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A TEXAN’S TERRIFIC ARRAIGNMENT
ATTICUS WEBB, OF FORT WORTH, SHOWS UP THE INSIDIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE LIQUOR FORCES UPON OUR SOCIAL SYSTEM—FACTS
AND ARGUMENT WORTH KNOWING AND PRESERVING.
an
IWil
N all the land you can’t find a better equip
ped band of whiskey fighters than the Texas
leaders. And Home and State, the fearless
organ of the forces of righteousness, is al-
ways ablaze with the shots and the shouts of the
warriors. We are reproducing here a part of a pow
erful paper by Atticus Webb, superintendent of the
Fort Worth and Abilene districts of the Anti-Sa
loon League. It furnishes fine amunition for work
ers everywhere:
The following paper is one prepared at the re
quest of Dr. John A. Rice, for his department in
the Southern Sociological Congress that was held at
Atlanta, Ga., recently.
When he found that the papers would not be
published, he requested me to give this paper to
the press of the South for publication.
The paper was prepared with great pains. The
data given are not hasty conclusions or unreliable
figures. I have looked carefully into all of them.
If they err at all, it is on the side of conservatism.
I have continually sought to give data on which the
people could rely. I prepared it for that Congress,
and I could not think of it offering any other kind
of data to the public.—Atticus Webb.
N the mind’s natural quest for unity among
ae forces tending to racial decay the logical
outcome is commercialism. It is the all-em
bracing anti social force. To it must be
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traced the gigantic fight that the outlawed liquor
traffic is making for self-preservation. The money
to be made making and selling intoxicating liquors
buys up men to stand behind the counters as mem
bers of the “Barters’ Total Abstinence Society,” and
sell to men a stuff clearly known to themselves as
a deadly poison to body, mind and soul. It buys up
kings of finance to organize capital into great in
dustrial plants to make the stuff, and it buys up
men to stand upon the floors of our legislative halls,
and make long speeches presumably to defend “our
constitution,” but in reality aimed to protect the
“trade” from the righteous wrath of an indignant
people. The same money buys the influence of some
of our great daily newspapers and some of our plat
form orators, as well as the votes of our humblest
citizens. And the money to be made in the business,
to the minds of these kings of finance, justifies
this wholesale debauchery of manhood.
The revelations of the recent efforts to stamp out
“white slavery” shows that prostitution has become
a commodity of commerce, and those who seek to
solve the labor problem find the skies there murky
with the clouds of commercialism.
And so all the woes of the day are largely charge
able to commercialism. But what is this all-power
ful commercialism? The miser may hoard money
for money’s sake, but he is an abnormal man. To
an average man money is only worth what it will
buy. With it he thinks he can buy the ordinary
necessities of life or the luxuries. He thinks he
can buy power, influence, reputation, and even happi
ness. In short, with it he thinks he may be able to
buy all that the self may want. Commercialism,
then, is only selfishness expressed in the language
of the legal tender. And selfishness is the very
heart —the core —of the Spirit of the Anti-Christ.
“These have one mind, and shall give their power
and strength to the beast. These shall make war
on the Lamb.” (Rev. 17:13, 14). And so the battle
line is flung far up and down the seism of society.
The social and the anti social forces clash in con
flict, each generaled by a superior intelligence.
Satan rallies the serried lines of civic and social
corruption, while the banner of Prince Immanual
floats te the fore of all the reform movements, Christ
Himself, from His throne on high, directing His
forces and making good on every battlefield,- His
THE GOLDEN AGE FOR JULY 31, 1913
promise that “All power in heaven and earth is
given unto me, go ye, therefore, and teach all na
tions, and lo! I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.’’ (Matt. 28:18-20). “And
the Lamb shall overocme them, for he is Lord of
Lords and King of Kings and they that are with him
are the called and the chosen and) the faithful.”
Without question, ultimate) victory will come to
the cause of civic righteousness in this battle, and
that victory will come through the followers of the
Christ, who are “the called, the chosen and the faith
ful,” obeying their Master’s command.
Alcohol.
The greatest force today playing upon the human
race for its destruction is the liquor traffic. Its
direct effect upon those who use it and upon their
offspring is great, but possibly its indirect force, its
use as an ally by the other forces of destruction,
is only a little short of its direct force. It is the
instrument used to bring success to the “white
slaver” and the political corruptionists alike. At
least seventyrfive per cent of all crime against so
ciety, church and state has alcohol entering in some
where.
Our gracious Lord is able to feed and clothe every
soul he brings into this world. His soil is rich
and plenteous, and he sends the sunshine and the
rain. There is no need why any should go hungry
or cold. Every car for food or clothes is a cry
against some sin or sins of the race. It is a waste
of his bounteous providence that causes most of
the want of the day. While this waste is not all
chargeable to alcohol, it is true that almost all the
waste by those who are needy is for alcoholic drinks.
Three dollars out of every four that are spent for
alcoholic drinks is spent by the laboring people.
T he other dollar may be spent by those who are able
to waste it and not home to want, but practically
every cent of the three dollars spent by the laboring
class comes from the necessities of the laboring
people.
