Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-07-14
BURNS TO GOMPERS.
London's Labor Leader Tells the Fed
GRAFTON Chief of the Good
INFLUENCES OF SHORTER HOURS
Upon the Life and General Habits Of the
Working Glasses.
ALL CHARGES OF DEBAUCHERY DENIED
r,,c,.n rrnreRAn TO THE DISPATCH,


NEW YORK, July 13.-At the National
Temperance Congress held in this city last
month. Samuel Gompers said that the eight
hour movement was in favor of temperance,
and said that it was the long
hours of labor that drove men to
barrooms. Thompson, a member of the
Single Tax Club, denied the truth of this,
and in an attack on the eight-hour move
ment quoted Mr.. George j. Goschen, Chan
cellor of the English Exchequer, as his
authority for the assertion that the reduc-
ton of the hours of labor for the London
dock laborers only tended to increase the
drinking habit among them.
Doubling the truth of this statement Mr..
Gompers wrote to Mr.. Goschen and also to
John Burns, who was the leader of the dock
laborers in the strike. and asked them for
some information on the subject. He has
Just received replies. Mr.. Goschen's secre-
tarv writes that Mr.. Goschen never said
anything of the kind.
MR.. GoscHEN's DENIAL.
What he did say in his budget speech
was that the recent increased prosperity of
all classes in Great Britain has been accom-
panied by an increase in the consumption of
intoxicating liquors. "All classes" he
said, "have combined to toast the prosperity
of the country" Mr.. Burns wrote:
1o3 LAVENDER HILL. BATTERsEA,
LONDON, June %.
DEAR SIR-The Chancellor of the Exchequer
did not say that the increase In wages and re-
duction of hours of labor of the dock laborers
of London had merely tended to increase their
drunkenness and largely contributed to an
increase in the treasury from the IL
anSF fSas tbs ssaG Increase two millions
was due to the fact that the people had been
toasting the prosperity Of trade In the country.
that there had been a great increase in
the duty from rum. attended a meet
ing last night Of 5000 dock laborers.
and asked those who ought TO know
better conditions. and the universal opinion
was that the workers of London who had re-
ceived better wages are more sober than ever
they were. As an abstainer myself; am de,
lighted at the conduct of the dockers, and
more than pleased at the diminution. not only
of drinking but Of betting among them,
due In no small measure to the TACT that their
temperance men. The greatest enemies have
in London are the betting men and publicans.
Their enmity is testimony to this fact, as we
ask for
REDUCTION OF HOURS 40
for more leisure and education and urge the
men to spend their higher wages in home CON-
forts. II 20 years the amount spent in liquor
per head of population has decreased 20 per
cent, while the aggregate has increased
through growth OF population. In England,
as elsewhere. the short hour movement
has always tended to sobriety, and increased the
intelligence of the worker. In my own trade
transfer the meeting place from the Pig and
Whistle to the Brown Bear. so that
the publicans might have the profit from the
drink consumed. So great has been the change
that the proprietor will almost give you f2O to
take the meeting away, as the drink consumed
does not pay him to have the meeting there,
At boat races, bean feasts. holiday gather
ings the change in the drinking habits is
most marked. Side by side with the demand
tor shorter hours is also the demand for free
libraries, parks and open spaces, gymnasia,
cricket and football grounds. Leisure to-day
does not mean drinking but the opportunities
for thought, education and true thrift, which is
impossible to men whose hours make them
animals and content with brutal existence.
The rich man drinks because he has nothing
provides him with the means for drinking has
to work longer hours than he should
and as a consequence often heals the monotoEy
of his toll by bouts of drinking, the cause of
which the eght-hour advocates are going to
remove by equalizing the labor of both. Thus
the lazy man will have something to take an in
terest in, while the previously overworked
slave will have leisure, without which man
hood and its best characteristics are impossi-
BILE. Yours truly,
JOHN BURNS.