Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong DrinkArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Religion
Grappling with the Monster; Or, the Curse and the Cure of Strong Drink
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Temperance
Taking this as the proportion of those who are made criminals through
intemperance, let us get at some estimate of the cost to tax-payers. We
find it stated in Tract No. 28, issued by the National Temperance
Society, that "a committee was appointed by the Ulster County Temperance
Society, in 1861, for the express purpose of ascertaining, from reliable
sources, the percentage on every dollar tax paid to the county to
support her paupers and criminal justice. The committee, after due
examination, came to the conclusion that upwards of sixty cents on the
dollar was for the above purpose. This amount was required, _according
to law_, to be paid by every tax-payer as a _penalty, or rather as a rum
bill_, for allowing the liquor traffic to be carried on in the above
county. What is said of Ulster County, may, more or less, if a like
examination were entered into, be said of every other county, not only
in the State of New York, but in every county in the United States."
From the same tract we take this statement: "In a document published by
the Legislature of the State of New York, for 1863, being the report of
the Secretary of the State to the Legislature, we have the following
statements: 'The whole number of paupers relieved during the same
period, was 261,252. During the year 1862, 257,354.' These numbers would
be in the ratio of one pauper annually to every fifteen inhabitants
throughout the State. In an examination made into the history of those
paupers by a competent committee, _seven-eighths of them were reduced_
to this low and degraded condition, directly or indirectly, through
intemperance."
CURSING THE POOR.
Looking at our laboring classes, with the fact before us, that the cost
of the liquor sold annually by retail dealers is equal to nearly $25 for
every man, woman and child in our whole population, and we can readily
see why so much destitution is to be found among them. Throwing out
those who abstain altogether; the children, and a large proportion of
women, and those who take a glass only now and then, and it will be seen
that for the rest the average of cost must be more than treble. Among
working men who drink the cheaper beverages, the ratio of cost to each
cannot fall short of a hundred dollars a year. With many, drink consumes
from a fourth to one-half of their entire earnings. Is it, then, any
wonder that so much poverty and suffering are to be found among them?
CRIME AND PAUPERISM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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