Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 61.djvu/325

Rh Again, the consumption of beer at sixteen gallons per head is computed at retail prices in half-pint service. The half-pint drink is seldom of full measure, and the sum of this computation would yield only a fraction over three cents per glass. I think no beer is sold at retail at less than five cents per glass.

How the government estimate is computed I know not, but from these figures one may accept the government rather than the Grocer's estimate. I think it is safe to adopt an average of not less than $17 per head for spirits, wines and beer, which, assessed upon 80,000,000 people, would come to $1,360,000,000.

It may be remarked that the consumption of spirits has been very uniform at 1.33 gallons per head for a long period, slightly diminishing rather than increasing for several years. It is at about the same average as that of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. On the other hand, our consumption of beer has rapidly increased, reaching a fraction over sixteen gallons per head of light beer, against an average in England of thirty-five gallons per head of strong beer. The price of beer is lower in Great Britain, but the average expenditure for drink is established at twenty dollars per head. The consumption of liquors in France and Germany is also much greater than in the United States.

Item No. 2, Tobacco, Cigars, Cigarettes, Chewing Tobacco and Snuff.—The consumption of tobacco has also been computed year by year by the editor of the Tobacco World, by whom a very close analysis has been made, which time will not permit me to quote in full. This estimate clearly proves that the average expenditure comes to $6.15 per head, say $6, or on a population of eighty million, $480,000,000.