VOL. XII. NO. 17. 



AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



133 



LAWS 



WHICH AUTHORISE TRAFFIC IN ARDENT 

 SPIRIT AS A DRINK MORALLY WRONG. 



(Continued from p. 125.,) 



IV. Laws which authorise the licensing of men 

 to traffic in anient spirit, violate the first principles 

 of political economy, and are highly injurious to 

 the wealth of a nation. 



The wealth of a nation consists of the wealth of 

 all the individuals that compose it. The sources 

 of wealth arc labor, land and capital. The last is 

 indeed the product of the two former ; but as it 

 may be used to increase their value, it is consider- 

 ed by writers on political economy, as one of the 

 original sources of national wealth. Whatever 

 lessens either of these, or their productiveness 

 when employed upon each other, lessens the 

 wealth of the. country. Capital may he employed 

 in two ways; either to produce new capital, or 

 merely to afford gratification, and in the produc- 

 tion of that gratification he consumed, without re- 

 placing its value. The first may be called capital, 

 and the last expenditure. These will of course 

 bear inverse proportions to each other. If the first 

 be large, the last must be small, and vice versa. 

 Without any change of the amount of wealth, capi- 

 tal will he increased by the lessening of expendi- 

 ture, and lessened by the increase of expenditure. 

 Although the manner of dividing makes no differ- 

 ence with the present amount of national wealth, 

 it makes a great difference with the future amount; 

 as it alters materially the sources of producing 

 it, the means of an equal or increased reproduc- 

 tion. 



For instance, a man fond of noise and excited 

 agreeably by the hearing of it, pays a dollar for 

 gunpowder, and touches fire to it. He occasions 

 an entire loss of that amount of property. Al- 

 though the powder maker and the merchant, may 

 both have received their pay, if it has not benefited 

 the man, to him it has been a total loss ; and if 

 the sale of it was no more profitable than would 

 have been the sale of some useful article, it has 

 been an entire .loss to the community. And if by 

 the explosion the man is burnt, partially loses his 

 reason, is taken off for a time from business, 

 and confined by sickness to his bed, must have 

 nurses, physicians, &c. the loss is still increased. 

 And if he never recovers fully his health, or rea- 

 son, suffers in his social affections and moral sen- 

 sibility, becomes less faithful in the education of 

 his children, and they are more exposed to temp- 

 tation and ruin, and he is never again as able or 

 willing to be habitually employed in productive 

 labor, the nation loses equal to the amount of all 

 these put together. And if his example leads 

 other men to spend, and to suffer in the same way, 

 the loss is still farther increased ; and so on, 

 through all its effects. 



And even though the powder maker and the 



merchant have made enormous profit, this does 



not prevent the loss to the community ; any more 



than the enormous profit of lottery gamblers, or 



counterfeiters of the public coin, prevents loss to 



the community- Nor does it meet the case, to say 



that the property only changes hands. This is not 



true. The man who sold the powder made a 



profit of only a part even of the money which the 



Hher man paid for it ; while he lost not only the 



vbole, but vastly more. The whole of the origi- 



al cost was only a small part of the loss to the 



'jyer, and to the nation. The merchant gained 



Uhingof the time, and other numerous expenses, 



which the buyer lost; uor does he in any way re- 

 munerate the community for that loss. 



Suppose that man, instead of buying the pow- 

 der, had bought a pair of shoes ; and that the tan- 

 ner and the shoemaker had gained in this case, 

 what the powder-maker and the merchant gained 

 in the other ; and that by the use of the shoes, 

 though they were finally worn out, the man gained 

 twice as much as he gave for them ; without any 

 loss of health, or reason, social affection, or moral 

 susceptibility ; and without any of the consequent 

 evils. Who cannot see that it would have in- 

 creased his wealth, and that of the nation, without 

 injury to any, and have promoted the benefit of 

 all. 



This illustrates the principle with regard to ar- 

 dent spirit. A man buys a quantity of it, and 

 drinks it; when he would be, as is the case with 

 every man, in all respects better without it. It is 

 to him an entire loss. The merchant may have 

 made a profit of one quarter of the cost, but the 

 buyer loses the whole ; and he loses the time em- 

 ployed in obtaining and drinking it. He loses also, 

 and the community loses, equal to all its deterior- 

 ating effects upon his body and mind, his children, 

 and all who come under his influence. His land 

 becomes less productive. The capita] of course 

 produced by his. land and labor is diminished ; 

 and thus the means are diminished of future re- 

 tion. And by the increase of expenditure in propor- 

 tion to the capital, it is still farther diminished, till to 

 meet the increasingly disproportionate expenses, 

 the whole is often taken, and the means of future 

 reproduction are entirely exhausted. And as there 

 is no seed to sow, there is of course no future har- 

 vest. This is but a simple history of what is tak- 

 ing place in thousands of cases continually ; and 

 of what is the tendency of the traffic in ardent 

 spirit, from beginning to end. It lessens the pro- 

 ductiveness of land and labor, and of course di- 

 minishes the amount of capital ; while in propor- 

 tion, it increases the expenditure, and thus in both 

 ways is constantly exhausting the means of future 

 reproduction. And this is its tendency, in all its 

 bearings, in proportion to the quantity used, from 

 the man who takes only bis glass, to the man who 

 takes his quart a day. It is a palpable and gross 

 violation of all correct principles of political econo- 

 my ; and from beginning to end, tends to diminish 

 all the sources of national wealth. 