A conservative estimate places the drink bill of
the 28,000,000 people of the South at $150,000,000
or just the same as that of New York City alone,
with its 4,700,000. New Yorkers drink about six
times as much per capita as do the Southerners.
(There is a statement given out that New York
city’s drink bill is $365,000,000.)
One-third of the whole nation lives in the South,
and they drink about one-twelfth of the nation’s
drink bill. A larger -than the average part of the
Southern people are laboring folk. This element
spends about $120,000,000 of the South’s drink bill.
This is pure waste, for no one gets one iota’s value
for it. But this waste ds enough to allow $2,500
for each of the 50,000 paupers of the South ,or SI,OOO
annually to each of these, and ssoo' annually to each
of the 100,000 occasionally needy. Therefore, if
there is need in the South today, it is not because
the Lord is not providing for his own, but because
of the waste of his bounty.
This waste is not compensated for in any way. Ex
cepting Kentucky, which produces about one-fourth
of all the distilled liquors produced in the United
States, the rest of the South produces only about
$32,000,000 of all liquors, or about one-sixtieth of
the nation’s output, and about onerfifth of her own
consumption. These figuresare all at retail prices.
Thus it will be seen that the liquor that debauches
the South is not a Southern product, but, excepting
Kentucky, comes from the North. To the South it is
all a waste of resources.
The raw material used in making this liquor
amounts to about $2,600,000, or about one four-hun
dredth part of the value of the cotton crop of the
South.
If the liquor made in the South used enough of
the farm products, as raw materials, to stimulate
prices, there might be some compensation, but fig
ures deny this. To make the $32,000,000 worth of
liquor only about $1,250,000 worth of corn, wheat,
rye, rice and molasses are used. But the South’s
production of wheat and corn alone amounts to
$588,750,000 annually, or nearly twenty-five times as
much. So it cannot be said that the liquor traffic
creates a demand for farm products that compen
sates for the loss.
But it does give work to some who make it, and
thus helps them to keep the wolf of hunger from
the door. About I,ooo' men are engaged in making
the output of the South, at an average wage of
about S7OO per annum, and thus about $700,000 comes
back in wages. There are about 10,500 legal sa
loons, and counting an average of two to each sa
loon, only about 2'1,000 are employed selling the pro
duct legally, and they are paid about $15,000,000 in
wages. Summed up all this means that when the
South wastes $1 for liquor about twelve cents comes
back to the producers as compensation. These fig
ures may seem too small but the fact is that in
the making and selling of liquor less material is
used, less laborers are needed, and less wages paid
than in any business in the world. This makes
eighty-eight per cent of our liquor bill an economic
loss.
Now for this very reason, if the $150,000,000' liquor
bill of the South was spent for the ordinary necessi
ties of life, not only would the hungry children and
ill-clad wives of liquor drinkers have more to eat and
wear to just that amount, but that much of a de
mand in other industries of the South would be felt
in every department. So the amount lost through
liquor in the South alone would equal all the can
ned goods porduced in the nation, would equal two
thirds of the sugar and molasses produced, or one
fifth of the flour and meal. There as not an indus
try nor a farm prodoct that would not take on
such a tenewed demand for goods as to revolution
ize its .business, if all this was thrown into any one
of them - : ... r ; ; j' UH H . j
In the manufacturing of these goods, if the bill
was turned to the average necessities, the demand
for the raw material would increase to the. amount
of $83,400,000, and would be able to stimulate de
mand in practically all the necessities of life. In
order to make these goods to supply the increased
demand there would be opened up 225,000 more jobs
for workingmen, and at the average wage of two dol
lars per day, this would mean $135,000,00’0 annually
for the South. The compensation of laborers would
no longer drive down the wages, but factories would
bid for workmen, and every unemployed man would
find work. This would solve the labor problem more
than any legislation that could be effected.
But there is another loss from liquor. Any amount
of drink disables a man for efficient work. In some
tests made it was found that three drinks of beer
for one day reduced the efficiency eight per cent, and
ocntinued for twelve years it reduced the efficiency
from twenty-five to forty per cent, depending upon
the nature of the work. It is estimated that in the
South there are about 150,000 men and women totally
disabled daily from drink. (There are over 1,500,-
000 thus daily disabled in the entire Nation). At
two dollars per day this would amount to a loss of
productive labor for the South of $90,000,000 annu
ally.
Summing up we have $150,000,000 wasted for
drink, $135,000,000 from loss of employment, and
$90,000,000 from total disability to say nothing of
decreased efficiency, cost of accidents caused by
drink, cost of caring for the criminals, insane epi
leptic, feeblerminded and otherwise inefficient. To
offset this cost we have $700,000 in wages for making
$15,000,000 in selling, and $1,250,000 in materials.
Considering the above facts, we are not surpirsed
to find about 50,000 paupers in the South, and about
100,000 more who depend more or less upon charity,
or about 150,000 poverty-stricken people. Os these
about 76,000 owe their condition to drink.
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