[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOR. "] Sin,—As a regular
reader of the Spectator, in reading the correspondence on the above subject I note the letter of Admiral King-Hall giving extraordinary figures as to the enormous amounts of barley and grain, rice and maize, and sugar or its equivalents, that are consumed " per week" to supply the ingredients of the alcoholic liquors used in Britain May I inquire if you endorse the accuracy of this statement P If you can say that it is statistically correct, it would influence public opinion no doubt considerably. Again, while advocating as strongly as you do the stopping of all sale of alcoholic beverage, you do not make any statement or suggestion as to what should take the place of the accustomed alcoholic drink of the working classes and others. One of your strong points is that a great portion of the money spent under this head would be saved to the nation for public use. The only liquid that virtually costs nothing to the consumer, and so would • release the large Barn yen mention, is water—but I do not presume that in your enthusiastic support of what I know as " teetotalism " water-drinking is the only alter- native you have in view; so probably your reply would be tea, coffee, cocoa, &a., and the use of aerated waters would not be an economic substitute. Tea, coffee, and cocoa cost money, and the increased consumption of these commodities that would be entailed would enormously raise even the present high cost of them—not only to the alcoholic but the non- alcoholic drinking population. In addition, to make them palatable to the majority, enormously increased quantities of sugar and milk, the latter almost a luxury in towns, would be required—to those at present consumed—so the saving under the head of sugar and substitutes would be counteracted by the extra use of sugar and milk alone to a great, if not a total, extent. I should not trouble you with this letter, but it seems impossible to leave matters as they are, if your suggestions are to be carried out ; therefore I hope you will be able to give your readers information on these two points in Order to guide their opinions.—I am, Sir, &a., WILLIAM GRAHAM. Eden Grove, Bolton, near Penrith.
[The facts as to the amount of foodstuffs used in the produc- tion of alcohol were given in an article written by a competent authority in our issue of Juno 2.6th. if Mr. Graham will ask a typical temperance artisan what he spends weekly on non- intoxicant drinks, and then get similar information from a consumer of intoxicants and compare the figures, he will be in a position to understand why we say that prohibition would mean national economy on a great scale.—En. Spectator.]
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