Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 40, Number 185, 17 July 1915 — Page 8

AGE EIGHT

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. SATURDAY, JtTLT 17, 1915. PALLADIUM'S SATURDAY FEATURE PAGE .

Will

a Follow

Vc? ays Jseph I)ebar, Secretary of the h National Wholesale Liquor Dealers'

1 A . T A

Association oi America, who i7eciares loai me Wiping Out of the Country's Liquor Industry Will Cense the Most Disastrous Panic in All History.

Dy Joseph Drar Nv St ean tell with certaluc Just bow grcvit would be the disaster that general prohibition would entail. There Is nothing ta the paati by which to accurately gauge it. out we da have certain statistics of the people employer and money Invested In the liquor busin.& trout which to forecast result. If nation-wide prohibition came, the present business depression would be but a small one in coitiparlaoa with it. Unemployment in the Industries directly and indirectly affected would be greater, beyond a doubt, than we have ever soen in this country. There h&s been some attempt among Prohibitionists to liken the present movement to that against slavery. There is this essential difference, from a financial standpoint, between Urn slavery and the prohibition movements that -nust be "kept In mind. The abolition of slavery, while it worked a change in the economic conditions of the laborers, making them free men instead of slaves, did not wipe out as a whole their employers. There was just as much work to be done when slaves were set free as when that great change was first proposed. With the Prohibition movement It is an enjrroly different matter. Not only is the country's fifth largest industry to be destroyed bodily, its assets to be wiped out or depreciated to a fearful extent, its employers and employes thrown out of occupation, forced to seek other lines of industry and compete with those al- , ready there employed, but at the same time one-third of the total revenues of the National Oovernment are to be given up, and the other industries of the country must shoulder this great annual tax of one-fourth of a billion dollars and must do so while absorbing the unemployed labor of the industry wiped out and competing with the employers and employes of that industry who seek other avenues for the Investment of what capital they may have left after thoy see their physical assets put upon the auction block and the good will of their business ruthlessly destroyed. Put as briefly as possible, the different effects of nation-wide prohibition may bo stated as follows: Abolition of business representing a capltallration estimated at from $3,000,000,000 to $5.000,000.000. Absolute lo.-.r, of a largo proportion of the assets of this industry and tremendous depreciation In value of the remainder. Closing up of over 2,400 plants manufacturing distilled, malt and vinous liquors, having a capital, by the 1000 census, of $31,000,000, purchasing raw materials valued at $1C9.000,000 unnunlly and turning out a product valued at ever $R30. 000,000 annually. Closing up of over 203,000 retail liquor establishments with an investment running up into many millions of dollars. Bankruptcy for thousands of these manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers who will find themselves facing a tremendous loss on property, the value of which is either wiped out or greatly depreciated and a large proportion of whose debtors in the same line of business will be unable to meet bills due. Switching of thousands of thesg dealers to other lines of industry, where they will come into competition with their brains and what is left of their capital with manufacturers and merchants already in those fields. Loss to railroads of the country of revenue on traffic running up into millions of dollars, netting them a considerable percentage of their income from freight. According to the United States Statistical Abstract for 1913, the total movement of manufactures of the wine, whiskey and beer industries in 1912 amounted to over 7,000,000 tons, or 2 per cent of the total traffic of all manufacturing Industries of the country. This does not take into consideration the shipment of grain and other raw materials to the distilleries, breweries and winelies, nor does it take cognizance of by-products like dried feed, which, when shipped away, represents from 20 to 40 per cent of the bulk of the grain going to these plants; nor docs it take notice of shipments between wholesalers end retailers and retail dealers and customers. Lobs of billions of dollars to wholesale gro-ri-rs. hotel owners, restaurant keepers, drug- ;!: s, both wholesale and retail, most of whom ordinarily are not classed by the public with t' o liquor industries. Great Industries That Must Be Destroyed. Loss of billiori of dollars in assets and in annual business ;o barrel and stave manufacturers, lumber men, bottle makers, box makers, grain dealers, printers, auto truck manufacturers and other collateral lines of business. Loss of millions of dollars annually to insurance men in premiums. Loss of millions to building constructors, etc. It is estimated now that millions of dollars of improvements by distillers, brewers, wholesale and retail dealers are being held in abeyance as the result of the uncertainty about the future of their business, this failure to invest capital in hand being one of the factors in the slow recovery from the general business depression. Among the industries not ordinarily associated in the public mind with the liquor industry thnt would be disastrously affected are the following: Filter builders, manufacturers and dealers in stave timber for barrels, producers of tank timber for vats, yeast makers, manufacturers of grinding machinery for grinding grain, employers of every conceivable type of artisan, such as iron end copper workers, bricklayers, cement workers, carpenters, roofers, pipefitters, engine builders, coopers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, automobile makers, box and case makers, tag printers, label makers, lithographers, sign makers, engravers, makers of filtering materials, bung and strap makers, glue manufacturers, producers of filtering agents, mokestack and boiler makers, furnace buildprs, men in the cork industry, jug, bottle and glassware makers, hoop and tank iron men, tiakers of steel granitized tanks, makers of paper and carton material, makers of bottle laps and wlrinp.

