The Labor enquirer., 1888-05-05
PROHIBITION.
Its Fallacy as a Preventive
Of Intemperance Point
ed Cut.
POVERTY BEGErs CRIME.
Prohibition Merely Blind to Help
Divert Attention from the Real
Cause Of Peverty-Injustice.
For tue Eno,nlrer.

For tue Enonirer.
The prohibitionists keep up a
dismal howl on the evils of the in
temperate use of alcoholic liquors,
but drunkenness is only one of
the pernicious outcomes of our
competitive system. This system
robs men of their earnings. This
prevents them from purchasing
the best qualities of liquors which
do not by. any means take away
the reason of men and make
such maniacs of them as the
poorer alcoholic drinks do. Pow
erty preventing men from acquir-
ing good liquors the genius of
the American is exercised in pro-
ducing a counterfeit and some
thing that will SATISFY the cravings
of the poor for a small expenditure
of cash.
If is the same demand that is
causing the establishment of "soup
houses" where refuse meat, flour
etc, is served out to the hordes of
of the disinherited and the popu-
larity of cheap lodging houses
where men are herded together in
close ill-ventilated, nasty, sinking
rooms.
Granting, however, that drink
causes much crime and misery it
is not conclusive evidence that the
worlds industrial conditions are
perfect as. prohibitionists assume,
and that liquor is the cause of all
's-'--------.r d. ---:-..---:-:----fa (
moment that drunkenness is ~
|tinguished and the monopoly of
natural forces and the competi-
tive system still prevailed we
plainly see that men would con
tinue slaves of other men the same
as now, and although the ability
of the masses to produce would
be considerably augmented still
they would receive barely sufficient
for existence and thousands would
annually die from improper food,
lack of proper clothing, overwork
ETC., as under the present regime.
The prohibition reply to tho
wage-worker, viz: THAT his pow
erty is due to drunkenness" is an
insulting, slanderous, reproach en-
tirely lac king truth, unreasonable.
uncalled for and it is to be classed
only with the curious freaks of
nature sometimes manifested IN
minds whose training have made
them narrow, bigoted, prejudiced
and too weak to comprehend
great questions.
The prohibition party is we'll
suited to the commercial gamblers,
shylocks, real estate swindlers,
corporation officials and their at
taches of which it is largely COM
posed. These men desire to stihe
discomfort and livert the attention
of the toilers from the main issue
by trying to persuade them that
intemperance instead of injustice
is the primary cause of their suf-
fering. | do not wish-to depreciate
the value of temperance for it is
an economical and admirable vir-
tue the beauty of which cannot be
too artistically portrayed, but
temperance and prohibition are
about as near related as are forty
second cousins in the human fam
lily. The use of alcoholic liquors
from a moral standpoint is no
worse than drinking milk. Mill
ions of dollars are yearly spent for
milk which might BE- saved for
charities When milk is as badly
adulterated as the liquors the
poor must drink, it has equally as
pernicious an influence on the
brain and body. The prohibition
principle is one of the last dying
embers of the idea that the right
to rule in all matters from a ques-
ton of spiritual belief to that of
diet is with the strong and that
the state must intermeddle in all
private as we'll as public affairs.
The habit of drunkenness is de-
lplorable indeed; but the way to