The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-22

ONSA % BAO "OONO
rare occurrences, and it is perfectly
natural that they should be, for 1t
would be the height of nonsense for a
man or company of men to lend aid
to factors which are antagonistlc to
their own business. The whlskey
dealers know that if the laborlng
classes are educated and become en-
lightened upon the subject OF lntoxl'
cants and useless beverages and the
evils accruing therefrom, that their
revenues will be greatly lessened and
their business less fourishing. They
know that it is to their pecunisry ad-
vantage to keep the laborer from rls'
ing in the scale of intelligence. They
know that the Church and Sabbath
School are the bull-works of civll1za'
ton. and that as civilization ad-
vances their business will naturally be
driven from the field.
The s~aloonist not being satisfied with
dealing out damnation for six days IN
the week, and in order to battle more
ferceIy against the Church Of God
has asked the municipal authorities
in many of our cities to grant them
the privilege Of continuing their hell
ish business on the Sabbath day. And
with regretful shame upon some OF
the city authrities and upon our civil
zation, the request has been granted In
some of our cities. Is it not time
that such fendish business should be
stopped ? Either the manufacture
and sale of whiskey is wrong, or else
it Is wrong to impose an exorbitant
tax upon the articles, as is done in
this country. If the manufacture and
sale of whiskey is beneficial to a peo-
pie it is wrong to impose a high tax
upon whiskey. The sale should be as
free as bread and meat. If the
whiskey industry is such as it may be
called not beneficial but is a curse to
a people, why then it should be en-
tirely abolished. No amount of tax
upon an evil can correct that evil.
Now I would ask, does it not be-
hoove the Farmers Alliance, the most
powerful labor organization in exist
ence, is it not it's duty to itself and to
it's country to take hold of this needed
reform the prohibition of the liquor
traffic, and with unrelenting energy
push it to completion I? In the name
of the laborers of this country, in the
name of orphans, in the name of
humanity in general, does it not be-
hoove the Alliance to assail the dram
shop.
We hear a frightful cry of indigna-
ton Numbered against the sugar trust,
the coffee trust, the jute bagging trust,
&C., yet against this iendish liquor
trust, which is piling up millions of
dollars annually, taken chiefly from
the laboring mems pockets, and which
is sending sixty thousand annually to
a drunkard's grave and a drunkard's
hell, we hear comparatively little
from the labor organs. The whiskey
problem is the question which con
Germs the people of this country vastly
more than any other at the present
time, and when we read the great
speeches delivered in Congress by our
lawmakers, we find that they are gen
orally on the negro problem of the
South, and other questions the object
of which is to contribute to election
capital, and not a word do we find on
this vital subject.
Would that the Farmers Alliance
would come to a sense of it's duty and
its high calling; let the scales drop from
it's eyes and in the name of God and
humanity man it's forces against an
enemy which is causing nor misery
than all the trusts combined-the rum
power. A. B. @.