The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-10-31
Liberty VS.. Prohibition
BY CLARENCE DARROW

Hon. Clarence S. Darrow, the lead
ing labor attorney OF the United States
and who t was that pleaded the case
of the United Mine Workers in the
great Anthracite coal strike and who
with John Mitchell won that great
victory for the Miners Union in an
address delivered to the union men,
Of New Bedford, Mass, on Liberty VS..
Prohibition, referring to prohibition
said. II admit am somewhat impa-
tlent at this crusade. | am impatient
with its hypocrisy. | am impatient
on account of its prejudices.
Who are these people who come 20
you and ask you to give up anything
that has bee wrung from the laboring
and suffering of the past? Are they
your friends? Have they fought your
battles when you have made your
brave struggle for chance to live?
Have the prohbitionists stood at your
head and fought your fights? Who
are they, that shutting their eyes to
all the experiences OF the past, never
knowing your feelings or knowing
your cause, or having sympathy for
your troubles, would presume 10 place
themselves at your head and tell you
what to do?
object to a great body OF men,
the trade unonists of America, VINO
represent the hopes and fears and the
sufferngs and the aspirations of their
fellow men, who have done more than
any other class of men in America to
make life better for the poor and
weak, to give more comfort and hap
piness to mankind object to this
great body of men being led down the
blind alley of prohibition by handful
of fanatics who know nothing about
their cause.
Do you know that the life of work
ingman is not more than 60 per cent
as long as the life of the rich? Now,
why? Is It rum or champagne? No
il is work The whole body of men
who toll are born into this world and
know nothing but to work from morn
ing till night. No other trade than
10 earn their living by their hands.
They die when only a little over half
OF their life is lived. Do you know
all of people who are born into this
world. all who come upon the earth,
one-fitth or one-siXth of the human
race OF the whole world go out through
one door and that door isn't rum
that door Is tuberculosis. One out OF
every five or six, They die from lack
Of air and food and room and oppor-
tunity to live. They die, not on ac-
count of rum, but on account of mo-
nopoly and if One-tenth part of the
energy spent on tuberculosis, that
great scourge would have been wip-
ed away years ago. Do these gentle
men care anything about tuberculosis
patients? No. 4 man may be eaten
alive by tuberculosis, and the prohi-
bitionists look square in his face and
say, "Oh. RUM Rum" Why, in our
tenement districts tuberculosis goes
from father to son, from mother TO
daughter, from sister to brother and
in our sweatshops and factories they
die like flies, because men nave mo-
nopolized the earth and the prohibl-
tionists look on and shout, Rum, -
Let me tell you more. Ahalf million
workingmen We're killed and manned
last year, the victims of our industrial
machines. They were ground up by
cars; they died in molten watts OF steel
and lead; they had their arms and
hands cut off by machines; they fell
from the tenth or fifteenth story Of
an iron structure, up in the air, wnme
working for bread for their families.
They died by every spindle and engine
that makes these great industries
what they are. Half a million of these