Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1894 — TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND [ARTICLE]

TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND

Men Engaged In the Liquor Boatnew tn New York State. The great influence which the liquor men exert upon politics is easily explained by the fact that nearly every person engaged in the business is a man and ha a vote. The number thus employed is enormous. A con-ervative estimate pla< es the number of men enaged either directly or indirectly in Me . York State alone at 200,000. There <tre ,700 licensed liquor saloons in New York City, 3,000 in Brooklyn, 2,200 in Bufalo, 950 in Albany, 850 in Rochester, and 700 in Troy, a total of 15,400 in the ix biggest cities. There are 4 ; 5oo I‘ensed saloons in the other thirty < ties of the State and 8,000 in the uninc rpo. ated townships, a total of it-.fi ■>. Figuring at two. the average number. i. barkeel ers to a saloon, the result i- 84,00.} proprietors, barkeepers a d helpers. To this total must be added the following: T ere are 030 breweries in New Yoik Stu o. and the number of men employed in < ach. workmen, superintendents, book-keepers, collectors, cashiers, d ive.-, hostlers, chemi-ts, coopers, and engineers, averages about eighty men, making a total of more than 50.000. There are 450 distilleries in the 8 ato. ha ing an average working so c ; in all de, artmeutsof about thirly man in office and factory, making a t til of about 13,500 men engaged in the wholesale branch of the liquor business

Then the e are the dea’erein saloonkeeiers fixtures, t eir clerks, drummer , and workmen: there are those who make a business of providing the free Lmches: there are the bottlers, a lar e lass; the manufacturers of and deale s in glassware, saloon mirrors, beer pumps, and cork screws, and the makers of advertising signs and orname uts. This about includes the domestic beer and liquor interest of the State and those interested and affiliated with it. There is to be added the foreign import trade in wines, champagnes, ales, spirits, liquors and brandies, and the agents, clerks, and salesmen engaged in it With the-e ad itions the total number of men in the wine, liquor, and beer trades in New York State, or directly connected w th them, does not fall anything short of 210,000. The business is peculiar in this, that it is almost the only one of lar_e dimensions in which, from the nature of it, women and minors are wholly excluded. The liquor business is conducted almost exclusively by m n, and practically by citizens, and to this fact is attributable, in part, the la’-go influence which liquor men exercise n politics, for this is pre-eminent-ly a case whrre every worker ha- a vo'e— if not more than one —through t e influence which he is able to exert. The number of breweries in the United Stages is 1,930, and of distilleries, 4,79!. The total in Germany is 25,000, and in Great Britain 16,000.