The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1899-01-13
w. W.C.T. u. COLUMN.
CONDUCTED By MRS. NJ. L. HOBBS.
POvERTy'S CAUSE.
Why So Many Young Girls Are Driven
TO Insanity and Death.

"A prominent minister OF New
York saws that thirty thousand girli
in that city are working al less thar
living wages the state board OF
health tells us that ten thousand
children die in New York every
wear for lack OF nourishment, anc
the state board of insane report
that 800 young girls in New lorl
state were examined in single
wear for insanity, and the cause
found 10 be insufficient food and
clothing. And yet all this misery
l. under the very shadow Of billions
Of dollars, millions OF which i
worse than stolen from those unfOr
tunates. Plutocrats and politicians
claim that this is all on account Of
|indolence and over production.
rrulv. the most shameful inhuman-
'tv Is mans inhumanltv to man
What a fIightful picture j. this, il
the richest country in the world
This industrial slavery cannot lone
exist without precipitating a rebel
ion. These people do not appeal
to suffer much from over produc
lion.T
no; they suffer from un Ter con
sumption, but "plutocracy" ha-
less to do with their suifeIings thai
the saloon. The proper division Of
wealth will never be possible while
the liquor business goes on. The
saloon j. the mother Of idlene>s
Those ten thousand children who
lie every year for lack Of nourish-
nent are the offspring Of the drink
nab:t, in a large majority, begotten
# drunkenness, born into conditions
that disgrace our civilization.
Could we find the facts about
hose 7,s00 girl, made insane in
his state in single year, by lar
the greatest portion, as we belIe.e,
would reveal drulken parentage--
an Inheritance Of weak brain in a
weak body, with su 1sequent neces-
.ity for labor which need not to
nave followed, and would not had
lot drink brought poverty, 10y indu-
ing idleness and stealing the faith
RS earnings when earnings were
insufficient food and clothing
gould be rare in town or country,
(. the men whose duty it Is to pro-
ide these for their families were
,Ot providing them for the families
i saloon keepers instead. The
,even millions Of drinkers in the
United States annually spend over
he saloon bars money enough to
eed and cloth seven millions OF
people-we might almost say seven
Millions of families.
Poverty may always be, while the
world exists, but the chief cause OF
Il need not forever remain. There
are people and lands that know lit
lie OF it-whers The division OF
wealth i more equitable than ever
II can be in the presence Of bars and
Drothels. csland has no bars and
no poorhouses. The Mormons have
banned the drink business in large
me sure. and in Mormon town
YOU will find no paupers. In a
Mormon city of 5000 where the
Facts editor once tarried awhile,
there was but one saloon, and We
never saw a person enter it, or come
,ut Of it. How ii could pay the IL
cense fee OF 800 quarter was the
mystery to Us. And in the course
of our stay there we neither saw
nor heard Of a single case of destitu-
Iion or need.
Whenever labor refuses to share
its earnings with the saloon, it
comes to thrift, Of a degree, and
capital follows in some measure.
rhe stone mason who gets four dol
lars a day, but gets drunk fou' days
in a week, il no better off than the
hod carrier who receives only one
iollara day but soberly works all
the weeks working days. The
amount of wages does not determine
in the home, and labor's
al large, a. much as the
OF wages.
We venture to say that, in spite
Of the drink curse, which robs them,
the wage earners Of this country are
better off today, as a class-havc
better homes, and enjoy more lux
nries-than the wage earners Of any
other country in the world. What
spreads want among them is not
80 much the capitalist, who will not
pay them what they earn, as the sa