CAPITAL INVESTED IN LIQUOR MANUFACTURE.
Nearly all the liquor consumed in the United States is made in the country. For several years prior to the European War the United States did import about $10,000,000 a year worth of foreign wines, $7,000,000 worth of dis tilled liquors and $3,000,000 worth of malt liquors, but this trade has been materially re duced. In 1914 the American manufacture was 88,698,797 gallons of whisky, 3,526,085 rum, 4,012,542 gin, 31,715,199 alcohol for beverage, besides 47,132,535 of commercial or denatured alcohol. Besides this there was made nearly 2,000,000,000 gallons of fermented liquor, mostly beer.
Consumption of Both the produc tion and use of alcoholic liquors continue to increase in the United States faster than the growth of population. The per capita con sumption, which in 1902 was 19.48 gallons, rose to 22.52 gallons in 1914. The total consumption in 1914 was 2,252,272,765 gallons, of which 2,053,457,000 was malt liquor or beer, 58,381,000 wines and 143,397,000 distilled spirits. The fig ures for distilled spirits are based on the stand ard 50 per cent United States proof gallons. This was considerably in excess of any other country, except that France and Italy drink more wine and Germany and Great Britain more beer per capita than the United States. Esti mating that one in three of the population use alcoholic beverages, the average consumption of liquor per individual using it is about 68 gal lons a year, of which 62 gallons is beer or other malt liquor. The following table shows the consumption of liquors in the United States for 11 years.
During the fiscal year ending 30 June 1916 the consumption of spirits in the United States rose to 139,973,684 proof gallons; of wine, 47, 587,145 gallons; beer, 1,818,275,042 gallons; total consumption, 2,005,835,871 gallons. For 1917 the figures were 167,740,325 gallons spirits; 42,723,376 gallons wine; 1,884,265,377 gallons fermented liquors. During the fiscal year 1917 18 a total of 173,476,473 gallons of spirits was produced; 87,787,823 gallons were withdrawn tax-paid, while 158,959,264 gallons remained in warehouses. In June 1918 there were engaged in the production of distilled spirits 72 grain distilleries, 27 molasses distilleries and 137 fruit distilleries, a total of 236 compared with 507 in 1917, 605 in 1916 and 635 in 1915. The decrease in the number of breweries is shown as follows: In 1915 there were 1,372 breweries; in 1916, 1,332; in 1917, 1,217; in 1918, 1,092; showing that 125 breweries went out of business during 1917-18. In 1900 the United States revenue from the liquor traffic amounted to $177,172,000; in 1910, $226,207,000; in 1915, $237,054,000; in 1916, $262,739,000; in 1917 it rose to $297,399,000, and in 1918 to $443,839,544.
In Great Britain the total expenditure on alcoholic liquors during 1915 was estimated at f181,959,000 ($909,795,000), an increase of f17,496,000 ($87,480,000) over 1913, the last normal year before the war.