The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-06-22
THE WARFARE AGAINST DRINK
TEMPERANCE BATTLE GATHERS
STRENGTH EVERY DAY.
Labor and the Saloons.

The old idea that the saloon in its
function Of "the poor mans club" Is
an economic necessity in large centres
of population, especially manufacture
ing cities, is getting hard jolts nova
days. A few days ago at a mass
meeting in Toronto addresses de-
%nouncing the saloon and the liquor
business in general were made by
such influential and clear-thinking
labor leaders as John Mitchell and
John B. Lennon, respectively vice.
president and treasurer of the Amer
lean Federation of Labor, and by
President Lewis, of the United Mine
Workers. Mr.. Lennon said that the
liquor business lowers the efficiency
Of the working man and prophesied
that the time would come when labor
as a unit would be arrayed against
the saloon. Mr.. Lewis declared that
the United Mine Workers have al
ready prohibited the sale of liquor
by their members, even at picnics,
and Mr.. Mitchell expressed similar
views.
Even more significant Is the de-
cision recently made by the United
States Steel Corporation to control
as far as possible the liquor business
in Fayette County, Pennsylvania,
where it has $4,000 employees. 1t Is
declared that the Steel Corporation
estimates that at least three per cent.
better returns can be made on the
millions it has invested there by regu-
lating the drinking of the coke work.
ers-that is, permitting them to
drink, but STIMULATING where and
when they shall drink.
"For more than a year." says the
dispatch, figures have been gathered
on drinking among coke workers, and
it found that for seventy-two hours
after each payday the coke ovens run
at only two-thirds Of their capacity
and on nearly every payday hundreds
of tons of coke are ruined by inability
to get sober men to care for it in the
ovens" Nine breweries are now run
ming 10 the county and the Steel Cor
poration intends to buy them out.
Everybody who has followed the
progress of the present temperance
movement must have. noted an i'm
portant difference between the meth
DDS adopted by it's promoters ans
those used in such movements in the.
past. There is less appeal to senti-
ment and sympathy and more to the
pocketbook. The prohibition work
ars are trying-and with astonishing
success-to show the country that the
liquor traffic produces an economic
loss which it simply cannot afford to
stand. The man who drinks thereby
lowers his efficiency, reduces his pro-
1uctive capacity, impairs his value to
his employer and to himself, and
eventually lowers his earning capac-
ity. This means that the industrial
world is deprived Of the services OF a
man who otherwise would haze had
I definite value as a producer of
| wealth, and when the case is carried
20 an extreme it means that the drink
ar becomes an actual source OF eX-
pense to the State by reason OF crime
Or restitution.
In matters of business the direc-
tors of the United States Steel Cor
Doration cannot be accused OF sent1-
ment. When they indulge in philan-
thrOpy they do so as individuals, u
in the conduct Of their business every
proposition that comes before them
must stand the acid test Of will 1t
pay?" They probably do not care
TWO straws whether their thousands
If employees use liquor or not, SO long
Is the question of efficiency does not
enter into the case. But when they
| and their coke ovens running on two
birds time for three days after every
payday and a part Of their product
ruined, all because the employees are
off on a big drunk, 1t becomes a mat
Ter Of dollars and cents, and the an
,wer Is easy.
Every employer in the land, big
and little, is coming more and more
10 take this view of the liquor ques-
zion.