ALCOHOL: AN ENEMY OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 551 



This means that alcohol, through causing criminals, pau- 

 pers, and insane people, costs the taxpayers of this country 

 $170,000,000 each year, that is an average of over a dollar 

 and a half for every man, woman, and child in the United 

 States ; or an average of about eight dollars to every family- 



Besides the 111,000 criminals in prison, it has been es- 

 timated that there are running at large 250,000 criminals 

 and that these cost the community $400,000,000. One half 

 of this means $200,000,000 expense more due to alcohol. 



Alcohol and accidents. People who are not even related 

 to those who drink alcoholic liquors may nevertheless suffer 

 ill consequences from the drinker's negligence. Many 

 accidents on automobiles and railroads have been due to 

 drinking on the part of the chauffeurs and drivers. In the 

 year 1911 more than three hundred children were killed in 

 the streets of New York, and it was found that more than 

 half of these accidents were due to drunken drivers or chauf- 

 feurs. So that in one city alone during one year, more than 

 one hundred and fifty children (enough to fill five school- 

 rooms) were killed through the use of alcohol by other people. 



Patent medicines. In this connection something should 

 be said about the danger of using patent medicines, because 

 they contain large per cents of alcohol. Figure 218 shows 

 the amount of alcohol contained in patent medicines in com- 

 parison with the amounts contained in alcoholic liquors. 

 The average medicine contains much more alcohol than 

 beer or wine and some contain as much as whisky. In a 



