The Canon City record with which is consolidated the Canon City cannon., 1918-10-10
Waste in the
Liquor Business
The Country Gentleman.

NO matter Wnat we may tutHh Oh tnc
right of a man to corrode his insides
and paint his outsides with liquor. and
leaving out the gush and sentiment
and sobs, the nationwide Increment
for wartime prohibition still has am
pie base to stand on, for the liquor
business is undeniably a war hind
rance and an economic tester.
Just now the liquor business stands
between the nation and nearly every
thing it needs to win the war.
The nation needs food; the brewers
normally waste about 5000. 600
pounds of it year. The nation needs
laborers; the liquor industry has about
400, 900 employees. The nation needs
freight cars; the liquor business is es-
timated to load approximately 100000
cars a year. The nation needs ship; it
has been computed that the equivalent
of so 5.0O0-ton ships are kept busy
hauling liquor to the Allies alone. The
nation needs ammonia to make muni-
tions. to refrigerate the many new
ships 1t is building, to manufacture ice
to stave OF the expected shortage next
summer, and to manufacture fertil-
izer; the breweres have it. The ma
ton needs cold-storage space; the
brewers have it. The nation needs
glass jars for preserving food: beer
and wine bottles cut down the supply.
The nation needs money. and is go
ing to need it much worse; the liquor
business takes nearly $1,000. 900 600 a
year. Finally. the nation needs pa
triots and 1t finds a great number OF
hyphenates in the liquor business.
It is in the matter of labor that the
breweries and wine manufactures and
the saloons most directly menAce the
farmer. AS rule farm territory is
dry. Farmers as rule have little
trouble with saloons directly. but in
directly they have considerable.
AS direct means OF closing the sa
looms and stopping the manufacture
of beer and wine would not help the
farmer much. The sap-bellied, soft
muscled and bleached gentry are nc
more fitted to go out in the harvest
field and set bundles on end than they
are to make fit soldiers, but they car
relieve at some necessary work a mar
who can go to the harvest neid.
The needs of the nation are 70 great
today that the personnel and equip
ment Of the entire liquor ipdpstry oi
the United States would be ABSORBED
with less fuss than a trout snaps :
grasshopper.
The argument that prohibition
throws men out of work has been usec
SO long that the liquor interest cannot
think fast enough to stop using II. Re
Gently three different groups OF mer
in Milwaukee sent kilograms to Wash
ington protesting against the Randall
amendment which had passed the
House, providing for the abolition ol
beer and wine making during the war
Each telegram was based on the asser
tion that a lot of men would be thrown
out of employment. Naturally that is
what the nation would like to do
throw a lot Of men out of non-essentfal
employment and hire 1t over again al
larger wages for essential work. The
brewers only made themselves ridicu
lous.
As a whole the liquor business Il
| trying to look as small and inconspicu
ous as it can during the war. II used
to brag about 2.000.o 900 employees. Nov
it is not Dragging, but Is willing &c
split the difference as to those 1000,
900 persons, and is thankful for the
favor II you will do likewise and split
the figure again. AS matter OF fact
that is about right. With all the infia
ton gone, not more than 100000 mer
are engaged in the liquor business
counting such allied workers ns glass
blowers and coopers.
Half million workers is not a vasi
number. but 1t would probably stop al
the gaps in the food production line
In that half million are experienced
truck drivers. electricians, steam flt
ters. engineers, chemists and many
others that the nation needs badly
AS a matter OF fact, 100000 men j!
about twice the number of skilled Ia
borers the employment service hai
been able to enroll for its reserve
army.
Especially would the brewery trucI
be acceptable at this time for Ioca
hauling. There is large army O