The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-07-10
WORKING-MEN AND WHISKY,
Intemperance in Relation to the Labor
Question.

Intemperance in Relation to the Labor
Question.
The most urgent want of labor to-
day is self-control. In this free coun.
try no man endowed with average
abilities need remain all his life poor.
If he has thrift, self-restraint, perse-
verance, he will pass from the ranks Of
labor TO the ranks of capital. 1t is
the saving man who becomes the capi-
talist-the man who has force to deny
himself indulgences. What lesson
lies in the drink-bill of the American
working-men, for instance! At a mod
crate estimate it amounts to between
four and five hundred million dollars a
year. While labor is throwing away
that enormous sum annually, with what
show of consistency can it lament its
condition? One years remission of
that destructive self-indulgence would
solve every labor problem eXtant;
would provide fund for the estab-
lishment of cooperative works, for the
maintenance and education of orphans,
for libraries and scientific schools, for
all manner of helps.
At present the working-man can
hardly make both ends meet. Is itnot
because he insists on creating capital
lists out of the saloon-keepers, and, not
content with that, on submitting all
his rights of citizenship to the same
objects of worship? The saloon in pol
itics is the most hideous abuse of the
day, but where would it be if the work.
ing-men withdrew their support fromitP
1t keeps them poor 1t keeps our poll
tics corrupt. 1t supplies constant
stream of base adventures, who dis
grace the American name at home
and abroad. Itmakes the terms pub
lie office" and 'publicplunder" synon-
ymous. 1t STILES progress, fosters
pauperism, brutalizes husbands and
fathers, breaks women's hearts, puts
rags on the working-man' back, dis
ease in his body, and shame and
despair in his heart. Yet when la
Dor is most disturbed, when the
demand for advanced wages is
loudest, when strikes are most fire.
quent, when hunger and misery are
most rife in the homes of the poor.
the saloon flourishes still There may
be no bread at home, but there are
always beer and whisky at the bar,
and the men who consider them
selves the victims of circumstances or
the ''thralls" of capital squander their
earnings, spend their savings in these
dens. Can there be serious labor
question while this state of things con-
tinues? Can working-men talk grave
ly of their wrongs while it is plain to
all the world that if they only saved
the capital they earn they would be
comfortable?
This aspect of the case has not been
sufficiently examined, and for reasons
which will probably occur readily to
the reader But it is really the key to
the situation. When we see on the
one side yearly waste of between
four and five hundred millions of dol
lars, and on the other side body of
men, the squanderers of this vast fund,
complaining that they have not suffi-
cient opportunities, we can not long be
at loss to comprehend the true nature
of the existing dissatisfaction. The
first duty of labor is to demonstrate its
capacity for self-government At this
moment its drink-bill is an impeach-
ment of that capacity. No man who
spends half his earnings at saloon
can get on in the world, or has the
least right to expect to get on. Nor
can any body of men follow the same
course with better results. George f..
Parsons, M atlantic Monthly.