San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1886-05-06
FREE PRESS.
THURSDAY. MAY 6, 1886.
The Knights OF Labor Practically for
Temperance Powderly's Views.

! temperance EOWucrly' NicWs.
One of the best guarantees of the
success of the knights of Labor, SO
long as they continue true to their
principles, is their exclusion of rum
sellers from membership. We have
never read anything better on the
subject of the liquor traffic as related
to labor movements than the follow
ing utterances of Grand Master Work
man Powderly. In his last address
made to the General Convention of
the Knights, he said:
"The temperance question is an
important one, and sometimes think
it is the main issue. The large num-
Der of applications during the past
year to grant dispensations to allow
the initiation of rum,sellers was alar-
ming. 1 have persistently refused
them, and will enjoin my successor,
if he values the future success of the
order, to shut the doors with triple
bars against the the admission of the
liquor dealer. His path and that of
the honest, industrious workman lie
in opposite directions. The rum
seller who seeks an admission into
labor society does SO with the object
that he may entice it's members into
his saloon after the meetings close.
No question of interest to labor has
ever been Satisfactorily settled over O
bar in rumhole. No labor society
ever admitted rum seller that did
not die drunkard's death. No
workman ever drank glass of rum
who did not rob his family of the
price of it, and in doing SO commit
ted double crime, murder. and
theft. He murders the intellect with
which the Maker hath endowed him.
He steals from his family the means
of sustenance he has earned for them.
Turn to the annals of every dead
labor society, and you will see whole
pages blurred and destroyed by the
accursed footprints Of rum. Scan
the record of q meeting at which q
disturbance took place, and you will
h ,ar echoing through tho hall the
maudlin, fiendish grunt of the drunk
en- brute who disturbed the harmony
Of the meeting.
'Gn the whole English language I
Gun find no word that strikes more
terror to my soul than the one word
Rum. 1t was born in hell ere the
fiat no redemption had gone forth.
Its life on earth has been one of ruin
to the hopes of youth and the peace
of old age. 1t has robbed children
of it's delights. 1t has stolen the
laugh from the lips of innocence, the
bloom from the checks of manhood.
1t has touched the heart of old age
like the tip of poisoned arrow. Its
sound, as it gurgles from the neck of
a bottle, echoes through many des-
olate household as the kissing of q
thousand serpents. You may deem
me too radical on this point. Yet 1
never interfere with the right of a
man to drink if he SO elects. ] hold
L have right to shun rum as l
would an enraged tiger, neither med
ding with it nor allowing it to med
die with me. So long as it keeps it's
distance 1 am content to leave it
alone, but the moment it attempts to
interfere with my rights by coming
into the Knights of Labor, then my
soul rises in arms against it, and [
can find no words too bitter, no dc
nunciation too scathing to hurl
against it.
The latest idea among the leaders
of the Knights is to exclude not only
Equor-sellers but liquor drinkers.
For their own protection and success,
they are bound to come to that point. |