United labor bulletin., 1909-11-12

with all attendant suffering and misery,
ment if the prohibitionists have their
way
The thousands of brewery workmen
who have learned the trade will find
themselves without an occupation, and
will be thrown out upon the world on an
already panic-stricken labor market.
The consummation of the prohibition
movement will paralyze the woodwork
ing industry for years. and the wood
workers will he left Without JOBS. Glass
blowing will be an extinct industry.
Union cigarmakers will find market of
so per cent. of their output destroyed.
The thousands of boxmakers and coop
ers who make the billions of boxes and
barrels used in the trade will be left
destitute, with no relief in sight, and
the thousands of teamsters engaged in
hauling these products will find their oc-
cupation gone, for the blight of prohibi-
ton is permanent upon the workingman.
The millions of tons of coal consumed
in the industry the prohibtionists seek
to destroy gives employment to 10000
miners, all of whom would be thrown out
of work should prohibition succeed.
Brckmakers, masons and builders,
machinists. steamfitters, plumbers, gas
filters, wagonmakers, bartenders, print
ers, electricians, persons engaged in
transportation, cash register makers, and
thousands of other workers will find that
the prohibition panic is the most perma-
nent and far-reaching of all panics so
far experienced The unions will feel
it more than any other class.
To this statement the prohibition ad'
vocate has no reply-and especially so
in time like the present, when ten men
seek one job. 1t is worse than useless
to put forward the argument that the
capital invested in the liquor business
could be diverted to some other, when
all industries are stagnant. The favorite
assertion that the material products are
merely wasted by turning them into al
cohol means nothing either, for the waste
is a matter of no Importance to the work
ingman, so long as through it he has a
job-his means of life.
While our present competitive wage
system remains with us, the abolition OF
the liquor traffic is utterly impossible.
The capitalist who finds the movement
his profits, and the working
men who see it threaten their jobs, will
both oppose it, as might naturally be ex-
pected. And no argument from the moral
standpoint will avail to make them alter
their attitude any more than arguments
based on the brotherhood of man. could
convince the white laborer on the Pacific
coast that he should welcome the Asiatic
who takes his job.
President Samuel Gompers of the
American Federation of Labor is the
highest recognized authority on union Ia
Dor matters in America, and he has been
president of that great labor organiza-
tion ever since it was instituted, some 2S
years ago. No prohibitionist has so far
answered his official statement as above
quoted from the American Federationist
(national journal of the A. F. of L., rep
resenting all organized labor of this coun-
try and it is absolutely beyond contra
diction Gompers' statements are incon-
and figures within the
reach of all-and whenever organized la
Dor has spoken officially on the subject
of prohibition, it has always been against
prohibition and in favor of temperance.
Of course that does not mean that every
of labor is against prohibition,
there are many members of labor who
favor prohibition, just as in any other
body or organization there is difference
of opinion.
r +
La Exploridad, Havana cigars. has no
equal
+ r r r r
"A KENTUCKY FEUD."
Next weeks bill at the Curtis theater,
starting with the Sunday matinee, No
vember 14th, will be still another play
new to Denverites; in fact, the drama is
entirely new in the West, though it has
been seen with splendid success through
out the East, so it remained for the
Curtis management, with their untiring
energy and forethought, to secure same,
and patrons of that pretty playhouse
will see for the first time locally, next
Sunday, the thrilling melodrama, "a Ken
lucky Feud.'
AS the title implies, the play tells a