The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1900-01-31
SOCIALISM AND DRINK.

The following article We copy from
"The Appeal to Reason" socialist
paper published at Girard, Kansas. AL
though we cannot approve of many of
its arguments, yet the article contains
truths worth thinking about.
Prohibition is failure. 1t has been
proved miserable failure thousand
times. 1t will continue to be failure
just rs long as drink is manufactured
and sold for a profit.
Men go into the drink business be-
cause it offers large profits. Once de-
stroy the profit system and the saloon
keeper will disappear forever. The
license system simply places the traf-
fic in the hands of favored few, to
monopolize the business for their per-
sonal gain. Did you ever ask your.
self why the saloonkeeper fits up at
tractive saloons; why he opens great
music halls with good musicians2 He
does it for profit The saloon keeper
pays 81 for gallon of whiskey and
retails it for 80 He pays 80 for bar
rel of beer and retails it for 1924. Do
you see what he is in business for?
Why don't men open stores for the
sale of postage stamps2 Simply be-
cause they can't compete with Uncle
Sam. Prohibitionists assert that in
temperance is the cause of poverty.
That's where they have the cart be-
fore the horse. Intemperance is
caused by just two things: Poverty
and the treating habit.
Miss Frances Willard, who spent
fifty years of her life in the cause of
temperance, said, in a speech two
years before she died. 81 have said
over and over again that intemperanc &c
made poverty. l now say that pov-
erty makes intemperance.
As Robert Blatchford has well said
$50 long as we make drudges of PEG.
pie, people will drink. Give the peo-
pie healthy homes, human lives, due
leisure and amusement, and pure fooC
and drink and drunkenness will soon
disappear While there are slums
while men have no pure pleasure
while they are overworked and I'M
taught; and while the wealthy brewer
can open his poison dens at every
street corner, it will be useless to
preach temperance.
Oyerwork or underfeed man and
his system Graves for some stimulant
and nearly always it is liquor. SO
long rs we maintain the present Grim
inal system we must expect to have in
temperance. People who have visited
the Stun districts of our great cities,
the coal mines, the great logging
camps, the sweating dens, and the
great textile factories do not wonder
at the growth of intemperanee. When
the parents are forced into the facto-
ries and shops for long hours the chill
dren have no care. Millions OF them
live in the Stun quarters because rent
is cheap. Tho children are surrounded
by evil environments. Is it any won
der they acquire the drink habit?
The treating habit leads thousands
to become excessive drinkers.
The evils of the present liquor traf-
fic are ~ Drunkenness; (2) political
corruption; (3) the enormous cost; az
absence of control; (5) monopoly for
private gain; (G) the self-interost of
the dealer in increasing the sale. Our
nation spends from 81 200, 600, 600 to
81, 800, 900, 900 per year for intoxicating
beverages. Out of this Uncle Sam re-
ceives $l15, 200, 900 in taxes.
Our Prohibition friends assume that
II bllt NOutit HAOIL
we would save this enormous waste
While it is true that the individual
workers to the number of 3 per cent.
might and do save their drink bill,
and also have the advantage Of secur-
ing moro remunerative employment
because they are abstainers, it does
not follow that tho nation would save
this if all were to become abstainers.
1t all were to cease drinking there
would be no individual advantage for
more steady employment, for all would
be equal competitors for the best Jobs.
AS long as the competitive system is
in existence there will be n tendency
to pay just bare subsistence wage.
1t follows that il the vast majority of
the workers were to become total alb.
stainers, then the competition OF the
unemployed would tend to reduce
wages by the amount saved. The bet.
ter economic condition of the temper
ance worker is enjoyed only by reason
of the degradation OF his brother
worker. Either by rent, interest, or
profit, capitalism would take what the
worker saved by becoming abstainers
Take, for instance, street in which
every other door is a saloon. II is not
q desirable place for n residence
Abolish the saloon in that street and
up go tho rents.
Henry George said: Industry,
frugality and intelligence avail the in
dividual, in so far as they are superior
to the general level. If one man
worked harder or with superior skill
or intelligence than ordinary he will
get ahead, but if the average OF in
dustry, skill, or intelligence is brought
up to the higher point, the increased
intensity of application will secure
but the old rate Of wages. II, under
existing conditions, American me-
chanics would come down to the
Chinese standard of living, they would
ultimately have to come down TO the
Chinese standard OF wages.
Prof. II. II. Ely says: "a few es-
cape from the ranks but they are the
exceptions. SO long as our present in
dustrial movements continue, thrift,
frugality and temperance ofthe masses
cannot alter this in the slightest de-
gree One who excels may rise, but
his superiority would cease should
others emulate his qualities. The only
way to improve their conditions is to
elevate their entire class.
Prohibitionists are in error when
they supposed that the 81, 200, 900, 900
directly expended for drink would,
under prohibition, be expended for
better food, clothing, shelter, etc. II