The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-06-03


eaten of moths, or in some way made
incapable of holding valuables. AS
fast as the coin was put in one end
Of the sack it dropped out of the 9TH
er. It made TO difference how much
wages they got, for they lost them.
He that earneth wages, earneth
wages to put into 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 have gone for house
rent, or the purchase of homesteads,
or wardrobe, or family expenses, or the
necessities of life, or to provide COM
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 I will
build for every working man house,
and lay out for him a garden, and
clothe his sons in broadcloth and his
daughters in silk, and place at his
front door prancing span OF sorrels
or bays, and secure him a policy OF
life insurance, so that the present home
may be we'll maintained after he is
dead. The most persistent, most over
powering enemy of the working classes
is Intoxicating liquor. It is the anar-
chist of the centuries, and has boy
cotted, and is now boycotting, the body
and mind and soul of American labor.
1t is to it worse foe than monopoly
and worse than associated capital.
1t annually swindles industry out OF
large percentage of its earnings. 1t
holds out its blasting solicitations to
the mechanic or operative on his way
to work, and at the noon spell, and on
his way home at eventide; on Satur-
day, when the wages are paid, it
snatches a 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 it is carefully estimated
that they would reach from New York
to Chicago. Forward, march, says
the drink power, "and take possession
of the American nation!'
The drink business is pouring it's
vitriolic and damnable liquids down
the threats OF hundreds of thousands
of lcborers. 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. I 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 a capitalist on small
scale. Our country in year spends
| one billion five hundred million 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-earning
classes of Great Britain expend in
liquors one hundred million pounds, or
five hundred million dollars a year.
Sit down and calculate, o working
man! how much you have expended
in these directions. Add it all up.
Add up what your neighbors have ex-
| pended, and realize that instead of an
swering the beck of other people you
| might have been your own capitalist.
| When you deplete a working mans
physical energy you deplete his CAPT.
| tai. The stimulated workman gives
| out before the unstimulated workman.
My father said: Il became a temper
ance man in early life because I no.
ticed in the harvest field that, though
was physically weaker than. other
workmen, could hold out longer than
they. They took stimulants, T took
none" A brickmaker in England gives
his experience in regard to this matter
among men in his employ. He says
after investigation: 1.-THE beer-drinker
who made the fewest bricks made six
hundred and ffty-nine thousand: and
| the abstainer who made the fewest
bricks seven hundred and forty-siy
| 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 man
to 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 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 a 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
lon hurtful indulgences they will put
/ into cooperative association, and SO
become capitalists. If the working