Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1914-08-06
A Men
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acc To The Workers

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The ~prohibitionist tells US that in.
temperance in drink is the chief
cause of poverty.
OF course, every workingman knows
from his experience that this is not
the fact, and the statement is a Sian
der upon the character Of the working
people.
But let US see what those who have
studied the matter on the basis of
| fact have to say, rather than take
either thes arbitrary assertion Of the
lprohibitionist 6r the statement of the
worKingman based on practical life,
| although he may not be able to ad-
duee the necessary figures.
| If intemperance in alcoholic drink
were the chief cause of poverty, then
those who drink too much ought all to
tbe poor, while there ought to be lit
tie, if any, poverty among abstainers.
y Is this in accordance with the facts
Do we not know that many people are
rich although they drink more than is
good for them? And are the abstain
ing Workmen not poor as well as those
who do not, abstain?
In 1908 Carroll D.. Wright, United
States Commissioner Of Labor, stated
1.-The percentage of those unemployed
during some part of the year as 1913
per cent. The census of 1900 placed 1t
at 22.8 per cent. According to Mr..
WrigIt's figures the causes of unem-
Iployment we're: Fstabl ishments closed,
56.96 per cent; sickness, 1856 per
cent; strikes, 2.67 per cent; accidents,
1.66 per cent; drunkenness, 026 per
cent.
It thus appears that a trifIe over
one-fourth of one per cent of idleness
was due to intemperance:
eff the saloons were all closed and
the people were all total abstainers,
the pail of poverty would still hang
over the home of the workingman be-
cause of his enforced idleness at times
and the poor wages paid for his la
Dor" says. Mary b. Garbutt in the Gov
eminent Worker.
Prof. Richard G. Ely regards long
hours of work and the strain of work
by the side of rapidly moving machin-
cry on the nervous system as predis-
BAJORITY-EIGHT ...@... -. 80
posing causes of -intemperacne!
Even Frances 3. Willard, the. pat
ron saint Of the anti-drink fanatics,
came to the conclusion in her later
years that ''the only way to have a
sober people is to strike at the root
of the evil which causes inebriety.
Poverty, many hours of labor the
nerve strain under which men toll,
the anxiety from the insecurity of
their jobs-remove all this, and in a
short time the demand for stimulant
would cease and drunkenness would
be unknown
Prof. Jacob H Hollander, of Johns
HOPKINS University, in discussing the
Abolition of Poverty" gives an. ex-
haustive argument, but does not refer
with single word to intemperance
as a cause Of poverty. The United
Charities of Chicago trace 1874 per
cent of the distress that came under
their observation to ''drink."' German
and Austrian statistics go as low as
81 or 1.3 per cent.
And in these figures only surface in
dications are considered. The fact,
now well understood, that excessive
drunkenness isanot cause but symp-
tom of .defectiveness, is not taken into
account by those who compiled these
statistics.
But even taken at their face value,
all these facts show clearly that there
is no sense whatever in charging pow
erty to drink.
Furthermore, the United States Blu
reau of Labor statistics in its forty
fifth bulletin gives figures showing
that the workingmen of the country
spend only a fraction over one per
cent of their earnings for pleasures
that can be in any way connected
with the saloons. If they saved this
one per cent would they not be poor?
AS usual, the prohihitionist has put
the cart before the horse. =
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