The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-10-14
LABOR'S DEBTQ) TO THE
CAUSE OF PROHIBITION
Few Plain Facts That Prohibitionists Could See if
They Only Would-Have Temperance Advo-
Gates Aided Labor Legislation3


the prohibitionists looks on and shouts
"Rum!" Let me tell you more. A half
million workingmen were killed and
manned last year, the victims of our
industrial machines. They were ground
up by cars; they died in molten vats
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,
while working to buy bread for their
families. They died by every spindle
and engine that makes these great in
dustries what they are. Half mil
lion of these lives and limbs could have
been saved if man cared for life and
didn't care for dollars. If they tried
to make machines safe, safe to protect
human life, men and women and little
children, these lives would have been
saved. The other day, in the state of
Illinois. about 800 poor fellows went
down into the earth with a torch on
their head and lived lingering death
of perhaps a week or ten days, and
never came back to their families AMI
their homes. The reason was that men
were more interested in making
mine profitable than making a mine
safe. (Applause.) Do you hear any
of the prohibitionists sigh and do you
see them shed tears, and do you hear
them raise their voices in agony be-
cause of half million poor working
men ground under the wheels of in
dustry every year to make money for
men? No. They don't See che tears
of widows and they don't hear the
diving groans of the poor victims of our
industry. They are too busy shouting
Rum"
I can tell you more. Do you know
that in our tenement districts, in our
great cities who're men and women
and little children are huddled together
like ants-do you know that half of
the children of the poor die before they
are six years old in our tenement dis
tricts? They don't die because they
drink too much rum, but because they
drink too little milk. (Applause.) You
must remember the rich peoples work
must be done. The poor die for lack
of food. for lack of air, and nobody
cares. The prohibitionists are too busy
about rum.
What Union Men Have Done.
Do you know that the labor organiza-
tions of this country have Aept tne;r
men before every legislative body in
America? They have taken their earn
ings and sent men to the capitals of
every state and the capital of the ma
ton to plead for legislation that would
make safety appliances for railroads
and cars; that would make mines safe;
that would protect life. They have been
there year after year, pleading to take
little children out of the mines; to take
them away from the spindles and put
them into the schools; to prevent wom-
en- from taking the jobs from their hus-
bands and fathers. Have you ever been
TO a legislative body and found COM
mittee of prohibitionists there to help
plead your cause? Have they ever raised
their voices in behalf of your lives, OF
your limbs, of your wives, of your chill
dren? Have they ever done anything
except to shout Rum" While you
have been there pleading for your homes
and your families and your lives, over
here in the corner is raised a horse cry
of the prohibitionists, saying, For
Gods sake. don't take that! Don't give
us the Employers Liability Act! Don't
give us the Safety Appliance Act! Don't
do anything about mills and mines;
lust wait! Don't take up that. Let's
first destroy Rum. Join with us on
moral issue. Let us get rid of Rum,
and then we will help you" And if
YOU help them get rid of Rum and go
hack YOU will find these gentlemen in
the corner and they will say: Not
now. Let us get rid of tobacco. Let
MS oct rid of theatres and cards and
billiards and dancing, and everything
else. and then we win attend to you."
Now. there is one rule of life. If you
give men opportunity, give them food
and clothing, and drink and sunlight
and homes; they can look after their
own morals. and they can't do it in
anv other way. The whole theory of
prohibition is wrong. If they get one
thing they will want another Today
II is rum. Tomorrow it will be tobacco;
next dav it will be coffee. The theory
is wrong: man can only progress by
liberality. Is there any doubtH Look
back to the origin of the human race,
hack to the time when man rose from
the brute creation and looked the world
in the face. Every step has been a
struggle; he has been ruled by kings,
bv tyrants, by the great, by the
strong. But ne has slowly fought his
way upward to the position he occupies
today Every step has been a struggle,
every FOOTPRINT has been marked by