The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-12-06
Monday Payments.


is It best to pay weekly wages on Mon
day instead Of Saturday. The question,
at all events, Is beginning 10 be agitated,
ana may ut any moment assume serious
Importance. The one and only argument
OF weight 80 far adduced, Is that the com.
paratively uncultlvated and morally less
trustworthy classes Of working people
who draw weekly wages will be less ex-
posed TO the temptation Of extravaganza
or debauchery when their money d paid
them at the opening ola working week,
than when they have a leisure evening
and a Sunday holiday before them in
which to spend It The argument looks
plausible, and in some OF those whose
validity will be best tested by actual ex-
Perience and statistics. It's possible that
the dissipated or irresolute iactory.hand
who now finds the charms of q Saturday
night spree followed by q long Sundays
stupor and recovery, too much for his
power Of resistance, will be in some de.
gree protected against himself, when he
receives his little weekly windfall at such
season as renders indulgence less convent.
Tent, or indeed practically almost impossi.
BILE. To be drunk on Saturday night
means only headache on Sunday, but
on Monday evening Is apt to bring delin-
Auency the next day and consequent dis.
missal.
That sadly large share of the wages
received by our working people on Satnr.
day night practically finds It's direct way
to the ginmill, or some scarcely less hurt.
full form OF dissipation, it is impossible to
doubt. But 1t is open to give question
whether postponement of payment would
radically or even seriously affect the mat
ter A debauch on Monday is as hurtful
as on Saturday-and where this Is practi.
cally impossible, the taste for dissipation
will be pretty sure to invent some way Of
satisfying itself even in the dead low tide
Of the weekly purse. Publicans are Of
all men in the world the ones who know
best how and when to trust judiciously for
their own interest, and the score which is
chalked upon an imaginative basis-to.
day, may be settled in sad reality next
week.
Then, II this enforced hebdomadal econ.
omy applies to wrongful expense, why
not to righuul as we'll, and If Phelim, in
Saturday impecuniosity, must 20 without
his whisky; how about Bridget's chicken
or the children's airing next day?
But the evil after all seems OF far too
wide range, Of far too vital moment, TO be
treated with such secondary considera-
tons and merely symptomatic remedies.
We must attack the source Of the disease
not its phenomena. Instead OF merely
making 1t announcement for the workmen
to spend his earnings in vice, we must
address ourselves sooner or later, to the
far higher problem Of rendering it dis
tasteful, repugnant, and, If may be, NOR.
ally impossible. And to do this we must
begin with the workman himself, not his
wages.
The question needs more elaborate
treatment than our present space permits,
but by way Of suggestion we would only
allude, among other agencies bearing on
the point, to the wise and noble charities
instituted in many Of the great mill cor.
porations Of England, by which the oper.
atives are invited to pleasant evening
clubs and lyceums, with all that can make
social intercourse cheerful, entertaining,
and improving, nothing to make 1t dan
gerous. Suffice it tor US to have given the
hint. Who will carry it further? De-
pend upon it, it Is wasteful work this try
ing to head Of our neighbor in the indul-
gence OF his fascinating vices; take out
the fascination, or give him better one
that Is the radical way, and the shortest
in the end.