The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-03-06
WHISKY AND WORKMEN.


Drinking Man Not Capable of Doing
Good Worx-An Annoyance and Vile
Smelling Nuisance.
The fact is that no man who is the
slave of the drink demon is a first-class
workman. He may be able, when he
is sober, to do good work. But when
he is flushed with drink, the clear head,
the steady hand, the accurate eye, are
all gone. The brain, dazed by the ac-
cursed fumes of alcohol, is incapable
of its best work. 1t is fact, proved
time and again in post-mortem exami-
nations of the bodies of men who have
come to their deaths when drunk, that
the assures of the brain contain some
times as much as a teaspoonful of pure
alcohol. The workman in this condi-
ton is certainly not capable of doing
his best The eye, the hand, share the
condition of the brain, for the nervous
system. of which the brain is the center,
partakes of that organs incapacity to
exert its powers properly and fully.
Nor is the condition of the confirmed
drinker, on those occasions when he is
as sober as he ever gets-when he has
not poured down any of this alcoholic
poison for a time-very much i'm
proved. 1t is law of nature that every
excess, in any direction, is followed by
corresponding reaction. The stimu-
lus of the fiery liquid is gone. Every
muscle is relaxed and weak, and the
system is enervated. The brain is weak
and irritable from the poison that has
been carried to its every fiber by the
blood, and every nerve is unstrung.
The man is cross, sulky, suffers from
the blues, is ''hard to get along WITH"
because of this depression of his nerv-
Gus and muscular system after the I'M
natural tension to which it has been
subjected. He does not feel like work.
1t requires supreme effort to enable
him to 60 through his round of daily
duty even in perfunctory manner.
Again, drinking workman is an an
noyance to every body with whom he
comes in contact. When under the in
fuence of rum he is hilarious, noisy,
often profane and foul-mouthed in
speech; vile-smelling nuisance to the
respectable workmen, a disgrace to
himself and to the establishment.
When suffering from the reaction of
his debauch, he is equally unpleasant
either sulky and silent, or giving vent
to his spleen in being quarrelsome and
insulting.
Is not all this matter which is
worthy the attention of the labor or
CARNATIONS of the country? Master
Workman Powderly, of the Knights of
Labor of the United States, in his re-
port, issued at the close of the last year,
made use of this strong language in
regard to the admission of drinking
men to membership in that powerful
order:
eff a man given to the use of strong drink,
and serpent, applied for admission to the
order, would vote for the serpent in pref
erence to the drunkard. / do not ask of those
who join us that they shall be saints; but l
have right to expect, and do ask of them, to
he men,"
But the exigencies of the struggle to
control the laboring element of the
country by getting every work
ing-man enrolled in labor organi-
cations, leads to the acceptance
of men without inquiring as to
THEN habits. Besides, young man
may be temperate when admitted, and
become victim of rum afterwards.
Thousands of them do. Is it not the
part of wisdom for these labor societies,
under whatever name they may be
known, to exert their powerful infiu-
ence in the work of crushing out the
making and selling of Toledo
Blade.