The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-08-05

laton of any state in the Union. Ne
braska has the best high hcense-local
option law of any state in the union.
and the fewest saloons in proportion
to the population of any state. L men
tion these two eases merely Tor the
edifcation of some of my good friends
who seem inbued with the idea that
unless we get county option IN Ne
braska the state is going to go TO the
demnition bow-wows in short order.
Broadly speaking | am in favor OF en-
larging the unit but | am not worry
ing about it the least bit. | doubt If
it would have any better effect than
the now only partial enforcement OF
the Slocumb law. Certainly l am not
in favor of making county option a
political fetch.
look upon Tom johnson of Cleve-
land as .one of the militant reformers
of the day. johnson says that after
he had worked on reform for years,
and Just as he had about gotten the
people worked up to the point OF IN
augurating his reform. along came
prohibition outfit beating their tom
toms and sounding their hewgags-and
away went the people. That is as
clear an illustration as j. II. Harley
made in the Lancaster county demo-
cratic convention when he likened all
this fuss and stew over county option
to a trained bird dog deserving the
covey and chasing away after rabbit.
A lot of my prohibition friends love
to call me to account now and then
and chide me for not being an out-and-
out prohbitionist ''Why," they ex-
claim. "the liquor traffic is the cause
of the poverty and misery that exists
i'm such large degree among the work
ers' The trouble with the average
prohibitionist is that he doesn't know
his facts. The student of sociology
knows that instead of drunkness being
the prime cause of poverty, poverty
is the prime cause of drunkness. If
you do not believe it, let me point
you to the fact that where hours of
labor are long, where wages are small
and where the outlook is dark, drunk
ness reigns supreme. On the other
hand let me point out the fact that in
those communities where the hours of
labor are short, where the wages are
on high level, and where the worker
has opportunity for advancement. tenn
perance is the rule.
There are things that are making
for temperance these times-the shorter
work day and the rigid rule of the
large employers against Over-indulg
ence. or even occasional use. Your
prohbitionist orator may talk until he
is blind in community of men driven
from bed to work and from work to bed
hopeless, aimless despairing-and he
will not make much headway. But let
that community be changed to CON-
munity of workers who have some leis-
ure time for recreation, who have
living wage and opportunities for social
and industrial uplift, and Immediately
the conditions change and sobriety
takes the place of drunkenness.
The first argument advanced against
the shorter work day was that it would
give the workers enlarged opportunities
for dissipation would result in further
and longer crowding of the saloons.
A lot of good churchmen advanced that
argument But experience proved that
they were mistaken for the shorter
work day made for temperance as well
as for many other desirable things.
The King of France he had 10000 men.
He marched them up the hill.
, Then he marched them down again.
And when they were up they were up,
And when they were down they were
down.
And when they were only halfway up
They were neither up nor down.
Which reminds me of the action of
our learned city legislative body. A
few weeks ago the councilmen were so
full of civic beautifying spirit that they
wouldn t allow the First National Bank
to swing a sign across the street-and
last Monday the honorable body backed
down. 1t wasn't going to let the Rock
Island enlarge it's yardage facilities
and then it did The more you think
about it the more you will realize that
our present city council, while an i'm
provement upon most of these of the
past is yet considerable of joke.