The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1890-08-01
THE SHORT DAY AND DRINK.
A Letter from John Burns Brought Out
by an Argument in New York.

A Letter from John Burns Brought Out
by an Argument in New York.
| AT the temperance congress held in
New York city in June Samuel Gompers
said the eight hour movement was in
favor of temperance, and that there
would be less drinking among the work.
ingmen if the workday was shortened
and thereby made less exhaustive. Mr..
| L. Thompson declared that this state
ment was incorrect, and cited Chancellor
Goschen, of the English exchequer, as
authority for the assertion that the re-
duction of the hours of labor of the
London dock laborers only tended to in
crease the drinking habit among them.
Mr.. Gompers doubted Thompson's state
ments, and wrote both to Mr.. Goschen
and John Burns, leader of the dock
laborers i'll their big strike.
Mr.. Goschen's secretary writes that
Mr.. Goschen never said anything of the
kind. What he did say in his budget
! speech was that the recent increased
prosperity of all classes in Great Britain
has been accompanied by an increase in
the consumption of intoxicating liquors.
Cali classes" he said, "have combined
to toast the prosperity of the country"
Mr.. Burns wrote:
LONDON, June 29. !
"DEAR SIR-The chancellor of the ex-
chequer did not say that the increase in
wages and reduction 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 liquor traffic. His
statement was that the increase of two
millions was due to the fact that the
people had been toasting the prosperity
of trade in the country. He had no refer
ence to any class, but did say that there
had been Il great increase in the duty
from rum.
81 attended meeting last night of
6,00O dock laborers, and asked those who
ought to know what was the effect of
higher wages and better conditions, and
the universal opinion was that the work
ers of London who had received better
wages are more sober than ever they
were. AS an abstainer myself 1 am de-
lighted at the conduct of the dockers,
and more than pleased at the diminu-
ton not only of drinking, but of betting
among them, due in no small measure
to the fact that their leaders, Messrs.
Mann, Tillett and others, are temper
ance men. The greatest enemies 1 have
in London are the betting men and pub
licans. Their enmity is testimony to
this fact, that we ask for reduction of
hours, for more leisure and education,
and urge the men to spend their higher
wages in home comforts. In twenty
years the amount spent in liquor per
head of population has decreased 20 per
cent, while the aggregate has increased
through growth of population.
SIN England, as elsewhere, the short
hours movement has always tended to
sobriety and increased the intelligence
of the worker. In my own trade, twelve
or fourteen years ago secretaries were
bribed, to transfer the meeting place
from the Pig and Whistle to the Brown
Bear, so that the publicans might have
the profit from drink consumed. So
great has been the change that the pro-
prietor of the Brown Bear will almost
give you eco to take the meeting away,
as the drink consumed does not pay him
to have the meeting there. At boat
races, bean feasts, holiday gatherings,
ETC., the change in the drinking habits
is most marked. Side by side with the
demand for shorter hours is also the de-
mand for free libraries, parks and open
spaces, gymnasia, cricket and football
grounds.
Leisure today does not mean drink
ing, but the opportunities for thought,
education and true thrift, which is inn
possible to men whose long hours make
them animals and content with brutal
existence. The rich man who drinks
does so because he has nothing better to
do. This means that the poor man, who
provides him with the means for drink
ing, has to work longer hours than he
should, and as a consequence often heals
the monotony of his toll by bouts of
drinking, the cause of which the eight
hour advocates are going to remove by
equalizing the labor of both. Thus the
lazy man will have something to take an
interest in, while the previously over
worked slave will have leisure, without
which manhood and its best character
istics are impossible. Yours truly,
"JoHN BURNS"