The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-04-03
.bRI1 ABoRERS
NEED AMERICAN
STYLE OF LIVING
Government Will Probably Find That
What Wor1imen Need is More Beef,
Not Merely Less Beer.
DRINK EVIL STUMBLING BLOCK
Assistance Of Great Britain and
France saves Russian From Bank.
ruptcy -lntemperance Cause.
BY !. w. +. MASON.

! r-,-l - -. r-- = ; .
New York, April 3.-It. seems al
if the British government is not pre-.
pared to go to legislative extremes in
trying to overcome the drink evil
Instead Of compulsory measures, q
voluntary blue ribbon movement ap.
pears to, have been accepted as q
compromise worth trying It lis
hoped examples. of total abstinence
announced by the King, Lord Kitche.
.ner and by the cabinet in general
will cause the workingmen to foregc
their frequent beer and occasional
spirits and thus provide the. army
with all the ammunition it possibly
can shoot away. !. +5-1=: ....
There is reason to believe the
stemperamenta1 enthusiasm Of the
British Chancellor of the Excheque1
has led him to regard the effects o1
a . sudden prohibition campaign
among the British workingmen with
too much optimism. ',
Impressed By Reports ~.
4 It seems apparent that Lloyd
George has been vastly impressed by
reports from Russia concerning the
consequences of the Slav . Govern
ment's prohibition of the sale of in,
toxicants. AS the Slavs ally, the
British Chancellor of the Exchequel
is bound officially to believe what
tales Petrograd may wish to tell
The prohibition movement in Rus.
sia, however, was spontaneous act
on the part of the Gar. 1t is in.
cumbent on all the loyal subjects OF
his Majesty to extol the effect. what
ever conclusion may be warranted by
the facts. -.
Prevent Bankruptcy. =
II, in truth, the Russian people
have been renegated by the Cars
Etemperanee# #a,lase;;=iitt =iitt IL lis amazing that
Great Britain and France should have
to finance the Slav empire, at this
time, to prevent national bankrupt
cy. It is equally inexplicable why
under the new era of regeneration,
Russian has failed to keep up her
own supply of war stores and has tu
call on Britain for help, and why
the Russian armies cannot make
progress in the field.
Improve Standard.
Unquestionably Petr0grad's opti-
mism about Russia's new industrial
efficiency is on a par with the fire.
quent statements that the Slav arm
les are at last about to overwhelm
the Germans in a crushing defeat.
Lloyd George, however, is a man of
generous impulses and is loyal ally
of the Gear. Therefore, he cannot
regard impartially Petrograd's self
praise. Beside, it is up to him to
discover some reason for 'Britian's
failure to supply the army with its
needs, and intemperahce is the most
plausible. Il
If, however, the British govern
ment were to regard the matter i'm
personally, it would probably dis
cover that the British workingman' s
failure is due, not to too much beer,
but to too little beef. 1t is becom-
ing more and more apparent that
Lloyd George and Lord Kitchener and
other responsible ministers are max
ing a mistake. They are trying to
get American results out of the Brit
ish standard of living. The thing is
an impossibility. Drink or no drink,
the British workingman cannot re-
spond physically to the speeding up
now demanded of him unless his
standard of living is improved.