United labor bulletin., 1910-01-28
PROHIBITION LEGISLATION.

(Fred Schnake, Editor Lose Blaetters,
Omaha, Neb.)
To the Editor of the Western Laborer
Omaha
Dear Sir-Thanking you for the oppor-
tunity of addressing your readers on the
subject of prohibitory legislation, | take
pleasure in responding to your invitation.
The subject is of particular Importance
to the working man. for the reason that
prohibition to sell necessarily involves
prohibition to purchase, and such prohibi-
ton to purchase strikes the common peo-
pie very much harder than the well-to-do
or the wealthy. The latter class have
their private cellars and their clubs, and
/ have it from very good authority that
Lincoln went dry because many well-to-do
people and club members voted dry be-
cause, as they said, they would have no
trouble in getting all the beer, wine or
whisky they wanted, intimating thereby
that only the less fortunate are to be re-
strained in their liberties. or, in other
words. that only you, the laboring man,
needed such restriction. implying that
you were less able to control your appe-
tites than they.
The prohibitionist is trying to make out
that all crime and evil and misery origi.
mates in the saloon. Even an enlighten-
ed paper like Golfers, but a year or so
ago, endorsed that extreme and irrational
view and when l pointed out to Golfers
the fact that the greatest crimes are al
ways Matched out by the soberest ras-
GALS" it came back and went so far as to
compare, most unfairly. liquors, that is,
beer, wine and whisky, with opium and
cocaine, by saying that personal liberty
does not give the individual the right of
Indulgence in opium or cocaine"
Possibly that mental Narcissus of Col
lier's editorial chair has since then dis
covered the error of his ways.
Mr.. Buckle, many years ago, in his
work. entitled, 'Civilization of Europe"
said. "Jails and penitentiaries are filled
or empty in proportion to the price of
bread and the amount of work to be had"
Mayor Ellis of Grand Rapids. in his de-
bate with an anti-saloon speaker. stated
as follows:
"Poverty is the father and the mother
of crimes, but prohibitionists say that
whisky is the cause of crime and power
ty. Did you ever hear of rich people
drinking? Surely not for if they drank
they would become poor. This is their
logic. If workingman takes drink oc-
casionaIIy and is poor, whisky caused
his poverty. Then why not say, If the
rich man drinks and continually gets rich
err, that whiskey is the cause of his
riches? The wealthy men of our city
(as their charter says) science and Iitera-
ture, but as matter of fact they investi-
gate the merits of every hieh-priced drink
ever heard of. Protected by special
charter and by paying $4,000 annual dues
their members enjoy champagne and
whisky, while these tender-hearted pro-
hibitors would protect the laborine man
by forbidding him even glass of beer.
Prohibition does not effect the rich; it
only pretends to protect the poor. The
rich man can fill his cellar with the choic-
est wines at wholesale and drink as
much as he desires, and the poor man
should have the same privilege to get
schooner of beer as does the rich man to
open a bottle of wine. Prohibition is
class distinction of the worst form"
It struck me very forcibly during the
recent intensely hot spell how seriously
the closing of such places of recreation
at Krug's Park intereferes with the COM
fort of our wage earners and their FAINT
lies, depriving them of the modest pleas
ure of spending their evenings or Sun
days at an entirely respectable resort, en-
joying the cool atmosphere, the fine
music. and a glass of beer if wanted.
Just because some young fellow off and
on makes a fool of himself by indulging
beyond his capacity and becoming trifie
noisy the prohibitionist jumps at the con-
clusion that that young fellow must
necessarily go to perdition-that he will
be a drunkard all his lfe-while there
are nine hundred and ninety-nine chances
out of a thousand that that young fellow
will feel SO ashamed of himself the next
day that he will not be likely to ever Of
fend again, but just for one such occur
renee the prohibitionists insist on depriv
ing thousands of temperate people of
perfectly innocent pleasure, and incident
ally the state and its school fund of over
a million dollars revenue, without accom-
plishing anything whatever in the cause
of temperance. Let the W. C. T. u. ex-
plain to our teachers how much their sal
aries will have to be cut when the fa-
natics have accomplished their object.
/ dare say that majority of the anti
saloon advocates are well supplied with
all kinds of drinkables in their homes, yet
they have no more consideration for the
wants of others than the man in the
moon These sefappointed guardians of
our public morals are really an exceed