World Wide

National.

W7"l T 1 Loss of customers for hundreds of millions annually now received for corn, barley, hops, rice, wheat, grapes, apples, peaches, cherries, molasses and other farm products now utilized by distillers, brewers and wine makers. Lobs of jobs by some 15,000 salaried employes, some 15,000 travelling salesmen, some 65,000 wage earners in manufacturing and wholesale liquor establishments, and loss of places by 101,234 bartenders, a grand total of nearly 200,000 employes, making a living upon a conservative estimate for 1,000,000 of the 100,000,000 people of the country. All of these figures, with the exception of the estimate as to travelling salesmen, are from the United States Census of Manufactures for 1909. The salary and wages of the employes of the liquor manufacturing plants alone in 909 is given by the census as over $73,000,000 a year. Loss in addition to this to farm laborers, amount of which is problematical. According to the census for 1909, farm laborers' wages averaged 11.8S per cent of total value of crops produced. Applying this ratio to $113,513,971 worth of farm products used by breweries and distilleries in 1913, the total payment for farm labor of products used in these industries was over $13,000,000, a sum sufficient for the employment of nearly 75,000 persons for six months, at an average wage of $30 a month. Loss of millions of dollars annually in wages to barrel and stave makers, bottle makers, printers and employes in other collateral lines of business drawing a large volume of 'heir work from the liquor industry and industries dependent upon it. Loss of $230,000,000 annually in internal revenue and over $18,000,000 in customs revenue, a grand total of nearly $250,000,000, over onethird of the total annual income from all sources. Necessity of raising this vast sum by taxation in other directions. The difficulty ot this will be apparent to all who recall the stress attendant upon the imposition a short time back of a $100,000,000 war tax. Necessity for a vast army of United States officials to enforce the nation-wido prohibition Jaw In every State and every local community within the country's bounds. This will also entail the necessity of raising a great sum by taxation in addition to that raised to replace the internal revenue and customs revenue lost by abol'ch'.ng the liquor industry. Loss to Zir'.s of many millions; to counties lOOOOO BARTENDERS eaooo OTHER WAGE EARNER. 30.000 SALESMEN AND EXECUTIVES come of the 200,000 Workers Who Would Be Thrown Out of Employment by the Abolition of the Liquor Traffic. of other minions, and to incorporated places having a population of 2,500 and over, of $51,955,001, a grand total running up into the hundreds of millions every year in liquor license and tax receipts. Greater burden on direct taxation to fall upon all the population instead of upon those who now voluntarily pay the tax indirectly when they 3ee fit to purchase liquors. How many banks would be forced to the wall along with the crash in ether directions no man would undertake to say. How many millions of unemployed would walk the streets for months and possibly years there is no way or figuring. Yet to the average Prohibitionist speakers all this is as nothing. With the greatest nonchalance they put down on paper ways in which the revenue could be raised that would be lost by the abolishing of liquor. They ignore the fact that the raising of tho revenue for a single State to take the place of revenues lost by abolition of the liquor business is a task beyond the best minds of States like West Virginia, for instance, where an extra legislative session has failed to devise a way of replacing $600,000 annually lost in revcnues, due to State-wide prohibition. They ignore the fact that some States are so largely dependent upon the liquor industry and some States are so vitally interested in it, that almost total paralysis would ensue in those sections if the liquor industry was wiped out. Take the case of Kentucky, for instance, where in 1913 the products of distilleries in bonded warehouses paid one-third more taxes than - all the stocks of merchandise in the State; more than twice as much as all the horses of all kinds in the State; nearly three times as much as all the mules, jacks and jennies in the State; more than three times S3 much as all the cattle of all kinds in the State; This has been paid, mind you, by the products of distilleries in bonded warehouses alone, and does not take into consideration the assessed value of distilleries, the bonded warehouses themselves, real estate, nor any personalty of any kind belonging to owners of distilleries, nor the value of breweries and realty and personalty connected therewithThis brief statement will show any thinking man just how great a calamity nation-wide prohibition would be in Kentucky. Nor is Kentucky alone in this respect. The blow would f?.n elsewhere with the greatest severity.

