The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-01-09
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
INDUSTRY WOULD BAR ALCOHOL.


Five hundred men, representing
employers of over one million work
men in the United States, pledged
themselves by resolution to eliminate
the use of alcoholic stimulants among
employees in their respective plants
and factories.
The resolution passed by the Ma
tional Congress is as follows:
1T is recognized that the use of
alcoholic stimulants is productive or
most industrial accidents and works
against the safety and efficiency of
workmen. Therefore, it is resolved
that it is the sense of this meeting
that the members eliminate the use
of alcoholic stimulants among the
employees of their plants"
This campaign by some of the larg-
est employers of labor against the use
of alcoholic drink by their workmen,
on the ground that it is inimical to
safety, is we'll summarized by Lewis
Edwin Thesis in "The Outlook"
Mr.. Thesis says: alcohol is going.
Efficiency demands it. Industry calls
for it. The signs of it's passing are
on every hand Nothing but mental
bias has kept us from reaching this
viewpoint long ago."
In big industrial plant, where
every precaution is taken for insuring
the safety of it's employees, an acct
| dent happened in which an employee
was found to be horribly mangled.
| The investigation of the safety eX-
pert on the plant disclosed the fact
that within the plant safety measures
were all they should be, but that the
man had at the noon hour visited a
saloon and taken several drinks, and
an unsteady lurch, as his fellows testi-
fed, had thrown him into the ma
chinery.
Machinery is guarded safety de-
vices are installed, human ingenuity
is exerted to the utmost to guard the
worker, and yet accidents continue.
| This campaign of manufacturer
against alcohol, is one for safety
first While the saloon exists, there
can be no safety. Hence, the saloon
| is doomed"
Mr.. Wallace H. Rowe, president of
the Pittsburgh Steel Company, en-
ploying over five thousand men, filed
petition against the saloon, declaring
vt increased the high cost of living,
| because twenty per cent of the work
ers' earnings, on the average, go to
the saloons, and at the same time the
cost of steel is increased because of
the overhead charge for accidents,
eighty-five per cent of which are di-
rectly or indirectly due to the use of
liquor.
Other firms ruling against liquor
are:
American Car and Foundry Co.,
| Berwick shops;
Lukens Iron and Steel Co., Coates
vile, Pa;
American Tin Plate Company,
Pennsylvania;
The Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany.
The last named having 125,OO0 en-
ployes, has rigid rule, not only
against drinking while on duty, but
against the use of intoxicants at any
time. This rule is so rigidly enforced
that few of the employees ever touch
| liquor.
GO where you will, you will find
the same thing. Railways, steel mills,
factories, either have put the ban on
booze or are about to do so. Com
petitors will be obliged to follow suit,
or go to the wall. Efficiency is the
crying need of the day. Alcohol must
go, because it is an enemy of eff
cheney.
Even the liquor men, at least the
keenest of them, sense what is CON-
ing. Let me quote from saloon
keepers letter to the Kansas City
Star, in which the writer told why
he was getting out of the liquor bust
ness:
"My reason for quitting the liquor
business is not that | am rich, or old,
or troubled by my conscience. l sim
ply have decided to get out while the
getting is good. ] believe I can read
| the handwriting on the wall. l be-
| lieve the finish of the booze business
in this country is in sight. l prefer
| to step from under before the roof
| falls in"