The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1907-10-19

President Hayes the Only National
Executive Who Barred
- 1ntoxicants.

From a Washington Dispatch to the
New York World:
All presidents of the United States
have set wine before their guests.
President Hayes and his family were
total abstainers, and as a rule there
was nothing alcoholic on the White
House table while they were there.
But he made one exception to his rule.
That was while the Russian Grand
Duke Alexis was the guest of the gov
eminent.
President Hayes was not the only
! total abstainer who has lived in the
neither smoked, drank, nor chewed.
But at all his formal dinners the Gus,
tomary amount and varieties Of wine
were set before the guests. Presidents
Harrison and Mckinley were exceed
1ngly abstemious men. Garfield was
not long enough in the White House
to establish any sort Of reputation as
an entertainer.
Except when Hayes and Mckinley
came into office there never was any
question as to whether wine should be
| used at the formal dinners Mckinley
| although a member of the Methodist
church, decided that the custom : of
serving wines and liquors to the guests.
was not to be disregarded. Although
he never made a public announcement
of his position, he took the ground
that Methodist discipline rules affect
ed him merely as an individual, not as
president of the United States, who, as
such, would have to entertain persons
who would regard it as slight, if not
an affront, to depart from the rule Of
ofxy hot 1rip hon ho 10.
fered to guests. Mckinley held that
the offense against hospitality would
| be in not permitting the guest to de-
eide whether he should or should not
drink
AS the question of indulgence or
| abstinence was not discussed in the
south until long after the Civil war,
the question Of liquor in the White
House had no place among topics for
discussion until after the end of the
south's control of the Federal govern
ment. In the good old days" every
president had a supply of liquor at his
elbow wherewith to pledge the health
| of guest, and in many cases Of even
the casual caller
Jolly old Jimmy Buchanan. al
though always arrayed like preacher.
had wink from his black bottle. Old
timers say he had a barrel of whisky
which was made during the times of
the whisky rebellion. The guest, after
was invited to help himself, and
Buchanan always turned his back
whenever he had as drinking COM
panion man he knew as a lover of
four or five fingers.
Andrew Johnson also had his black
bottle, and there is no question that
at times, he drank freely There is
nothing that shows that Johnson got
as drunk as his enemies said he did.
Men who worked around the White
House while he was in office, say the
pleas in behalf of Mrs. Surratt were
made he was too drunk to hear the
petitioners
Chester. A. Arthur is the only man
ever in the White House who turned
night into day and knew when things
pertaining to dress and dining were
we'll done or otherwise. OF the presi-
dents within the memory of living
men, he is the only one that knew
all right with the average man. In
his time the art of eating and drinking
received much attention at the White
House, and the regular staff of cooks
there frequently found itself set aside
for chef from Chamberlin's or some
other restaurant where good cooking
was the rule, not the exception.
He, indeed, was an outsider who
went to the White House with a mat
ter if business and did not receive an
invitation to drink. That was the least
President Arthur would do for man
whom he liked or the man whose good
opinion the president thought it neces-
sary to cultivate. Arthur was. the
polished man Of the world
Andrew Jackson, according to Mrs.
Throckmorton, whose son was in the
regular army during the Civil war, and
as such fought against his father in
the Confederate army in the battle Of
the Wilderness. invariably drank at
table and always PROPOSED toast to