Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-06-01
Monday, June l, 1914.
Steel Trust for Prohibition.


number of newspapers and maya
zines that are refusing TO aoFeI'ise
anv product of the booze interests
Almost every day we note new addi-
tions to the ranks of newspaper OPP
position TO the traffic in human MINUS
bodies and souls. A few days ago
we received marked copy OF Inc
Christian Science Monitor IN which
tho article marked bore six-colunlh
headline: prohibitions Scope Fast
Becoming Nationwide A day or
+vo later came another marked copy
of the same clean, wholesome, admir-
ahle naner this time with an article
nnder the f1ve-column headilne.
~. s steel Plant Indorses Prohi-
bition.'
When great newspapers of the SIZE
circulation and character of the Chris
tian Science Monitor, in which the
nublic has great confidence, take up
the publication of series of conVinc-
ing articles in favor of prohloitloh
and setting forth the rum trust tal-
1acies of two generations, those VINO
have fought courageously to throw
off the rum trust yoke have cause TO
be encouraged.
Industrial influences are indeed De-
coming strong in the battle Tor cleaner
civic conditions. In a few years we
shall look back with shame upon the
conditions of today and wonder how
we ever tolerated them. Our children
will hear of today much as We re-
member the pioneer days of the West
with their gun-play and wholesale
murder of Indians and Chinese, with
a few Tenderfeet shot every week for
good measure.
Youngstown, (ohio) officials of the
L. S. Steel Company's mills have
placed a ban on the drink habit among
their employees, according to this wri-
ter in the Christian Science Monitor
Other large industries have taken sim
liar steps, although not in SO pro-
nounced a degree. He writes:
The latest order of this nature from
the Youngstown district officials of the
big corporation, affecting 5000 en-
ployes. says: Hereafter all promo
tons of whatever character will be
made only from the ranks of those
who do not indulge in the use of in
toxicating drink. The heads of de-
partments and their foremen Will be
expected to observe this rule in ad-
vancing their men,
This order augments and supersedes
in some ways an order promulgated
five years earlier which generally de-
nounced the drink habit and declared
that a man once discharged on &C
count of intemperance would not be
reemployed nor those allowed to re-
main in the service of the company
who are known to drink to excess.
The attitude of the parent steel cor
poration ON the question is said to be
more pronounced here than elsewhere.
However, at Sharon, Pa, employees OF
the Pittsburgh, Bessemer & Lake Erie
railroad recently found in their pay
envelopes pictures of key and a sack
of -four, with the query, Which do
you buy?" The company at the same
time warned its men that to continue
to drink could only bring ultimate dis
missal. In industrial esta blishmentS,
large and small, and on railroad lines
Ii has grown increasingly difficult for
men of such habits to secure employ
ment.
Cries of coercion raised in some
quarters against this stand by big cor
porations have gained few supporters
The men most directly concerned have
generally recognized the regulations as
just. In so many instances have
workers seen that intemperance is det-
rimental both to the individual and
his fellow worker that the vast ma
jority are said to be glad to see this
traffic suppressed in every possible
way.
An organization has been formed
in youngstown recently among the
retail dealers for self protection. Deaf
ers are liable for damages for sale to
"habituals." The law provides fines
and penalty, and to guard against loss
from enforcement of the law they will
1t is said, be more than ever careful
Awakened public sentiment is seen to
have had effect for better law observ-
ance.
Selling places in some sections near
industrial plants, and once noted for
the volume of their business, now
have far fewer patrons.
The writer closes with: Public
opinion in this community has been
stirred on the liquor question during
the last few months as possibly never
before. 1t is the concensus of opinion
that national prohibition really is the
paramount issue in the United States
today, and belief is freely expressed
that 1t will be realized at no far dis
tant time. This is conservative
statement of conditions in comnun-
ity in which practically every people
of Europe is represented, and also
those of many other lands. With this
growing sentiment in a city of the