Valdez daily prospector., 1916-11-04
IT. kaIatisa. T IT T Wsrkiasn.a ss t. Aleehel h 1. Problen.


 Itime and their spare cash indicated that by far the largest amount of spare cash Is spent for beer--23 per cent of the total. If one were to in- clude beer, wine and whisky the amount of spare cash spent by work fingmen for intoxicating liquor will amount to 34 per cent of the total These percentages are not of the total amount earnedEthey represent the items over and above what is required for the necessities of life. The economic aspects of the liquor problem are of vital importance to the workingman. According to the de- lenders of the saloon. one million workingmen would permanently be thrown on to the tabor market follow ing the introduction of national pro- hibition. This argument is based en- Etirely upon the absurd proposition that if the LIQUOR DEALERS fail to get the money now spent for beer and whisky NOBODY ELSE will get lit. It Is assumed that if a man doe, not spend dollar for booze he will throw that dollar into the sewer or into some kind of 6 bottomless pit, in stead of using 1t to purchase some other commodity which will do good instead of harm. which will have T permanent value and which will giv. the workingmen of the country more work, more wages, and greater pros perity every way than if the same amount of money were spent for beer and whisky. ; 'H "++.'
 A good deal is being said about the enormous amount of capital invested in the liquor industry and yet. accord ing to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, for every $1.00O,0O0 invested in the average industry. practically four times as much wages are paid. and four times as many workers are employed as is the case in the liquor industry.
 Let us take five leading industries in the United States and compare them with the liquor business with reference to the number of wage earn erns employed. For every $1,00O,0O0 invested in each of these industries the following number of wage earners are employed:
 Liquor, 77; iron and steel and their products. 284; paper and printing, scr; leather and its products, 469; textiles and their finished products, 578; lumber and it's manufactures, |579. These figures prove that the iron industry employs nearly four times as many. paper and printing nearly five times as many, leather six times as many, textiles seven and one- half times as many. and lumber seven and one-haif times as many workers for every $1.0O0. 900 invested as does the liquor industry. '.''' ~~ AS a matter of fact, however. more workingmen lose their jobs because saloons are OPEN than would be the case were the saloons to be CLOSED. AS somebody put 1t, "When liquor puts a man out of a job it units him for another job. When no-license puts bartender out of job 1t makes him a wealthcproducing workingman instead of 6 wealth-destroying work ingman. It Is better that the barten- der should lose his job and get a bet ter one than that dozens of his pa irons should lose their jobs and be unfitted for any job. ..'
 The advocates of the saloon who carefully tell us that drinking beer and whiskey is good for a man. re- mind us of the chap who would have us patronize the undertaken because he needs the money. The working man is up against a good many diffi- cult problems. His home isn't all 1t should be. His wages are lower than they y'ought to be. He doesn't have all the joys that he deserves and needs. But when he puts his home and his joys into the safe-keeping of the sa- loon interests then it's good night" to the best things in human life.
 Y. ,.=' Adv