Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-06-01

sack is torn or
eaten of moths, or III some way made
Incapable o. holding valuabies. AS
last as the coin was put in one end
of the sack it dropped out OF the 9TH
". 1t made TO difference how much
wages they got, for they lost them.
He that earneth wages, earneth
wages to put into a bag with holes.
What has become of the billions
and billions of dollars in this country
paid to the working classes? Some OF
these moneys nave gone for house
rent, or the purchase of homesteads,
Or wardrobe, or family expenses. or the
necessities of life, or to provide COM
forts in old age. What has become OF
other billions? Wasted in foolish out
lay. Wasted at the gaming table.
Wasted in intoxicants. Put into bag
with hundred holes.
Gather up the money that the work
ing classes have spent for drink dur
ing the last thirty years and l VIII
uuild for every working man house,
and lay out for him garden, ana
clothe his sons in broadcloth and his
daughters in silk. and place at MS
front door prancing span OF sorreis
or bays, and secure him policy OF
life insurance, so that the present nome
/ ay be we'll maintained after lie II
dead. The most persistent, most over
towering enemy of the working classes
is Intoxicating liquor. 1t is the anar>'
Chist of the centuries, and has bog"
cotted. and is now boycotting, the DoiY
and mind and soul of American Labor.
1t is TO it a worse foe than monopoly
and worse than associated capital.
It annually swindles industry out OF
n large percentage of its earnings. 1t
holds out its blasting solicitations 10
the mechanic or operative on his way
10 work, and at the noon spell, and on
his way home at eventide; on Satuc-
day, when the wages are paid, it
snatches large part of the money
that might come into the family. and
sacrifices it among the saloonkeepers.
Stand the saloons Of this country side
by side, and 1t is carefully estimated
that they would reach from New York
to Chicago. Forward, march, says
the drink power, land 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 both to employers
and employees, proclaim a strike uni
versal against strong drink, which, if
kept up. will be the relief of the work
ing classes and the salvation of the
nation. l will undertake TO say that
there is not healthy laborer in the
United States who, within the next
ten years. If he will refuse all intox-
icating beverage and be saving, may
not become n capitalist on small
scale. Our country in year spends
one billion five hundred smillion and
fifty thousand dollars for drink. OF
course the working classes do a great
deal of this expenditure. Careful sta
tistics show that the wage learning
classes Of Great Britain expend in
liquors one hundred million pounds, or
five hundred million dollars year.
Sit down and calculate, D working
man. how much you have expended
IN these directions. Add 1t all up.
Add up what your neighbors have ex-
pended, and realize that instead OF an
swering the beck Of other people yoa
might have been your own capitalist.
When you deplete working mans
physical energy you deplete his capt.
tai. The stimulated workman gives
out before the unstimulated workman.
My father said: II became a temper
ance man in early life, because no
ticed In the harvest field that, though
/ was physically weaker than other
workmen, | could hold out longer than
they. They took stimulants. l took
none" A brickmaker in England gives
Lis experience in regard to this matter
among men in his employ. He says,
after investigation: THE beer-drinker
who made the fewest bricks made six
hundred and flfty-nipe thousand; and
the abstainer who made the fewest
bricks seven hundred and forty-six
thousand The difference in behalf of
the abstainer over the indulger, eighty
seven thousand.
When an army goes out to the bat
tie the soldier who has water or coffee
In his canteen marches easier and fights
better than the soldier who has whis-
ky In his canteen. Drink helps a man
10 fight when he has only one con-
testant, and that at the street corner.
But when he goes forth to maintain
some great battle for God and his
country, he wants no drink about him.
When the Russians go to war a cor
poral passes along the line and smells
the breath of every soldier. If there
be in his breath 4 faint of Intoxicating
liquor the man is sent back to the
barracks. Why? He cannot endure
fatigue, All our young men know this.
When they are preparing for regat-
IA, or for a ball club, or for an ath-
letic wrestling, they abstain. Our
working people will be wiser after
awhile, and the money they fling away
on hurtful indulgences they will put
into cooperative association, and SO