The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1894-01-25
TEMPERANCE.
A WISE REGULATION.
Strange Propositions from an Advocate
of Drink


of Drink.
The Wine and Spirit Gazette is
weekly paper, published in the city OF
New York and devoted entirely to the
subject embraced in its title-the traffic
in Intoxicating liquors. 1t is bitter
opponent of prohibition, of course
Nevertheless, the last issue contains
the following editorial, under the
heading: "a Wise Regulations"
THE Phoenix Protective association
of this city, which is local branch of
the organization of Surface Railroad
Employees has seen fit to denounce an
order of the arrangements of the roads
combined under the Broadway syndi-
cate, forbidding its operatives to enter
a saloon during working hours.
The syndicate has a perfect right to
make such an order, and the Protective
association assumes an untenable posi-
ton in opposing it. Employees sell their
time to their employers. They need
not sell it if they do not wish to do So
but having sold it, it becomes the EN-
ployers' time, and their own no longer.
Therefore the employer has right to
say where it shall and where it shall
not be consumed. Naturally the EN-
ployer requires that the time shall be
consumed in his service, not idled away
i'm saloons or other places removed from
his field of labor. That is the CONNER
cial proposition.
''But there is another and Il stronger
argument in this instance. Railroad
employees are entrusted with the care
of lives and property for which their
employers are responsible. The respOn-
Sibility is so great that it will admit of
no unnecessary chance or risk. A man
who drinks once will drink twice. Two
much drink is apt to befuddle the
brain, rendering the man stupid and
careless or reckless and daring. A
man in such condition is not fit to
have the care of human lives or of
property. Therefore the railroad COM
pany simply says It's operatives shall
not put themselves into such a condi-
ton, nor even take the first step to-
wards it, while their time is at its dis
posal. At other times they are free to
do as they please"
Everyone will agree to both the
propositions laid down by the Wine and
Spirit Gazette. The first is, as it cor
rectly styles it, the Commercial prop
Osition." The employee sells his time
TO his employer, and the latter has the
right to say where it shall be spent.
The second, while strictly true in every
word, is one which we must confess
surprises us to find in the columns of
paper devoted to the liquor traffic. 1t
says "a man who drinks once will
drink twice"-and every one knows
how fatally true that isl Then, too
much drink is apt to befuddle the
brain" and man in that condition
SIS not fit to have the care of human
lives or property"
Quite true. But the principle has
far wider application than merely to
railway employees Is a man whose
brain is befuddled proper person to
stand behind an accountants desk,
for instance? Is he proper person
to work at machine? If he be a
stonecutter, for instance, is his work,
while under the influence of liquor, of
proper quality, or does he accomplish
as much as though he were perfectly
sober? And would not the same an
swer be given if he were painter,
paper-hanger, a carpenter, a brick
layer, or employed in any other of
hundred occupations?
There is no reason the line should
be drawn on railroad employees, and
not on men employed in any other
operation. No matter what may be
the work, its quality suffers when
the workman is a drinking man. If,
perchance, it be work to which this
objection will not apply-as is the case
with the coarser forms of manual labor
the amount of work he performs in
a given time is diminished, and he is
not so profitable to his employer as in
a sober man.
There is an increasing disposition on
the part Of the employers to give work
only to men who do not drink There
are many lines of work already from
which drinking men are actually
shut out, and the list grows larger
every year. The drinker is not so
good, nor so reliable, nor so profit
able an employee as the non-drinl1er.
While this may be considered as also
commercial reason, it is a potent one.
When a liquor organ admits, as z mer-
camille proposition, that an employer
has the right to require his men to alb
stain from visiting saloons or drinking
during the hours of labor, it makes an
admission which is very strong one
against the liquor habit; and when it
goes further and admits that an en-
ployer has the right to require men
not to drink, because it destroys their
sense of responsibility it has given the
opponents of the drink ira tfic power
full weapon for, if the traffic be abol-
ished, men can not drink - Toledo
Blade.
ALCOHOL IN The SYSTEM.