" Oh," said a merchant in a large country store, 

 "it is a horrible business. When I set up my store 

 at this corner, there were within a mile, a great 

 number of able, thriving farmers ; but now about 

 half of them are ruined ; and many of them were 

 ruined at my store. And there is not a store in 

 the country that sells ardent spirit, but what tends 

 to produce similar results. Oh, it is a horrible 

 business." And are not the laws which sanction 

 it horrible laws ? Do they not tend by their whole 

 influence to render the business respectable, to 

 perpetuate it, and permanently to produce such re- 

 sults none the less horrible because produced ac- 

 cording to law ; and which stamp the law that 

 sanctions the business which produces them, with 

 the dark, deep and indelible impress of vice. 5 



Nor was it by any means the greatest of the 

 evils, that those farmers were ruined. In many 

 cases too, their children were ruined ; and the 

 community was deprived of the benefits which 

 they might otherwise have conferred upon it. 

 Nor was this all, but many of them were thrown 



as a public burden into the alms-house, to be 

 supported by a tax on the sober and industrious. 

 Another part were corrupting the children and 

 youth, and demoralizing society by the influence 

 of their loathsome and pestiferous example. Was 

 not that merchant then prosecuting a business 

 which, toward the community, was palpably un- 

 just ? And are not the laws which sanction it, 

 equally unjust? What moral right have legislators 

 to pass laws, which enable men legally to injure 

 their fellow men, to increase their taxes, and ex- 

 pose their children to drunkenness and ruin ? 



And what was the effect ultimately on the mer- 

 chant himself? We say ultimately; because it 

 does not follow, even if he for a time increased his 

 profits by selling spirit, that it would ultimately 

 promote his benefit. A passer of counterfeit 

 money may sometimes increase his prpsent profit ; 

 but it does not follow that it will ultimately pro- 

 mote even his pecuniary interest. 



The permanent, valuable customers of that mer- 

 chant were constantly diminishing, as their ability 

 was diminishing to purchase his goods, or to pay 

 for them. Their farms were growing up to briars 

 and thorns, the enclosures were falling down ; 

 their buildings were in ruin, their implements of 

 husbandry scattered, or worn out; their children 

 were at the grogshop or the scene of revelry and 

 dissipation, and their whole interest was withering 

 under the indignation of the Almighty. Of course, 

 should they buy they had next to nothing with 

 which to pay. Many died insolvent, and the mer- 

 chant not unfrequently lost in bad debts from his 

 rum customers more than his profits. And as the 

 value of property around him diminished, as is 

 generally the case around those death-fountains, 

 the value of his custom diminished. 



Said another merchant, who had made a great 

 estate, but never sold a drop of spirit, " When you 

 shut up a grogshop, or tear it down and build on 

 the spot a respectable store, it is surprising how 

 rapidly property in the neighborhood begins im- 

 mediately to rise." 



Suppose that the merchant first referred to had 

 sold only to productive customers ; and such arti- 

 cles, as in the consumption would more than have 

 replaced their value ; as was the case with the 

 shoes, as is the case with needful clothing, pro- 

 visions, and other useful things. The property of 

 the farmers would have been constantly increasing, 

 and of course the value of their custom to the 

 merchant, and of their wealth to the community. 

 Their children with increased advantages, might 

 more than have filled the place of their fathers, 

 and thus, without injury to any, the good of all 

 been promoted. The enormous taxes, for the sup- 

 port of paupers, and the prosecution of criminals, 

 with which the community were burdened, might 

 have been prevented ; and also the peculiar expo- 

 sure of the rising generation to drunkenness, death 

 and helL \To he continued. 



The Boston Society for the Promotion of Tem- 

 perance has modified its constitution so as to be- 

 come auxiliary to the Massachusetts State Tempe- 

 rance Society in accordance with the recommen- 

 dation of the Worcester Convention, to form County 

 Societies. It now takes the name of the ' Suffolk 

 County Temperance Society,' 1 and we are happy to 

 learn, contemplates employing an agent to lecture 

 on temperance, and form societies in every Ward 

 of the City. — Mar. Jour. 



