The Dividends of Prohibition 
[87 
Net Saving in Distributed Wealth 
Even if the expenditure for illegal beverages be as 
great as certain estimates make it out to be, it is 
largely the expenditure of the rich. At $2.50 a pint 
for whiskey, the poor, who mainly paid the former 
revenue of the saloon, can no longer afford to buy it. 
Economists agree that, except in cases where the dis- 
tribution of income is the same, a comparison of 
expenditures, dollar for dollar, in two different social 
strata is illusory, because ten dollars means to a rich 
man less than one dollar to a. poor man. It would 
be fairer to compare the present consumption with 
pre-prohibition consumption, not on a dollar basis, 
but on a quantity basis, and if, as in my opinion seems 
to be indicated, alcoholic consumption has been re- 
duced through prohibition to 10 or 15 per cent of 
what it was, the net saving in distributed wealth is 
great. 
Thus prohibition, with all its shortcomings, has 
probably had a part in raising the national income 
during the last few years, and so raising the earnings 
and prices of stocks.