Denver labor bulletin., 1915-07-31
The Open Forum
Why Attorney John Hipp Doesn't Pat
ronize The Labor Bulletin.

Editor Denver Labor Bulletin:
a sample copy of your paper with the
invitation that | subscribe for it and
advertise in it is at hand.
| regret that l cannot &C onscientiously
do either, tho l am in full sympathy
with the laboring people.
My objection to your paper is that you
have all the time stood for and defended
the saloon and liquor traffic, and
large part OF your income is from ad
vcrtisernents of saloons aud brcweries.
VIII you have the kindness to tell
me why any working man should sup
port the saloon2 What good has ever
cone to the working man and his family
from spending his money in the saloon
| admit that a small proportion OF
men find employment in the various
branches OF the liquor traffic, but at
what Il fearful expense TO their working
brothers. If the money now spent in
tie saloons OF Denver were spent in
legitimate trade, this money would sup
port from five to ten times the number
OF people it now does, and without the
terrible injury now done to society.
When West Virginia went dry one
of the large breweries of that state
which employed fifty men, was turned
into 4 packing plant and now gives EN-
ployment to four hundred and fifty men.
The labor employed in the liquor traf
fac is about the poorest paid labor there
l.. and their physical mental and moral
natures are greatly harmed il they use
the liquors they handle. Many saloon
keepers ii.sist that their bartenders must
not drink. Can you tell me why,
Alcohol in whatever amount or with
whatever else ii may be mixed, is n
poison that Injuries the brain makes the
nerves unsteady, and degrades the char
aeter OF the one drinking it, Look at
the mIrderers, suicides, and other crimes
produced by the use of liquor.
Look at the murders occurring almost
daily in our city, for proof of this asser-
tion. The West Side criminal court
sends Young man to the penitentary
or reformatory practically every working
day OF the year. And then it costs the
taN-payers OF Colorado two hundred and
eight dollars year, each, to support
them there in idleness. Whose sons are
these so-called criminals! They are the
sons of working men and women, made
criminals by the use OF and assocating
with men that drink. Every fifth fam
lily in the United States must furnish u
boy to recruit the army of drunkards so
that the saloon keeper can pay the high
license and continue in business.
DO you think that all the dirty dol
lars the liquor traffic pays INTO the treas
ury can recompense one mother for the
loss OF her son, or one child for the loss
OF its father, or one wife for the loss OF
her husband! No, not if it were all paid
to such a one for hundred years.
The city OF Denver would save money
hard cash-by closing all the saloons
and boarding all the men and their fam
lies engaged in the liquor business at
public expense. Three -fourths of our
idiots, two-thirds of our epileptics. and
onchalf OF our insane, are the results
of the sale and use OF liquar. Statistics
show that half of the children Of habit
ual drunkards die in infancy. Don't you
think it is time we stop abusing Herod
for numbering the Jewish children at
Bethlehem, while we murder our own
children by the poison. alcohol
The liquor bill of the United States
would in nine months furnish the capital
for all the national banks; in sixteen
months it would build and equip all of
the railroads. We talk about the oppres-
sion of labor by capital. But ! say to
you, capital never put burden upon
labor half as heavy as the burden labor
puts upon itself thru the saloon. The
liquor traffic steals the bloom from the
wife's cheek, the laughter from the
baby's heart, and puts out the fire on
the family hearth; it robs the mother
of her boy, the orphan of its parents, the
state of its manhood, and heaven of i'm
mortal souls; it bribes the legislator
corrupts the policeman, defies the state
and national governments, and is the
only business in America today that
flaunts the flag of anarchy in the face
of law and says, "If you attempt to stop
my business, ] will set up boot -leggers'
and start blind tigers and sell more of
my hell-broth than / do now"
The day that the whole internal bust
ness is destroyed will mark a new era
in the progress of the human race and
open vistas of prosperity and happiness
to the laboring man and his family that
are now undreamed Of.
As a mark of fair play am going to
ask you to publish this letter in The
Labor Bulletin.
Yours truly,
JOHN HIPP.