Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1886-02-14
BRIDGEPORT.
81. John, The PrOhibitionist, Speaks
And Is Answered.


Ex-Governor St. John was the attrac-
tion at the Labor Lycemn yesterday af-
ternoon, andwhen the temperance apostle
compared the thousand and more of
workingmen's faces before him with the
small audiences he addressed a day before
in more aristocratic quarters, he must
have come to the conclusion that Giant
habor is awake at last That portion of
his listeners which expected to hear the
curse of intemperance hunted down to
its first origin, were sorely disappointed.
1t was the old hackneyed temperance
speech; the great industrial danger which
is revOlutionizng the world has not been
noticed by st. John. He still believes or
prctends to believe that "a sober indus
trious mechanic can always find employ
ment." Many unemployed workers in
the audience who are ''sObcr, Industrious
and willing to work at anything, could
have given him the lie, but for their
sense of courtesy towards the invited
speaker. In short MIR, st. John sees the
only solution of the Labor question in
Prohibition. He told us that he lad
spent most his life on the frontier; he
certainly knows more about prairie wolves
than about capitalism, and considering ms
life in the backwoods we can forgive his Is
norance on the Labor question. lie
otherwise seems genial man, willing to
learn.
Mr.. S. Seller made the following reply:
"We are living in an age Of nervous
exhaustion brought on by annless pro-
duction, uncertain gain and speculatlOns
on one hand, and by long hours Of mo
notonous, exhaustive toll, aduteratcd
food and in healthy surroundings ON the
other. Mllionairism and Pauperism are
the parents of vice and drunkenness.
believe in temperance! Temperance,
not only as regards drinking and smoking
but also eating. Too much, too fast and
too rich eating, is working as much harm
as the liquor traffic. Napoleon | was a
glutton, and fast eater; he died Of a
stomach disease. His dyspeptic DISPOSE
ton destroyed hundreds Of thousands Of
homes. II honest physicians and psy-
biologists had written the history of the
world, instead of courtiers and hero wor-
shippers, we might learn that abuse of
natural laws in regard to eating and
drinking caused the cruelties of n Nero,
the rapacity of Caesar. believe that
the Connecticut Blue Laws and tramp
laws were due to the dyspepsia of our
Legislators prodnced by indigestible pas
try on empty stomachs. consider tenn
perance rs means not rs IN end, to-
wards the abolition Of crime and misery,
We must have clear heads and sound
stomachs to fight and win Labor battles,
The prohibitionists are attacking effects,
rather than causes. No prohibitory law
will prevent people from using stimulants
as fong as the causes which create that
craving remain undisturbed. Close al
therumshops to-day and people will re-
sort to opiates, ether and other stimulants
as destructive as liquor. The pious ali
staining millionaire is indirectly produ
cing more drunkards than hundred gf
mills; we must therefore abolish the sys
tenn that makes the millionaire possible
The prime cause of all intemperanCo i
the competitive system, where the mlsor,
OF one is the happiness OF another, wher
the sharpest and most INSCRIPTIONS, no
the wOrthiest survive; its only remedy /
universal operation socialism. N
more surieited exploitets, no more lies
perate exploited, no millonaires, n
tramps, no oilers, no overworkcd. !
the prohibitionists are in earnest and d,
sire to destroy the root of intemperanC,
let them join the Knights of Labor an
Socialists and help us fight the inhuma
pest breeding capitalistic system,
X OF l..