Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-21
Better Than tho Blue Law Trainers.


AFTER all, bad as we are, with our
| Sunday papers and our Sunday cars we can
| not look for our golden age back in the era
| of the Blue Laws. We are distinctly better
than those old fellows in matters of more
| importance than are at present disputed
about When the First Presbyterian Church
| installs successor to DR.. Purves-which
day be distant there will be no brewing
of ordination grog on the green grass with.
in the iron fence, nor will the attendant par
sons so behave themselves at table as to
need rebuke even from the Sunday papers.
We realize more seriously to-day than has
ever been realized before the great evils of
drink. We know that it not only hurts the
drinker and his family. but the city and the
whole country. And not only are the re-
formers interested in reformation. and the
blue-ribbon people, and all the pious folk,
but the labor unions are concerned in 1t.
There was o day when men were paid for
overtime in drink, and when 1t was gener-
ally taken for granted in the mills that not
much work would be done on Monday; the
men not yet being sufficiently sobered up
after payday and Sunday. But all that has
gone by.
The foreman to-day wants men who can do
his work, and who can do it every day. And
he knows that the drinking man cannot
stand the strain of honest labor. And ac-
cordingly the drinking man is getting out of
his job in all enterprising establishments.
The most energetic temperance people in
the community are the foremen in the large
mills, and the labor leaders who have their
hearts in the cause of labor.
Germany and the Drink Habit.
Il SEE that this fact of physical and
mental deterioration through drink is just
now attracting wide notice in Germany.
The people of Germany, in these days, are
thinking about more great measures than
the people of any other country. And the
drink question Is one of them. There was
letter on the subject few days ago in the
Nation
The discussion began, it seems, in the Ger
man Army Journal in connection with the
failure of certain militia called out sud-
denly to take part in maneuvers in the field.
The men could not stand the work. Their
muscles were not equal to the strain. They
were enfeebled by the drinking habit.
Now, they feel the need over there in Ger
many of men. 1t was Dlogenes, think, who
called across the street to a crowd of idlers,
"Ho, men, come over here!'' And when they
came he turned his back upon them, saying:
'What did you come for? called for men!'
The wise leaders of the German nation want
men; not animals with heads and hands and
feet, attired in bffurcated garments, and
wearing boards, but men, real men with
strong muscles, and stout hearts, and
clear eyes, who can work aud accomplish
something. And they have come to the con-
clusion that q E1an who drinks is only half
man, or only one-tenth of O man, or perhaps
only miserable imitation and caricature of
q man.
There is every probability that the conti-
nent of Europe will be the scene Of great
and speedy struggle. It may be struggle
of armed men. 1t is certain to be a struggle
for at least industrial supremacy. 1t is
equally sure that the nation will win in that
contest which Is best prepared; that is,
which has the most real men in 1t. And in
looking over the nation to see what most
hinders its strength and its manhood, these
wise men have decided that it is drink. In
any Industrial competition the most sober.
the most thrifty people will como out ahead.
Moro for Liquids Than Solids.
THE question is accordingly being asked,
Are we not spending upon that which we
pour down our throats money that might
be used to make us, not weaker but
stronger people2 It is shown that the drink
habit limits the food production of the coun-
try. one-ffteenth OF the arabic land of Ger
many is given over to the production of ma
teriaI to be made into drink. This land used
for the growth of food, would yield every
wear 3,a72, 900, 900 pounds of bread, and add
Just so much to the plenty of the country.
One-twentieth of the working population
of Germany are-engaged in the liquor traf-
fic in some capacity, and SO are kept from
EMPLOYMENT that might add to the real COM
fort and strength OF the nation.
"Among our working people," says Prof.
Schneider, of Berlin, "the conditions Of do
mestic life, of education, of prosperity, Of
progress or degradation. are all dependent
on the proportion of income which flows
down the fathers throat The whole con-
dition of our lower ana middle classes de-.
pends on this question. If it is true that
half our paupers become so through drink,
It gives us some estimate Of the costly bur
den which we tolerate. No other of our
vices bear comparison with this"
No saloon in Germany, according to this
estimate of national weakness by drink,
ought to have the right to fly the German
flag above its door. 1t ought to put MP tho
black dag of the pirate. It is an enemy to
patriotism. It fs fortress in the midst of
the country from which to attack the best
intotsscs Of all the people.