing financial burdens that far exceed the amount received in taxes or license fees is simply an evasion of the issue. One can meet it fairly by saying that the communities which boast of having suppressed the manufacture and sale of liquors do not show a relatively greater degree of freedom from crime, pauperism, insanity, disease and other ailments than those which seek to regulate the traffic. This does not prove so much that prohibition has failed of its mission as that the social troubles under consideration have not, as is commonly alleged, their tap-root in the abuse of drink. Is not insanity common, crime rampant, and pauperism and disease all-pervading among nations. whose religion demands abstinence? Human nature can not be made over, nor the ills our flesh is heir to destroyed, by the simple method of removing one form of temptation.

There remains yet another consideration of the economic importance of the brewing industry. The manufactured product is sold at places numbering about 240,000. These figures are based. upon the totals of those who pay the government tax as retailers and wholesalers, exclusive of the illegal vendors in the prohibition States. It may be remarked in passing that in a State like Maine

much revenue is gained locally by fining these people, and it is employed to reduce the local tax rate, without telling objection being raised. The several thousand who pay a government tax in prohibition States are not reckoned in the above number.

It is a very low estimate to say that every beer-selling place gives employment on an average to three adult males. In other words, the number of such adults, who for the greater part would be thrown out of employment if the sale of beer ceased, cannot be estimated at less than 720,000. We cannot consider that these men are engaged in the sale of other beverages as well, for if the manufacture of beer were prohibited that of other intoxicants would meet the same fate.

Then how about those dependent upon these dealers for livelihood, their families? Hence it is not an over-statement that each of these adults engaged in selling beer stands for an average of three dependents. This gives a total of 2,160,000 who would be thrown upon the world for a different form of living!

One could go on multiplying valid evidence of the economic importance of the beer industry and seek out details in infinite numbers. But the thesis with which this article began has been proven.

It only remains to sketch in brief paragraphs the status of the beer industry in different States and adduce some official proof of the high place it holds among other industries. All of the information given below is taken from the last United States census and is found scattered through the bulletins for States. The omission of certain States is due to the insignificance of the beer industry in them, or the fact that they are under prohibition. In all, mention is made of 29 States.

California. The malt liquor industry shows considerable growth for the last census decade, the gain both in value of products and in value added by manufacture being greater, however, for the five-year period 1897-1904 than for the following five-year period. The industry now ranks as the eleventh among the fifteen leading industries of the State in value of products.

Colorado. The malt liquor industry shows an increase of 56.2 per cent. during the period 1904-1909, as against an increase of only 3.8 per cent. during the years 1899-1904, and now ranks eighth among the 18 leading industries of the State.

Connecticut.

The State now ranks its beer industry as twentyfirst among its fifty leading industries. The value of the beer products shows the great increase of 51.2 per cent. in value during 1904-1909, while the increase for the preceding five-year period was but 10.3 per cent.

Delaware. In this small State the manufacture of beer is not extensive, the value of products being $791,000, in 1909. Yet it occupies the eleventh place among the twenty industries ennumerated at the census. The increase in the value of products between 1904 and 1909 was 4.1 per cent.

Idaho. Among the seven industries in this agricultural State, that of brewing ranks sixth in the value of products, which shows an increase in 1904-1909 of not less than 130.4 per cent., and was then in a most flourishing condition.

Illinois. During the five-year period 1904-1909, the number of breweries decreased from 116 to 106, but there was an increase of 365, or 9.1 per cent. in the average number of wage-earners and $4,662,000, or 19.6 per cent., in the value of products, which reached the sum of $27,900,000. In other words, the malt liquor industry ranks thirteenth in the value of products annually among the 95 leading industries of Illinois.

Indiana. Of the 55 industries showing products in excess of $500,000 in value, that of the manufacture of beer ranks seventeenth. The value of the product was over eight million dollars and showing an increase of 34.2 per cent. in 1904-1909, as compared with 7.3 per cent. in the period 1899-1904.

Iowa. In this State, the beer industry holds the fifteenth place among the 45 leading industries; the figures are available, showing the per cent. of increase in the value of products, but it is significant that this value exceeds annually three million dollars. There was a time when the industry was banished from Iowa.

Kentucky. The thriving condition of the malt liquor industry is indicated by an increase in the value of products of 34.7 per cent., during the five-year period of 1904-1909, as against 15.3 per cent.