The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1907-03-08
SPEAKING OF YOUR RIGHTS.

It's NOBODY business IL want u
60 out and get drunk" declared ID
trades unionist the other day
That depends, brother.
I've got a right to drink when 1
please, or get drunk when l please"
he asserted with great earnestness
and bravado.
That depends, brother.
If your drunkenness casts discredit
upon the whole body of workingmeE
then it is the business of your brother
And you mustn't forget that your
rights end just where your neighbours
begin. If your drunkenness Injuries
fellow workingman by bringing into
disrepute the trade of which he is just
ly proud, then you have no right, moral
or otherwise, to injure him. There
fore you have no right to get drunk.
The trade unionist who presides over
the destinies of The Wageworker has
reached what people call middle
age" He has had his share OF life's
experiences-some of which be is
proud of, and many of which he sell
dom refers to in public. But there is
one thing he learned long ago, and that
is that it doesn't pay, physically, me l.
tally or morally, to assert right that
brings no other returns than an ach-
ing head, a trembling hand, be-
numbed brain and an empty pocket.
DO you never take drink" you ask.
If he wants to the man at the helm
of this little labor paper does. But
thank fortune he has learned not to
want to quite SO often as in the old
days.
But if the presiding genius of this
little paper thought for a moment
that the exercise of his right to take
a drink if he wanted to would cast
discredit and shame upon the craft
he learned, or the whole body of Or
ganized labor, he would be the most
exercised that right.
We have sympathy for the youh.-
man who is just recovering from lis
first drunk. Natural curiosity may
have impelled him to tank up just to
undergo the experience But having
tanked up once and undergone the re-
sultant experience, the young man is
a blankety blank fool for doing it the
L
for it.
If there is anything on earth that
makes a decent man tired it is 20
hear bunch of fellows boasting about
the big drunk" they had a day or
two before.
But haven't ] right to get drunk
if want to-" you ask.
That all depends. my brother. Le-
guilty of misdemeanor when you
tank up past the limit. Morally, no;
for you have no moral right to injure
yourself mentally or physically. From
the union standpoint you have no such
right. for your drunkenness brings re-
proach upon the union you have
sworn to defend and discredit upon
your fellow craftsman whom you have
sworn not to wrong
20, you are one of those fool pro-
hibitionists, eh?"
No, brother; not in the sense you
mean it. There are few worse things
than drinking to excess; there are
many things worse than an occasional
glass of beer or a little dash of "bit-
tiers" now and then. We are not rails
ing any objections to your taking a
drink now and then; it is to your
beastly habit of soaking your hide full
of whisky that we object. We object
to it because it Injuries you, but we
object to it chiefly because it Injuries
the rest of us.
You can't see it that way?
That may be due to the fact that the
booze has filled your thinkery with
cobwebs. Or, it might be better to
say that the fact that you glory in