South Bend News-Times, Volume 32, Number 201, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 20 July 1915 — Page 13

THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES

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Association of America, Who Declares that the Wiping Out of the Country's Liquor Industry Will Cause the Most Disastrous Panic in All History.

By Joseph Debar NO can can tell with certainty Just how great would bo the disaster that general prohibition would entail. There Is nothing la.tho past by which to accurately gauge It. buto do havo certain statistics of tho people employed and money invested in tho liquor business irom which to forecast results. If nation-wide prohibition came, tho present business depression would be but a small one in comparison with 1L Unemployment In the Industries directly and Indirectly affected would bo greater, beyond a doubt, than we have ever seen in this country. Thero has been some attempt among Pre hlbltionlsts to liken the present movement to that against slavery. There is this essential difference, from a financial standpoint, between tho slavery and th? prohibition movements that must b( kept in mind. The abolition of slavcry, wh.le it worked a change In the economic conditlt na 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 freo as when that great chango was first proposed. With the Prohibition movement it is an entirely different matter. Not only la tho 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 linos of Industry and compete with those already thero employed, but at the same tlmo one-third of the total revenues of the National Government are to be given up, and tho 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 tho Industry wiped out and competing with the employers and employes of that industry who seek other avenues for tho investment of what capital they may have left after they see their physical assets put upon tho auction block and the good will of their business ruthlessly destroyed. Put as briefly as possible, the different effects of nation-wide prohibition maybe statod as follows: Abolition of business reprepentlng a capltallration estimated at from $3,000,000,000 to $3.. 000.COO.000. Absolute loss of a large proportion of tho 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 1909 census, of $S31,000.000. purchasing raw materials valued at $109,000,000 annually and turning out a product valued at over $f30,000,000 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 13 either wiped out or greatly depreciated and a largo proportion of whose debtors In the same lino of buslness will bo unable to meet bills duo. Switching of thousands of these dealers to other lines of industry, where they will como 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 revenuo 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 tho wine, whiskey and beer industries In 1912 amounted to over 7,000,000 tons, or per cent of the total traffic of all manufacturing Industries of tho country. This does not take into consideration tho shipment of grain and other raw materials to tho distilleries, breweries and wineries, nor does it tako eogn'ranco of by-products liko dried feed, which, when shipped away, represents from 20 to 40 per cent of tho bulk of tho grain going to thoso plants; nor does it take notioe of shipments between wholesalers and retailers and retail dealers and customers. Loss of billions of dollars to wholesale grocers, hotel owners, restaurant keepers, druggists, both wholesale and retail, most of whom ordinarily are not classed by the public with Co liquor Industries. Great Industries That Must Be Destroyed. Low of billions of dollars la assets and in annual business to barrel and stave manufacturers, lumber men, bottlo makers, box makors, grain dealers, printers, auto truck manufacturers and other collateral Hne3 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, wholesalo and retail dealers are being held in abeyance as the result of the uncertainty about tho future of their business, this failure to invest capital in hand being oho cf tha factors in the slow recovery from tho gtneral business depression. Among the industries not ordinarily as?o- ' elated in the public mind with the liquor industry that would bo disastrously affected are the following: Filter builders, manufacturers and dealers In rtave timber for barrels, producers of tank timber for vats, yeast makers, manufacturers of grinding machinery for grinding grain, em plovers of every conceivable type of artisan, cueh as iron and copper workers, bricklayers, cement workers, carpenters, roofers, pipefitters, engine builders, coopers, blacksmiths, wagon makers, automobile makers, box and case makers, tag printers, label makers, lithog raphers, sign makers, engravers, makers of filtering materials, bung and strap makers, glue manufacturers, producers of filtering agents, trnckestack and boiler makers, furnace builders, men in tho cork Industry, Jug. bottlo and g!a3wure makers, hoop and tank iron men. makers of steel granitized tanks, makers of paper and carton material, makers of bottle, taps and Turing.

99 Says Joseph Debar, Secretary of the 9 National Wholesale Licruor Dealers'

Loss of customers for hundreds of millions annually now received for corn, barloy, hops, rice, wheat, grapes, apples, peaches, cherries, molasses and other farm products now utilized by distillers, brewers and wine makers. Loss of Jobs by somo 15,000 salaried employes, somo 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 tho 100,000,000 people of the country. All of these figures, with the exception of the estimate as to travelling salesmen, aro from the United States Census of Manufactures for 1909. Tho calary and wages of tho employes of the liquor manufacturing plants alone in 1909 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. SS 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 sura i.ufficient for the employment of nearly 75.0U0 persons for six months, at an average wage cf $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 tho liquor Industry and lnduLtries 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 6ources. Necessity of raising this vast sum by taxation in other directions. The difficulty of 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 nt United States officials to enforce tho natlon-wido prohibition law 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 xeplaco the internal revenue and customs revenue lost by abolishing tho liquor Industry. Loss to States of many millions; to counties