I Kg?

Prohibition?

( oays ncv. iianes oieizie, Auvocate oi

-f. Prohibition, Who Maintains That Turning Into Other Channels the $1,800,000,000 Which We Now Spend Annually for Drink Would Bring Greater Prosperity.

By Rev. Charles Stelzle THE argument that the abolition of the liquor traffic will create a financial panic is based entirely upon the absurd proposition that if the Mquor dealers fall to get the money now spent for beer and whiskey aobody else will get it. It is assumed that if a man doesn't spend a dollar for booze, he will throw that dollar into the sewer or into some kind of a bottomless pit, instead of using it to purchase some other commodity, which will do good instead of harm, which will have a permanent value, and which will give the workingmen of the country more work, more wages and greater prosperity every way than if the same amount of money were spent for beer and whiskey. Every workingman knows that we are not suffering from over-production, but from underconsumption. He is painfully conscious of the fact that he doesn't live as well as he should in comparison with others who do not work as bard as he does, and that he cannot give his family the benefits which they deserve. Therefore, it will not injure him particularly if the brewery and distillery owners were to pat their "brains and what is left of their capital" when the liquor business is destroyed into the production of materials which will give him more of the comforts of life here and now, and less of its torments both here and hereafter. As for the "poor farmer," who would suffer so grievously, according to the defender of the saloon, because the brewers and distillers would fail to buy his grain and grapes, his apples and cherries there is no fear that he will buy fewer automobiles and less farm machin-, ery, and all the other modern conveniences which he now enjoys, because somebody else will buy his apples and cherries, his grain and grapes--besides, economists and farm experts are even now afraid that the American farmer will soon be unable to raise enough grain to adequately supply this country. Regarding the railroad man who would no longer handle the "2.5 per cent of the total traffic of all manufacturing industries of tho country," which the liquor business now furnishes nobody doubts for a single moment that the railroad man will get as much business and as much money from the transfer of a given amount of grain, whether that grain is shipped to a brewer or a baker. As for the "The Nation's Annual Drink Bill Is Greater Than the Assessed Valuation of All the Beal Estate in the City of Philadelphia." transportation of the finished product, as well as the raw materials which the liquor industry now furnishes, other industries which would benefit through the transfer of trade from liquor to some other commodity would undoubtedly supply as much business for the railroad man as the brewers and distillers do. It is true, as Mr. Debar points out, that when slavery was abolished, there was just as much work to ba done as before. But when the liquor business is abolished there will be more work than before only the work will be different. It must not be assumed that were the liquor business abolished every dollar now invested in it would be lost. Land values -would remain the same, and most of the build&gs and much of the machinery could be used for other kinds of industry without serious depreciation in value. Mr. Debar says that the liquor business is fifth in importance in the United States. Here are some figures showing its relative, importance as compared with all other industries, the figures being taken from the Bulletin of Statistics on Manufactures, 1910: All Liquor Industries. Industry. Workers (number). 6,616,046 62,920 Wages paid $3,427,038,000 $45,252,000 Cost of materials. .12,141,791,000 139,199,000 Capital Invested... 18,428,270,000 771,516,000 It will be noted that the liquor industry employs only about one per cent of the workers in the manufacturing industries. Taking five leading industries In this country namely, textiles and its finished products, iron and steel and their products, lumber and its manufactures, leather and its finished products,and paper and printing, and comparing them with the liquor business (including the malting industry) with regard to the number of wage-earners employed, capital invested and wages paid, we arrive at some interesting conclusions. Based upon the figures found in the Abstract of Statistics of Manufacture, we discover that the number of wage-earners for each one million dollars invested in each of these industries, was as follows: Liquor, 77; Textiles, 578; Iron, 284; Lumber, 579; Leather, 469, and Paper, 367. These figures prove that the textile Industry employs seven and one-half times as many workers for each million dollars as does the liquor industry; the iron industry nearly four times as many; lumber seven and one-half times as many; leather six times as many, and paper five times as many.

