Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-08-14

the steam power a failure, electro
telegraphy a failure, railroading a fail
ure. but now the chief successes of the
world
But" says some one, ''Why talk Of
surplus being put by laborers into CO.
operative associations when the vast
multitude of toilers of this country are
struggling for their daily bread and
have no surplus?" I reply, put into my
hand the money spent by the laboring
classes of America for rum and to-
bacco. and will establish cooperative
associations in all parts of this land,
some of them mightier than any fnan-
cial institutions of the country. We
spend in this country over $1OO,OOO,OOO
every year for tobacco. We spend over
81 100000 900 directly or indirectly for
rum. The laboring classes spend their
share of this money. Now, suppose the
laboring man who has been expanding
his money in those directions should
Just add up how much he has ex-
pended during these past few years,
and then suppose that that money was
put into q cooperative association, and
then suppose he should have all his
friends in toll, who had made the same
kind of expenditure, do the same thing,
and that should be added up and put
into a cooperative association. And
then take all that money expended for
overdress and overstyle and OVERLY
ing on the part of toiling people in
order that they may appear as well as
persons who have more income gather
that all up and you could have CO.
operative associations all over this
land.
Trades Unions.
I am not saying anything now about
trades unions. You want to know what
1 think of trades unions. 1 think they
are most beneficial in some directions,
and they have a specific object, and in
this day, when there are vast monopo-
lies-a thousand monopolies concen-
trating the wealth Of the people into
the possession Of few men-unless
the laboring men Of this country and
all countries band together they will
go under. There is lawful use Of a
trade union. If it means sympathy in
time of sickness, if it means finding
work for people when they are out OF
work, if it means the Improvement of
the financial, the moral or the religious
condition OF the laboring classes, that
is all right. Do not artists band to-
gether in an art union? Do not singers
band together in Handel and Hadyn
societies? Do not newspaper men band
together in press clubs? Do not min
listers of religion band together in con-
ferences and associations? There is
- IA 11n
men do not come together, many of
them once a week, to talk over affairs.
For these reasons you should not
blame labor guilds. When they are
doing their legitimate work, they are
most admirable, but when they come
around with drum and fife and flag
from their scaffoldings, from their fac
tories, then they are nihilist1c, then
they are communistic, then they are
barbaric, then they are curse. Ii
man wants to stop work, let him stop
work, but he cannot stop me from
work.
But now suppose that all the laboring
classes banded together for benefcent
purposes in cooperative association,
under whatever name they put their
means together. Suppose they take
the money that they waste in rum and
tobacco and use it for the elevation
Of their families, for the education Of
their children, for their moral, intel
lectual and religious Improvement,
what a different state of things we
would have in this country and they
would have in Great Britaini
Do YOU not realize the fact that men
work better without stimulant? You
say, "Will you deny the laboring men
this help which they get from strong
drink, borne down as they are with
many anxieties and exhausting work"
L would deny them nothing that is
good for them I would deny them
strong drink, if l had the power, be-
cause it is damaging to them. My
father said: II became a temperance
man in early life because I found that
in the harvest field, while I was natu-
rally weaker than the other men, l
could hold out longer than any Of
then They took stimulant and took
nOne''
Everybody knows they cannot en-
dure great fatigue-men who indulge
in stimulants. All our young men IN
derstand that. When they are prepar-
fng for the regatta or the ball club, or
the athletic wrestling, they abstain
from strong drink. Now, suppose all
this money that is wasted were gath
cred together and put into cooperative
institutions. Oh, we would have very
different state Of things from what we
have now.
Practice Economy.
1 remark again, the laboring classes
of this country are to find great relief
when they learn, all of them learn,
forecast and providence. Vast num-
bers of them put down their income
and they put down their expenses. and