Sword and shield. (Clinton, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1885-02-28

: three hundred. Here is the WnOle
secret, and it is as plain as two and
two make four. | contend that il
+ we can only prevent men from drink
ing, the manufacture of rum would
) cease, Everybody knows that to be
a fact. have not used drop of it
in forty years, and never intend to
) use a drop and if the great mass OF
working men in America could say
the same thing, they would not now
be out of work and starving.
We ought to include in the ac-
count not only the small amount Of
lAb.r employed, but also the great
amount of misery and expense fol-
owing its consumption. There is
nearly as much wealth lost to this
country by the loss Of time by drink
ingas they expend directly in money.
The loss Of time is the loss of SO
much wealth. Every day a man is
away from his work, the country is
that much the loser by it. Suppos-
ing a man gets five dollars a day, the
country is five dollars poorer every
day he loses, because every day
man works the country becomes so
much richer, because there is wealth
produced by this mans labor. We
all know that it is the amount of
labor that has made this country
what it is. If the working-men
only expended their money properly,
and only studied this subject of cap
ital and labor, they could easily see
that this problem could be solved
without lawyer. You need not go
and consult any member of the legal
profession, or man who has been
to college and graduated with title.
If there is a fault committed by any
one, and it is wrong to repeat it, we
can teach any man that he is injur-
Ing the community by persisting in
its repetition.
When Father Mathew started as
temperance lecturer, as | SAID be-
fore, the people in that part of the
country were in a terrible condition.
They were sunk in poverty, and
there were a great many criminals
at the back of that. There is
place very near Waterford where
there were a thousand men employ
ed and you always find around a
beehive industry great many rum
shops and gin-mills (and wherever
there is a factory being located,
these people Will go and look up the
neighborhood, and spy out the cor
ners, and select a good location to
sell RUM. Now, where these thous-
and men were employed, Father
Mathew went over, and held a large
temperance meeting, and a great
number Of the working-men signed |
the pledge. He ascertained from
the books of the firm that the aver
age wages paid out was $4,000 per
month and out of this amount OF
money earned in the shape ofwages,
$1,000 was expended in whisky |
alone. Now, then, was that fair?
Supposing that rum was necessary
to be used, was it fair for these men
to expend $500 out of $4,000 of
their wages when there we're
thousand other ways IN
which the wages of the working
men ought to go? When Father
Mathew went there, he said this was
all wrong, and labored until he got
all those men to become total alb
stainers; and then they ceased to
drink whisky. OF course, there
we're some few of them who did not
turn over new leaf, but, in fact,
most Of them did; and the result
was simply this: The employers
didn't give them any more wages
but they went to work on Monday,
and lost no time, and at the end of
the month, after they became total
abstainers, S11 800 was the amount
of wages paid out, and they also saw
ed the most Of that $1,000 which
they had formerly expended while
they were addicted to drinking. So
you can see there is a great differ
ence not only in the amount saved
by being withheld from the rum
seller, out also by the increase of
wages, by not losing any time; and
it also enriched the country by
their working every day in the
week. Now they received $11, 500
where they formerly received $4,000
when they drank whisky and, what
was better, they didn't go to the
whisky shops, and in consequence of
that they saved the $500 from rum:
for that is what they would have ex-
pended, if they had not signed the
pledge. That, with their extra
earnings, made $4,000, and this
81 900 was so much clear gain every
month, and consequently they could
procure better homes, and better
furniture, and better everything
except rum. In fact, trade and
commerce fourished, and as bene-
fetal result, besides the question of
labor, there was no crime or poverty
among them prisons were to let,
and the poorhouse was converted
into something else. / will simply
take the proper expenditure Of
money in connection with the princi-
Piles of total abstinence, and / think
1 can prove conclusively that if there
was no rum made, sold, or drank in
this country, there would not be a
man out Of work, there would not be
any poverty, far less crime, and this
great Republic would be a country