100000 I M BARTENDERS' 6SOOO l A OTHER. WAGE UVIV i EARNERS cV 30,000 K SALESMEN AND EXECUTIVES

Some of tho 200,000 Workers Who Would Be Thrown Out of Employ, ment by the Abolition of tho Liquor Traffic of other millions, and to incorporated places having a populai'on of 2,500 and over, of $51,255,001, a grand total running up into tho 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 thosd who now voluntarily pay tho tax indirectly when they see fit to purchase liquors. How many banks would be forced to the wall along with the crash in cthsr directions no man would undertake to say. How many millions of unemployed would walk the streets for months and possibly years thero 13 no way or figuring. Yet to tho 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 tho abolishing of liquor. They Ignore the fact that the raising of tho revenue for a single State to take the place of revenues icst by abolition of tho liquor business is a task beyond the best minds of State3 like West Virginia, for instance, where an extra legislative session has failed to devise a way of replacing $600,000 annually lost In revenues, due to State-wide prohibition. They ignore the fact that some States are 50 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, hre in 1913 the products of distilleries in bonded warehouses paid one-third more taxes than all the stocks of merchandise in tho State ;more than twice as much as all the horses of all kinds in the Stato; nearly threo times as much as all the mules. Jacks and Jennies In the State; more than three times as much as all the cattle of all kinds In the State. This has been paid, mind you. by the products of distilleries In bended 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 iealty and personalty conne'ed therewithThis brief statement will show any thinklnman Just how great a calamity nation-wide prohibition would bo in Kentucky. Nor Is Kentucky alone In this respect. The blow would 'all elsewr with the greatest saverlty.

6 SftJ 9 5 Says Rev. Charles Stelzle, Ad vocate 01 1MU9 Prohibition, Who Maintains That Turning Into Other Channels the $1,800,000,000 Which We N ov 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 liquor dealers fail 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, ipstead of using it to purchase some other commodity, which will do good instead of harm, which will have a permanent value, and which f-ill give the workingmen of tho country more work, more wages and greater prosperity erery way than if the same amount of money were spent for beer and whiskey. Every workingman knows that we ere not suffering from over-production, but from underconsumption. He is painfully conscious of the fact that ho doesn't live as well as he 6hould In comparison with others who do not work as hard as he does, and that he cannot give his family the benefits which they deserve. Therefore, it will not injure him particularly if tho brewery and distillery owners were to put x 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 hero 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 taloon, because the brewers and distillers would fail to buy his grain and grapes, hla. apples and cherries there is no fear that he will buy fewer automobiles and less farm machinery, and all the other modern conveniences which ho 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 Boon 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 th6 country," which tho liquor business now furnishes nobody doubts for a single moment that tho 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 Real Estate in tho 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 tho transfer of trads from liquor to some other commodity would undoubtedly supply as much business for tho railroad man as the brewers and distillers do. It is true, as Mr. Debar points out, that when" slavery was abolished, thero was Just as much work to be done as before. But when the liquor business is abolished there will be mora 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 buildings and much of the machinery could be used for other kinds of Industry without serious depreciation la value. Mr. Debar says that the liquor business is fifth In importance in the United States. Herb are some figures showing its relativo Importance as compared with all other Industries, the figures being taken from the Bulletin of Statistics on Manufactures, 191Q 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... 1S.42S.270.000 771,516ioOO 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 countrynamely, 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 somo interesting conclusions. Based upon the figures found ia the Abstract of Statistics of Manufacture, we discover that the number of wage-earners for each one million dollars Invested la each of these industries, was as follows: Liquor 77 Textiles. 57S; Iron. 2S4; Lumber. E79: Leather 469. and Paper, 3C7. ' 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-halt times as many; leather six times as many and paper five times as many. " L-"" '

lYEARsX V DRINK- Y

Much has been eld about the enormous sura Invested In the liquor business. Wh?.t is th ratio of wages paL'. the workers to the amount of capital Invested in this business as compared with each of the industries noted abovai Here are the figures: Liquor, 5.6 per cent; textiles. 23.9 per cent; Iron. 17.6 per cent; lumber, 27.1 per cent; leather, 23.5 per cent, and paper. 21.3 per cent. A quick glance at these figures shows how little, comparatively, the laboring man gets out of the large Investments In the liquor business. It is almo3t impossible to state accurately how much is annually spent In the United Btates for Intoxicating liquor. As stated, a conservative figure is $1,S00,000,000. 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 tho money now spent for liquor should bo 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 1803 for both groups of Industries:

