The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-12-25
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANcE.

Drink and Commercially the American
Workingman is Said to Be Superior to
the English and German - Alcohol
Dulls the Brain and Prevents Precision.
The article given below has appeared in
papers in Belgium, France and England,
and was sent from this country for publ.
cation in Europe by NJ. Rudolph Meyhof-
fer, who came from Brussels as an inter.
national delegate to the Young Mems
Christian Association jubilee in Boston.
He stayed long enough to study industrial
and educational conditions in the leading
States, including the question of Ameri-
can trade supremacy:
England and other European countries
are anxiousiy asking for the causes of the
commercial supremacy of the United
States. A recent number OF the English
edition OF the Review of Reviews says:
Cassiers Magazine ian English periodi-
cali contains an interesting series of short
articles by some of the most prominent
engineers and business men in the United
States upon the question of American COM
petition.
Most OF the writers agree in Swing that
the American workman is the chief agent
in enabling American manufacturers to
take first place in the world. Walter
MacFarland, of: Pittsburg. gives one i'm
portant reason for this. He says:
ut appears that the American work
men are much better timekeepers and far
less given to dissipation than those in
Great Britain. One of the best firms of
British shipbuilders recently stated that
there is loss of time amounting to nearly
twenty per cent. due largely to drunken
ness. If anything approaching these
figures is true generally, there can be no
surprise that (English) firms open to COM
retition from well managed American
works should have hard time"
In inquiring as to the cause of this
greater sooriety Of the American, the fact
appears that twenty years ago business in
terests in the United States, paid no at
tention to the effect of the beverage use
of alcohol or of tobacco on working abil-
ity. About that time the now almost uni
versal study of physiology, which includes
with other laws of health those which re-
late to the nature and effects of alcoholic
drinks and other narcotics, began to be a
legal requirement for all pupils in the pub.
lie schools of this country.
During the last ten or fifteen wears the
children have been carrying from the
schools to the homes of the 75,000,000 peo-
pie Of the United States the story. of the
evil nature and bad effects of alcoholic
drinks and other narcotics.
As result of the diffusion Of this
knowledge the railroads of the United
States now almost universally refuse en-
ployment to men who drink, whether on
or off duty.
Carroll D. Wright's Labor Bureau in
vestigations show that more than seventy
five per cent. n the employers of skilled
labor in the United States require total
abstinence of their empolyes, and fifty per
cent. of the employers OF unskilled labor
demand the same. These requirements,
employed. and the commercial supremacy
which this knowledge helped to secure to
the United States. have been promoted by
the truth taught by the school that alco.
holic drinks injure working ability.
The different reception given by work
men to the employers demand for absti-.
nence where scientific temperance is not
taught in the public schools is well illus.
trated in the following incident:
The manager of the Borsig factory in
Germany recently posted an order forbid
tory beer or other spirituous liquors. or
to drink the same during working hours;
The workmen, numbering over 1000, held
a meeting. and objected to this order
The next day they conspicuously carried
in their beer.
During the excitement caused by the or
der pamphlet appeared, by an old factory
official. who affirmed that the use of alco-
holic drinks was detrimental to the labor
ers' own interest. He referred to the clev-
erness and sobriety Of the American work
men. which makes them able to do very
exact and precise work, which he says is
not possible in German industry, because
of the drinking habits of the laboring
classes.
The American workman does not resent
the EMPLOYERS demand for abstinence. be.
cause he has learned, often from his child
in public school. that alcohol not only duils
the brain. but weakens that nerve control
of muscle that is necessary to the precision
essential for fine work.
The nomination for knighthood OF Sir
Hiram Maxim, the American born lnven..
tor. for his work in England. was one OF
the last official acts of Queen Victoria. In
an article in the Worlds Work Sir hiram
furnishes indirect testimony to the same
point. While describing the results OF the
Ene,ish trade unions. he says:
"The English workman SPENDS a great
part of his earnings in beer, tobacco ana
betting; he has no ambition" OF course
not. for beer in duling the brain dullS am
bition "The American workman, ne
saws. "wishes to get on: he accompllshes
a great deal more work in da" than any
other workman in the world" go,
England is beginning to see the diff9f-
ence in results between occasional talks
bv temperance advocates to school cni-
dren and the systematic graded pu6ic
school study of this topic required by Ia"
in the United States.