The Palatka news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1905-1908, 1907-09-27
Whiskey Versus Labor.

| Editor PALALKA NEWS:
had not thought to again use pen
before the coming election in defense
of the dry proposition. its advantages
being so obvious that a wayfarlng
/ man though fool need not err
therein. There are none so blind
as those who will not see and it is
useless to argue with those whose
ears have been deafened by the jim
gle of the liquor dealers coin.
Might as we'll sing psalms to mile
post, or quote scripture to an infidel
as to break ones head against the
wall of currency" "booze," and
batteries of deceitful tongues within
which the liquor traffic has impreg-
mated itself. To those who are fol-
lowing with eyes wide open and ears
trained to catch the first sound of
the golden shekels as they scatter
and radiate from the saloons of the
county, | have not one word to say.
1t is only to those who have been
misled and have an honest desire to
do right in the sight of their God
and these witnesses that this appeal
is made.
Particularly do 1 desire to speak to
the colored population, among whom
the whiskey element is working with
full knowledge of their weaknesses
and passions. In their wild desire
to carry the election in the interest
of the saloons, they are teaching the
colored man that his employer is his
enemy, that the dry" element is en-
deavoring to again put him in a
bondage second only to slavery it
self, and that employers of labor on
ly favor the dry" side because it
will lower wages and take bread
from the mouths of his wife and
children. Such untruths are glaring
in their falsity to all thinking men,
but to the thoughtless thousands of
colored people, they appeal with an
irresistible force, drawing them al
most to man to oppose their own
best interests ana that of their en-
ployers, which they should know
are in many respects identical.
There can be no better friend than
the man who gives employment day
by day to the colored man, and who
endeavors to raise him to a standard
of usefulness to himself, his employ
er and the community. Nothing
could be further from the intention
of any sane employer of labor than
to do anything that would lower the
standard of intelligence and morality
among his employees.
In short he recognizes the fact that
in order to compete with the wide
awake business civilization among
which we live, that he must encour-
age his employees to take an interest
in their own condition, moral, social
and financial, and incidentally in
their work, in order to bring an eX
tensive plant up to twentieth cen
tury methods. 1t is also only by
this method that wages can be in
creased, or even held up to their
present high standard. Go through
any large plant and examine the
wage scale. Do you not find that
the sober, intelligent and law-abid-
ing are the favored among the en-
ployees? Ard are they not the ones
whose pay envelopes count for most
at the week or months end? There
is no one who should and does feel a
greater interest in raising the moral
standard among the working men
than does the large employer of
labor Follow the police and justice
courts day by day and see who you
find there paying the fines and CIV
ing the bonds for the inebriates who
have been pulled for giving way to
their appetite for strong drink. Do
you fihd the saloon man there pay
ing the fines for him and taking him
home where he may earn bread for
his wife and babies? No! thous-
and times, Mol 1t is this same EN-
ployer who stands by him in the
hour of trial, spending his good
money in the vain effort to undo the
wrongs caused by the liquor traffic
and that, too, quite often with little
show of ever getting back the
money so spent. is it not often the
case that the very man so helped
out turns his back on his employer
and friends and walks away, leaving
him to foot the bill alone, and single
handed combat the evils that are
pulling both of them down. Then is
it any wonder the employers of labor
almost to a man are on the dry"
side of this question. No the Won
der only is that the laboring man,
the colored man with which the
liquor traffic is filling our jails and
penitentiaries, does not rise in this
opportunity and say. Away with
the traffic that is dragging us down"
We will have less of it after Sept.
Both this year.
F. H. NAUsE.
Edgar, Fla. Sept. 24th, 1907.