3i6 THE ABNORMAL MAN. 



In the chapter on Commercialism we have seen 

 Intemperance that the greater part of the population is born in 

 the homes of the poor. It is also true that the 

 use of narcotics, particularly alcoholic drinks, is 

 proportionately more prevalent among the poorer 

 classes than among the well-to-do; therefore, a 

 very large per cent of the population is directly or 

 indirectly subjected to the hereditary influence of 

 The Poor Man's narcotics. The saloon too often becomes "the 

 poor man's savings bank," where he deposits his 

 hard earnings to the credit of the liquor 

 monopoly. 



The labor power of the United States is esti- 

 mated to be worth $8,000,000,000 per annum; 

 the loss on labor caused by drink is variously 

 estimated at from 8 to 18 per cent; at 10 per cent 

 this would mean $800,000,000 ; add to this $500,- 

 000,000, the estimated value of the labor power 

 of the one million men employed by the liquor 

 traffic (whose labor is entirely non-productive of 

 Drink and the that which benefits or enriches the human race), 

 Labor Problem. and we haye a tota j direct ^ Qn labor of $ I>3O O,- 



000,000, or over 16 per cent of the entire labor 

 power of the country. This fact, taken in con- 

 nection with the one previously given, that over 

 one-third of the net earnings of the world are 

 spent for narcotics, will enable the reader to 

 account for much of the poverty and pauperism 

 among the laboring classes, as well as to form 

 some idea of the financial relation of intemper- 

 nce to heredity. 



I have already referred to the relation of in- 

 temperance to epilepsy, idiocy, insanity and crime, 

 and while authorities differ much in the per cent 



