The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-04-11
IT HELPED.

.,nnroved bv everyone who sees in 1t, however small may be the measure of it's step, an advance in democracy. Hence it is that we may find some interest. and instruction as well, III the fact that the revolt was hasten cd if not made possible by the abo- lftion of the vodka traffic.
 Now we are not going to affirm that prohibition caused the revolt, but We do emphatically say inas- much as it gave men clearer minds | and subjected them less to liquors i benumbing influence it was power ful factor in bringing it about.
 Russia is a country which has been sunk in the nethermost depths of superstition. but none Of its spperstitions was so stout as the superstition that vodka was the only thing that could give the SlaV slrcease ot his troubles. and no- thing at all in the Russian world aided. fomeuted. abetJed and stirred the power of that religious superst- lion as did the degrading habit Of the vodka drlnler. He became more than susceptible to the intu- ence of the superstitions that the Orthodox church piled heavy and strong and steadily upon him and with body enslayed to booze il was easg enough also to enslave the soul to superstition.
 Men murmured at their lot in Russia; but for that lot they sought 1he yodka den, and ill the fiery spirit there dispensed they found an auodyne which made them forget 1heir woes. This stilled all reyolu- tloualy thought, and they were unfit to plan and still more unfit to carry out measures which freedom de- handed
 The abolition of vodka made possible the abolition of the Tzar and inc dethrouement of the equally tvranuical power of the Holy Synod. and because il did We claim that il materially aided the advance of de mocr8cy and progress in that land.
 Yet. We doubt not that we'll known champions of individual free iom would have srieyously com- u!aiu that this action by the Government in prohibiting vodka was sore intrusion uron the par- sonal freedom Of tno iud#.duaI: the same that was v.c,.mi1'd hy re ligious myth and by imperial bureau .rracy.
 The advance of humanity urges that the booze proposition be given it's quetus It is all very well to claim that men should be privi- legged to drink, but it is not very well that men should be allowed to make d living making trunks out of the people. We say that q drunken union man or drunken radical is about worth pOwCer to blow him to atoms; that much ana no more. He will be neither good to himselfe nor to his fellows. But the sober minded unionman, the union man who sizes up the situa- ton with clear head and steady hand. who will not allow every Tom, Dicl, and Harry to get by with their con. is the man that will ac- complish things.
 II is not to deprive men of their glass Of beer that it is urged that the country can go dry none too soon. It is because booze makes men neglect their work as union men. and leaves them the victims of every saloonist that we say it is for the benefit of all that they be put out of commission
 We know and everyone knows that some saloons have made 1t a practice of supplying men with jobs There are saloons in Nome which have secured more jobs fol the workers than the Miners Union And for the very simple reason that those soaks for whom they sought and obtained employment were not working for themselves when employed, but for the saloons The saloons were employment otii' ces, exacting a bigger fee than was paid to any employment shark ir any, section of the world They were employment offices which de