The Brookhaven leader., 1889-09-12

Working-men.
.................... ......... ....'..s..:
Such statements as this set the peo-
pie to thinking on the subject of the
rum waste. They challenge attention.
Their interest is aroused, the facts are
scrutinized, and workingmen discuss
them among themselves. They are ex-
cellent primary object-lessons in the
building up of public sentiment against
the rum traffic.
Such facts need to be especially
brought home to the working-men OF
our cities. The man whose attention
is arrested by these placards, seeing
the enormous waste of money in the
one city of Chicago, naturally wonders
what the total loss in the entire
United States would be each year; and
having examined the statement regard
ing Chicago. and found it correct, he
is not hard to convince that the rum
bill of the Nation is something over
5000, 0O0 900 per year. The rum of
which this is the cos. is chiefly used
by men in active life; women and
CHlluE6u ldhS Uub ILIJlC VI IT.
About one-third OF the entire popu-
lation are working-men, who must
earn the most of the money; hence it
is easy to figure that the average tax
upon each working-man is about $50
per year, or nearly two dollars per
week But it is probable that half the
working-men in the country do not use
rum to any extent. Admitting this
state of things, it follows that about
half the working-men of the country
are taxed on an average of two-thirds
of dollar day for liquors-which not
only do them no good, but cause them
great injury, uniting them for labor,
making them unskillful and subjecting
them to diseases, accidents and dam
gers of various kinds, thus deteriorat-
ing the quality of their work, prevent
ing their advancement, consuming
their wages and keeping their noses to
the grindstone all their days.
These evils would be grievous
enough if they were borne by the per-
sons directly concerned-by the men
" IO III IL ullO pi ASC Va ebO HhA1
consumed were the total cost; but they
extend far beyond these limits. The
loss caused by the drink habit in one
man can no more be measured by the
cost of the rum he drinks than can the
damage caused by an explosion of a
can of dynamite be measured by the
price of the explosive. One bottle of
rum may cause the loss of a mans
life. and deprive his wife and children
of their only support; it may lead to
an accident by which scores of lives
may be lost, or property be destroyed
to ten thousand times the price paid
for it. The evils of the rum habit fall
heavily upon innocent people. There
are very few men who have not fami-
lies or dependent ones looking to them
for support; and they must suffer the
poverty and misfortune he brings upon
himself, though they are themselves
entirely innocent. The. primary eff
fectn fall upon the drinker himself of
course; his body becomes diseased, his
physical and mental vigor declines,
and he does not live out the full term
of years that would otherwise have
fallen to his lot. The secondary ef-
fects fall upon his dependent family or
friends. They must endure the pinch
ing poverty, meet the privations, that
the vicious extra' agance of their pro-
WIDER entails.
Nor do the evil effects of the in
temperance of part of the working
men of our land stop with themselves
and their own families and friends.
The burden falls upon the entire class
of wage-workers, including the sober
ones rs well as the drinkers The in
temperance of the latter deranges
business, ,demoralizes society, increases
vice, crime, insanity and pauperism,
adds enormously to taxation in order
to maintain the increased police
service, the cost of courts. and the
support of jails, penitentiaries, poor
houses and hospitals. This increased
burden of taxation is borne by the
temperate and economical, and loads
down the charitable and philanthrop-
ic with the care of drunkards' wives
and children.
There is another fact worthy of note
by the thinking working-man-that
the Incorporate class, being also i'm
provident, are the ones who are al
ways in trouble concerning their
wages When hard times come-and
their grip is always the most keenly
felt by the wage-workers-they are
often compelled to practice the
sternest self-denial and most rigid
economy in order to keep the wolf
from the door. The case of those who
are in the power of the demon OF rum