The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1890-03-07
w. C. r. u. DEPARTMENT.

company without a break, a street reach
ing from Chicago to New York. In the
eleven mountain states of the Union. in
the West, there is a saloon for every forty
three voters. The boycott of The saloon is
the greatest thing and the most helpful
thing that has ever come to the Knights of
Labor, or any similar organization. In
one of the towns of Illinois, a banker put
his private mark on the money he paid out
on Saturday night to the wage-workers of
the town who patronized his bank; and on
Monday night, of the 500 paid out, and
marked privately, over $500 had come
back to him from the saloons Of that town!
There is nothing that cramps, belittles and
dwarfs the possibilities of the labor move
ment in America like the saloons; and
some guilds of w~orkingnen show that they
know it, by boycotting the saloons and all
liquor dealers, not allowing them to be
seated with reputable men, whose work
brings back a good return.
Legitimate traffic is like the oak tree;
in its branches the birds gather and
make their pleasant music; under its shade
the weary herds and focks find rest and
shelter. There is nothing living, hardly,
that can not get good out of an oak tree.
1t is like legitimate industry; every other
industry is benefited and helped by it. But
the liquor traffic is like the upas tree, for
saken by every living thing because it is
the deadly foe of every living thing, and
drips. not dew, but poison. The labor
question is a wonderful and mighty issue,
but wage-workers would do we'll to study
with it the temperance question, the pro-
hibition question-do we'll to remember
pended by our people in America across
the counters of the saloons and in the liq-
uor traf1ic-nine hundred million dollars,
to say nothing of the money that is lost by
those who would be at work except for
the temptation Of the saloon.
II the women of the nation had the bal
lot, they and the good men of the nation
would hold the balance of power. AS
w M t'@t ~
great reforms must come in through the
ballot box. We believe that because they
are physically weaker, women, by the very
instinct of self-protection, are the enemy
of the liquor-shops, because the manly
arm that was meant to be their protection,
when uncontrolled by the guiding brain,
and frenzied by alcohol, becomes their
dread. We believe it doesn't make any
difference whether a woman is a Protestant
or Catholic, whether she is black or white,
cultured or ignorant, native or foreign-born
We believe that, as a rule, women, for the
sake of protection for themselves, their
children and their homes, stand solidly
against the dram-shop. We believe thai
prohibition will come whenever woman
has the ballot. Out in Washington Terri.
tory they gave the women the ballot, and
it was such a terror to the saloon men thai
they worked away with the Supreme
Court and finally succeeded in making on
that that they had left out a comma, or
semicolon, perhaps, or some punctuation
mark, or else some little word, in the name
of the bill, and so the Supreme Court said
that the bill was not legal. What happen
ed? There were bonfires and rejoicings III
all the cities and towns and villages OF
Washington Territory. There were bells
ringing, not the bells in the steeples, by a
large majority, but the ding -donging of all
the old eow-bells and sheep-bells they
could get. There was beer TO be bad on
tap, placed there by the saloon-keepers.
and 4 great jubilee from one end of the
territory to the other. Who got it upf
The saloons. Why did they get it up? II
was their celebration to think that the
women had lost the battle. Tell us what
the liquor men are afraid of, and the tenn
perance people want it, and it is sure to
be friendly to the home.
The workingmen are going to give us
prohibition by their votes-but after they
have driven the nail of prohibition in a
sure place, they will need the hammer of
woman's ballot to rap it into place so that
it will hold strong and steady and dura-
BILE.
Another vital issue in the labor question
is that of the wage of M
f'-Alas! that gold should be so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap"
In order to get your minds stirred up by
way OF remembrance, read "The Prison.
ers of Poverty" by Helen Campbell.
When | was in Boston, in the winter of 'S8,
| read in the papers that some of the Pro.
fessors of Harvard University had been
having a great deal of talk with a Socialist,
His name was Laurence Gronlund. He
was a Dane, and those men said he was the
most sensible Socialist they ever saw. Many
think every Socialist an Anarchist, but
here was one who was most reputable. ]
had the pleasure of an interview with him,
and | was wonderfully interested in his
ideas. He said to me, people generally
will not read my book, because it is dry
but there's a wonderfully gifted man who
has put my book into a story, and the
name is looking Backward" So