Number of Wages Industry Earners. Cost of Raw Material Utod. Wages Paid. Bread and other bakery products 100,216 559,351,000 Clothing (men's) ,,..239,690 10G.277.000 Clothing (women's) ,.152,743 78.56S.000 $23S.034.CO& 297,515.000 20S.7SS.000 $744,337,000 139,199,000 492,653 $244,196,000 Liquor industry 62,920 45,252,000 Difference ..430.735 $198,944,000 $005,13S,000 It is at once apparent that if the $1.S00,000.000 now spent for liquor were to ho spent for bread and clothing IT WOULD GIVE EMPLOY MENT TO NEARLY EIGHT TIMES AS MANY WORKERS. WHO WOULD COLLECTIVELY RECEIVE FIVE AND ONE-HALF TIMES AS MUCH WAGES. But this is not all. It would require over $600,000,000 worth of additional raw material than the liquor Industry now uses; that is. more than five times as much raw material. And If this wero to take place, is it not fair to say that tho iron and copper workers, blacKsmiths, bricklayers, cement workers. pe ters. roofers, pipe setters, engine bJiWera. coopers, wagon workers, automobile makers box and case makers, tag Printers, label makers, lithographers, sign makers, engraven, and all tho other workers mentioned by Mr. Debar would also rind jobs? For it would be absurd to say that only the liquor business has need for men engaged in these ctatts. But what about the bartender? What con.tltutes a successful bartender 1 is his .ability as a salesman. He Is a good mixer, not ImW of stron- drinks, but among men. and tao lsVeer anSwhiskey he tender he becomes as tie hoes a'v'a3 doCs out to him. A man ho Is a good bar-, tender will make a good clerk or ae.man In nractically any oilier kind of business, father. rJ it requires many more people to sell M SM 000,000 worth of bread and clothing than , to sell lUuor of the .ne value, , " SSSSSr srn" heCdbook. h .55 ?s .tap maUsters the oMtillers and rectifiers whoso lunations are peculiar to their industries, but whom; according to tho census returns, there we fewer than 15.000 in the United States It is undoubtedly true that this fraction of the workers would be compelled tc adust themselves to the changed economic conditlons. But this does not necessarily mean that they will either go adrift or cause a 'labor panic" The Liquor Woikers Will Get Better Jobs. Attention has been called to the fact that West Virginia will have a deficit thi3 year of about $600,000, "due to State-wide prohibition Which amount It is claimed will be annually lost In revenues from tho liquor traffic. Mr. Debar, does not mention the fact that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. when tha State was collecting its Internal revenue tax. there was a deflci: of $4SO,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 ralso a fund to carry on the work of the various Stato departments, but that It: was unwilling, for political reasons, to tax the great corporations of tha 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 thero will be a temporary embarrassment to the State; but In spite of this handicap, which Is the result cf a fight that has been going on for years, and witb a full knowledge of wbat would happen so far as the los3 of internal revenue was concerned, the citizens cf the State voted by a majority of nearly 100,000 In avor of State-wide prohibition. Reference is made to th large amount ot money paid in the form of internal revenue tax by the liquor industry for the privilege of carrying oa 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 thoso who axe consumers of liquor, the millions of dollars which tre paid in tha form of a tax might be regarded as a blessing. But one cannot discuss this cruestiDn fairly without referring to the cost and tho burden of the liquor business upon tho State, because It is compelled to maintain police, departments, penitentiaries, asylums of various kinds and other lnstitu tions to take care of the victims of alcohol. It Is not possible to state specifically what the liquor Industry costs the State on this ao. count, but it has been said by reliable author, liies that liquor 13 responsible in this country for 25 per cent of the poverty, 19 per cent oi the divorces. 25 per cent of tho insanity, 31 per cent of the pauperism. 45 per cent of thi child desertion and 50 per ceat of tho crima

Was With

One Exception The Only Newspaper Circulated in South Bend To Carry The Story of the Attack On ( T Leo Mo Frank in the orgia Penitentiary All 'But One of the Chicago ISfewspape 1" o Circulated Here Went to Press I oo Early Fo?c Itl and it had. only a '"Bulletin9 "A U U ews k imes 1N3 Scoods Chi 4 Morning Papers Daily on Such Late Items Moral: Read Your Home Paper Which I Goes To Press I Later Than The u Ii T j. J r, JL ItfJUi lull wie-b and Gets the Latest News F!te Mews-Times "Always First With The Latest" i

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