Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-09-07

Editor Courier: On the second day
of September Labor day was observed
Speeches were made, editorials were
written and the whole world talked
about labor, past, present, future. Now
all this Is well. We live In an age In
which the vast enterprises essential
to the progress of the world require
the association Of men of larae means
under cooperate management. Out OF
the necessity have grown serious
wrongs and such united and unified &C.
ton is their only recourse under pres
ent conditions. At the same time we
cannot ignore the fact that organized
labor is not free from the reproach OF
questionable ethics.
No better utterance has ever been
expressed than was contained In presi-
dent Roosevelt's first message to con-
gress when he said 1.-THE well-being
LOT the wage worker ID q prime con-
sideration of our entire policy Of econ
omic legislation Upon the well
being Of the wage-worker depends the
prosperity of the state and nation,
and this well-being can be insured no
other way as we'll as by the prohibition
of liquor. Protected ports, and pro-
tected mills may bring wealth to the
mill-owner and manufacturer and In
this the wage Garner may share, but
when the saloon-keeper shares with
him prosperity does not yield its larg-
est benefits.
The state is the protector OF the
citizen. 1t is nonsense to say or as
sumo that law protects labor when
liquor is licensed. A protective tariff
levied on the saloon, is no protection
for the laborer. According to stats
tics It assesses him far more than ten
per cent, of his wages and offers no
pretense Of beneficient returns.
If. the government, with out any
show Of reason, with out any claim OF
law. without any demonstration Of re-
turn, should assess the ~loborer even
ten per cent, of his wages, and compel
payment every day, the wicked wrong
OF it would excite universal wrath and
arouse revolution. Even il every
prohibition law were a failure, every
license law would be a fraud. A law
which assumes to benefit labor and
legalize and perpetuate the worst foe
of labor Is both outrageous and fatally
a fraud.
Protected homes afford the only sure
and full harvest Of protected indus
tries, where the8e are guarded from
domestic assault not less than from
foreign rival, prosperity follows as by
divine logic Here is an Illustration:
A few years ago brewery in Law
renee, Kansas was running illegally
with the stars and stripes flying proud
ly from it's flag staff. The people tired
of his insulting treason, he tired of
their prosecution, quit the state to
avoid being shut up in prison. Some
foolish people thought that a "calam-
ity." After time the brewery was sold
and became shoe factory. How
stood the calamity" account now?
The brewery paid total yearly sum
in wages of s6,240. The shoe manu-
facture employed one hundred opera
tives. with a total yearly sum, earned
and paid to those Of $65.000 to be
spent with the landlord, grocer. baker,
tailor, butcher, and others who pursue
an honest calling. This barely sug-
gests how legitimate industries would
profit by the prohibition Of the liquor
business. And 1t should be borne in
mind that shoes are a safer output in
any community than booze" surer
guarantee Of success and profit for
every other industry. A shoe factory
will not debauch private character or
public morals; beer factory de-
bauches both. and curses every inter
est with which it comes in contact.
Let us boost for more factories and no
laloons.
49, H. J. Farrell.