(l YEARsM

auaciysm

Much has been said about the enormous sum Invested in the liquor business. What is the ratio of wages pal." the workers to the amount of capital Invested in this business as compared with each of the industries noted above? Here are the figures: Liquor, 5.6 per cent; textiles, 23.9 per cent; iron, 17.6 per cent; lumber. 27.1 per ceut; leather, (23.5 per cent, and paper, 21.3 per cenc. A quick glance at these figures show3 how little, comparatively, the laboring man gets out of the large investments in the liquor business. It is almost impossible to state accurately how much is annually spent in the United States for intoxicating liquor. As stated, a conservative figure is $1,800,000,000. As nearly as can be estimated it is probably true that we also spend $1,800,000,000 for bread and clothing. What would happen if the liquor industry should be destroyed, and the money now spent for liquor should be spent for bread and clothing? Following is a table prepared from figures obtained from the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 1913, giving statistics for the year 1909 for both groups of industries: Number Cost of Raw of Wages Wages Material Industry Earners. Paid. Wsed. Bread and other bakery prod- , ... ucts 100.216 $59,351,000 $238,034,000 Clothing ... (menVI ,...i.,66 106,277.000 297.515.000 (woflatf!, , ,itK, 43 78.568,000 208,788.000 93.655 $244,196,000 $744,337,000 Liquor industry 62.920 45,252,000 139.199.000 Difference ..430.735 $198,944,000 $605,138,000 It Is at once apparent that if the $1,800,000,000 now spent for liquor were to be spent for bread and clothing IT WOULD GrV EMPLOYMENT TO NEARLY EIGHT TIMES , AS MANY WORKERS. WHO WOULD COLLECTIVELY RECEIVE FIVE AND ONE-HALF TIMES Ab MUCH WAGES. . . But this is not all. It would J" S600.000.000 worth of additional raw material than the liquor industry now uses; that is. more than five times as much Vtfa And if this were to take place, is it not lair to say that the iron and copper workers, biacK mKhs. bricklayers, cement workers, carpenters, roofers, pipe "ers engine builders, coopers, wagon workers. ZJbtl box and case makers, tag printers, a Dei makers" lithographers, sign TO'K and all the other workers mentioned Dy aor. Debar" would also find jobs? For it Wta absurd to say that only the liquor business has States It is undoubtedly true that this fraction of the workers would be compelled to adust themselves to the changed economic conditlons But this does not necessarily mean Sat they will either go adrift or cause a "labor panic." The Liquor Workers Will Oet Better Jobs. Attention has been called to the fact that West Virginia will have a deficit this year of about $600,000, "due to State-wide prohibition, which amount it is claimed will be annually lost in revenues from the liquor traffic. Mr. Debar does not mention the fact that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913, when the State was collecting its internal revenue tax. there was a deficit of $480,000, and on June 30. 1914, there was a deficit of $350,000. The difficulty with the last Legislature was not that it was unable to find a way to raise a fund to carry on the work of the various State departments, but that it was unwilling, for political reasons, to tax the great corporations of the State their fair share of the burden of taxation. It is inevitable that when politicians fail to make provision of any kind for a deficit there will be a temporary embarrassment to the State; but in spite of this handicap, which is the result of a fight that has been going on for years, and with a full knowledge of what would happen so far as the loss of internal revenue was concerned, the citizens of the State voted by a majority of nearly 100,000 in favor of State-wide prohibition. Reference is made to the large amount of money paid in the form of internal revenue tax by the liquor industry for the privilege of carrying on its business. If it could be said that this business resulted only in good, first to those who are engaged in it, and, second, to those who are consumers of liquor, the millions of dollars which are paid in the form of a tax might be regarded as a blessing. But one cannot discuss this question fairly without referring to the cost and the burden of the liquor business upon the State, because it is compelled to maintain police departments, penitentiaries, asylums of various kinds and other institutions to take care of the victims of alcohol. It is not possible to state specifically what the liquor Industry costs the State on this account, but it has. been said by reliable authorities that liquor is responsible in this country for 25 per cent of the poverty. 19 per cent of the divorces, 25 per cent of the insanity, 37 per cent of the pauperism, 45 per cent of the child desertion and 50 per cent of the crime.

