The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-06-16

Working People is Strong
Plea for Earnest Christian Prdd
Text: "He that earneth wages earHel
wages to put into q bag with oles."-Hags
gail 6.
In Persia, under the reign Of Darius
Hystaspes, the people did not prosper.
They made money, but did not keep it.
They were like people who have a sack in
which they put money, not knowing that
the sack Is torn or eaten Of moths, or In
some way made incapable Of holding valu-
ables. As fast as the coin was put In one
end Of the sack it dropped out OF the 9TH
er. It made no difference how much
wages they got, for they lost them. "He
that earneth wages earneth wages to put it
into a bag with holes"
What has become OF the billions ar d
billions of dollars in this country paid to
the working classes? Some OF these mon
eys have gone for house rent, or the
purchase Of homesteads, or wardrobe, or
family expenses, or the necessities OF life,
or to provide comforts in old age. What
has become Of other billions? Wasted In
foolish outlay. Wasted at the gaming ia
BILE. Wasted in intoxicants. Put into q
bag with 100 holes.
Gather up the money that the working
classes have spent for drink during the last
thirty years, and I will build for every
workingman a house and lay out for him a
garden, and clothe his sons in broadcloth
and his daughters in silks, and place at his
front door a prancing span Of sorrels or
bays, and secure him a policy Of life insur-
ance, so that the present home may be well
maintained after he Is dead. The most per-
~sistent, most o~verpowering enemy Of the
working classes is intoxicating liquor. 1t
Is the anarchist Of the centuries and has
boycotted and Is now boycotting the body
and mind and soul OF American labor. 1t
Is to 1t a worse foe than monopoly and
worse than associated capital.
It annually swindles industry out OF a
large percentage Of earnings. 1t holds out
Its hastings solicitations to the mechanic
or operative on his way to work, and at the
noon spell, and on his way home at even
tide; on Saturday, when the wages are paid,
1t snatches a large part Of the money that
among the saloon keepers. Stand the sa-
looms of this country side by side, and 1t Is
carefully estimated that they would reach
from New York ito Chicago. Forward,
march" says the drink power, "and take
possession Of the American Nation"
The drink business Is pouring its ~vitriolic
and damnable liquids down the Threats OF
hundreds Of thousands OF laborers, and
while the ordinary strikes are ruinous beth
to employers and employees, I proclaim a
strike universal against strong drink,
which, if kept up, will be the relief Of the
working classes and the salvation OF the
Nation. I will undertake to say that there
Is not q healthy laborer In the United States
who within the next ten years, II he will re-
fuse all intoxicating beverages and be saw
ing, may not become a capitalist on a small
scale. Our country in a year spends 3d.
500, 050, 900 for drink. OF course the work
ing classes do a great deal OF this expendi-
ture. Careful statistics show that the
wage earning classes Of Great Britain sx-
pend In liquors s100, 000, 000, 900 or $780,
900, 900 a year. Sit down and calculate, oh,
worklngmen, how much you have ex-
pended in these directions. Add it all up.
Add up what your %neighbors have ex-
pended and realize that instead Of answer
Ing the beck of other people you might
have been your own capitalist, When you
deplete a workingman's physical energy,
you deplete his capital. The stimulated
workman gives out before the unstimulated
workman. My father said: 81 became q
temperance man in early life, because I
noticed in the harvest field that though 1
was physically weaker than other work
men, I could hold out longer than they.
They took stimulants. I took none" A brick
maker in England gives his experience In
regard to this matter among men In his
employ. He says, after investigation:
''The beer drinker who made the fewest
bricks made $50, 900, and the abstainer who
made the fewest bricks $4,000. The diff
ference in behalf Of the abstainer over the
InduIger, $1,000"
I have no sympathy for skinfint saving,
but I plead for Christian prudence. You
say it is impossible now to lay up anything
for a rainy day. I know 1t, but we are at
the daybreak Of National prosperity. Some
people think 1t Is mean to turn the gas low
when they 60 out OF the parlor. They feel
embarrassed If the doorbell rings before
they have the hall lighted. They apologize
for the plain meal, If you surprise them at
the table. Well, it Is mean If it Is only to
pile up a misery board. But if it be to edu-
cate your children, il II be to give more
help to your wife when she does not feel
strong, If it be to keep your funeral day
from being horrible beyond all endurance,
because it is to be the disruption and an
Inhalation Of the domestic circle-ifit be
for that, then 1t Is magnificent.
There are those who are kept in poverty
because OF their own fault. They might
have been we'll off, but they smoked or
chewed up their earnings, or they lived be-
yond their means, while others on the same
wages and on the same salaries went on to
competency. I know a man who is all the
time complaining Of his poverty and;,crying
out against rich men while he himself keeps
two dogs and chews and smokes and Is full
to the chin with whisky and beer. Wilkins
Micawber said to David Copperaeld: "Cop-
per1eld, my boy, FL income, expenses, 20s.
3d.; result, misery. But, Copperield, my
boy, FL income; expenses, 1888, 3d.; result,
happiness" But, o w~orkingman, take
your morning dram, and your noon dram,
and your fevening dram, and spend every
thing you have over for tobacco and excur-
sions, and you insure poverty for yourself
and your children forever!
II by some generous fiat OF the CAPT
talists Of this country or by a new law OF
the Government OF the United States
twenty-five per cent. or fifty per cent. or
100 per cent. were added to the wages OF
the working classes Of America, it would
be no advantage to hundreds OF thousands
of them unless they stopped strong drink.
Aye, until they quit that evil habit the more
money the more ruin, the more wages the
more holes in the bag.
My plea Is to those working people. VINO
are in a discipleship to the whisky bottle,
the beer Jug and the wine flask. And what
I say to them will not be more appropriate
to the working classes than to the business
classes and the literary classes and the pro-
f~essional classes and all classes, and not
with the people Of one age more than Of all
ages. Take one good square look at the
suffering OF the man whom strong drink
has enthralled and remember that toward
that goal multltudes are running. The
disciple OF alcoholism suffers the loss OF
self respect. Just as soon as a man
wakes up and finds that he is the cap
tive OF strong drink, he feels delneaned.
I do not care how recklessly he acts. He
may say, IT don't care;" he does care.
He cannot look q pure man IN the eye un-
! n "a T. -:kk oo,Ikt,n f1roo ~ raon1uttnD