The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-06-08
"ALC0H0L AND
. THE LAB0RER"

]
who would write the best essay on
alcohol and the Laborer." There
were fifty essays submitted. The prize
was awarded to Alice Sluman, aged
4 IA years. The essay we print in
/ full
Alcohol is the laborer's enemy.
The end and aim of all the body pro-
( cesses is to work. To accomplish this
end the body must keep warm. The
/ more perfect the body can accomplish
/ these conditions, the more able is the
/ possessor of that body to make his
/ way in the world. Now, alcohol, TAX
en- in what is considered moderation,
/ lessons the power of the body to work
! and to maintain its heat supply.
This conclusion is based upon ex-
periments conducted upon large num-
bers of men during long periods of
time. The results in regard to the
/ effect of alcohol upon the capacity
for work were obtained from investi-
cations in the large armies of the
world during active campaigns. In
the British army in Africa, for in
stance, the experiment was tried of
! testing how far the soldiers could
march when taking daily what were
considered moderate amounts of rum,
and then how far they could march
when taking no liquor, and compar-
4 ing the records. So also in the Army
of the Potomac, in the American
Civil war, the same experiment was
tried with whisky. When the rec
ords were compared it was found that
soldiers can endure longer marches
when taking no liquor than when al
lowed their daily portion. Freder-
lex Treves, the Kings physician, said
Il was with the relief column that
moved on to Ladysmith. 1t was an
exceedingly trying time apart from
the heat of the weather. In that
column of some thirty thousand men,
the first who dropped were not the
tall men, or the short men, or the
big men, or the little men, but the
drinkers, and they dropped out as
clearly as if they had been labeled
with big letter on their backs.
These and other experiments of the
same nature thus demonstrate that
alcohol has the effect of diminishing
the capacity of a man for muscular
work, even when the alcohol is taken
in what are generally considered as
moderate amounts. From these re-
SullS we are III
that the drinking of alcoholic liquors
even in so-called moderation, is a
bad practice for anyone who wishes
to do hard work or endure sustained
eXertion. In skill and accuracy, and
in the direction and expenditure OF
energy the man who has taken nc
alcohol has a great advantage over
the man who has. He is more calm
in any emergency, and can judge bet.
ter how to make his strength most
effective. Science has proved that
the drinking man cannot work as
long or as hard as can the abstainer
that his work is not so accurate, and
that he is more likely to make mis-.
takes.
Liquor does not fortify against
cold. Doctor Hayes, the Arctic eX
plorer, says: I'm Arctic countries, al
cohol is, in almost any shape, not only
completely useless, but positively in
furious. ! have known strong, able
bodied men to become utterly incap
!. able of resisting cold in consequence
of the long-continued use of alcoholic
drink Experience shows that al
cohol weakens the power of under
going severe bodily exertion. Doctor
McRae, in speaking of Arctic explor
alton, at the meeting of the American
Association for the advancement O.
science, held at Montreal in 1856
said: The moment that a man haC
swallowed a drink of spirits, it wal
certain that his days work was near
ly at an end. 1t was absolutell
necessary that the rule of total alb
stinance be rigidly enforced, if WI
would accomplish our days task
The use of liquor as beverage wheI
: we had work on hand, in that terri
fic cold, was out of the question"
We have the evidence of statistic
in regard to the health and mortalit.
of people who use alcohol, and o
those who do not. These have beel
, collected in England by the life in
surance companies. They indicat
! that the life of the abstainer is, Of
the average, longer than that of tn
. / drinker.
I Also, it has been found that tn
/, hospitals get their inmates to muc
. greater extent from the drinkers tha
= from the abstainers. The drinker
' less able to resist infection, and tn
. physicians in these hospitals all az
2 knowledge that, once infected wit
5 a serious disease, the chances of tn
8 alcohol drinker are much less tina
those of the abstainer. Mr.. Huber
who saw in one town in Russia tw
+ thousand one hundred and sixty pei
!; sons perish with the cholera in tweI
ty days, said: 1T Is a most remark
}. able circumstance that persons give
A to drink have been swept away lik
flies. In Tifiis, with twenty thousan
inhabitants, every drunkard has fal
y en-, all are dead, not one remaining.
y Alcohol often lures men to Grim
by which they forfeit life or libert.
a How much evil is done to men by a
cohol can be learned by examinin
the records of criminal courts, wheI
between three-fourths or nineteenth
J. of all the crimes listed are direct
3 due to the use of intoxicants; and /
A turning the thought to the untol
8 miseries in countless homes, new
q made public, which are caused by I'll
4 same evil. In Illinois, In the tW
= penitentiaries, one at Joliet and OF