Curious Minds of the English That Prevent

Consci

iption

g Sj fx? $va-lf&;

.. J... p y j . 11 U1WJ HH ""U

Interesting English Method of Stimulating Recruiting by Displaying a Woman's Petticoat, By G. K. Chesterton The Famous English Essaylsh. AVERY charming Tory lady happened to say to me the other day. "But we shall never get conscription if we dont get it now." Personally, I do not doubt she was as patriotic as anybody else; but what she said was. par excellence, the essentially unpatriotla thing. It is as anti-national as the similar sentiment on the other political "side," that Total Prohibition should be enforced now, simply because no sane people would ever dream of enforcing it at any other time. At this moment a patriot will not wish to get Conscription r to get Teetotalism or to get anything elsa, except the better of the Germans. Whether Conscription will help or hinder us In that is a matter for the authorities; and a very dit ficult matter even for them. If they want It we must give It them, not because they are the best conceivable people who could decide, but because they are tha only people who can decide. If we are always whining for a man with "a genius for govern ing," we are simply proving ourselves destitute of an equally noble gift a genius for being governed. If the doctor whom I have asked to save my life tells me he cannot save my leg. it must be amputated. But If he enters with a smile and a large knife, and says "You will never have any amputation if you don't have it now." my legs will recover their normal capacity either for kicking him downstairs or for running away. Now amid all the current talk about C-jn scription there is one human and historical fact to be remembered which millionaires of the hustling type do not remember simply Decause they do not know. It Is always best la emergency to rely upon habit. Custom does not make people slow; It makes them quick. People called upon suddenly to fight will fight best in some way that they know, as a mm threatened with the blow of a cudgel will ward it off with his arm and not with his leg. The English have done as much fighting as any people in Europe, but they have always done it in a particular way of their own. Thoy have always been represented by a strong but comparatively small body which, acting witli allies, has more than once turned the whola fortune in the European field. The position of the officer towards his men has not the iDhuman superiority ,of the German, nor ta realistic utilitarianism of the French. It is. in its strength and weakness, the pculiar English relation between the gentleman and the "man." The bond between them is not militarism, but rather sport. To that relation a certain insular sense of freedom is quit essential. There may be snobbishness in it. and not a little sentimentality; but avowed and ticketed slavery is against its very nature. Now the great Continental nations do not fesl that there is any slavery in coercion by the State, and that for a very simple reason. Tha peoples who have great armies for great frontiers have again and again defended those frontiers with a universal valour which could not be enforced, any more than it could be purchased. They have, therefore, heroio memories of conscript . armies But the average English workman would not understand compulsion if it were called compulsion ; and if it came from the correct officials of the State be would dislike it all the more. Ha does not care about the State, though be cares a great deal about the country. To show that the point is purely practical, being concerned with an alteration in armies actually in their full activity, I will take it as affecting an ideal of my own. I believe that pure democracy is the manifest government for men. I think it has proved itself so in tha places where It has rooted already. Mere reactionaries who say that democracies cannot govern or fight must explain as best they can the example of modern France, where practically nobody is talking nonsense, simply because the whole French people does not want ' any nonsense talked. But If the British authorities tried to turn Britain into a pur democracy between the last German cannonade and the next one I should think they had t-ic leave of their senses. Taken unawares, with all her vulgarities an generosities, all her living instincts and dead anomalies upon her. this poor old country of ours is fighting with such weapons as she can handle against something whose sins seem scarcely human. We need all that history and social habit can give to steady us. The English must simply be English, until England finds deliverance, merely because they must be sans t'ntil this Insane period has passed.

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