Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1918-07-19
LABOR DEMANDS A HEARING

The drys are not having it all their
own way at Washington, as Labor's
Emergency Liberty League points
out in the advertisement elsewhere in
this issue. The right of the workers
to a glass of beer either with their
meals or in a leisure hour, or both,
they show no disposition to surrender
upon any such grounds as those put
forth by Prohibitionists.
The brewing of beer was several
months ago reduced by 80 per cent,
and a Government order, recently
made, restricts the quantity to so
per cent of the output of last year;
and while there has been less of
barley used in the making of beer it
does not appear to have been used to
any unusual extent by housewife,
stock raiser or dairyman. And as the
League points out, this years grain
crop promises to be Of unprecedent
size.
In the light of these undisputed
facts the food conservation argument
falls to the ground. The utter fall
laciousness of such use of this argu-
ment lies rather in the assumption
that to whatever extent a person uses
beer that person wastes food. The
obvious answer to this is, (a) the
bulk of the beer consumed by the
workers is taken with their meals;
(b) and so taken it represents not a
waste, but a saving of food, in that
it makes more enjoyable and more
sustaining their daily fare.
Deprive them of this aid to their
meals, and how shall the deficiency
be made up? In one way only could
this be done: by increasing the solid
proportions of their fare, and would
not this make further demands upon
the grain supply or its sources?
Great Britain was until lately an
example of misdirected zeal. Begin
ming in the second year Of the war a
series of restrictions, each more Sc
we're than the one preceding, had beer
placed upon Drink. AS these restric,
tions increased in number and Sc
verify the industrial masses became
more and more discontented. Fol
lowed the appointment by Lloyd
George of a commission to inquire
into this rapidly growing discomfort.
The commission made its report
last fall. We Gull from the report a
few running quotations.:
the matter should be sensi-
bly dealt with, not from the high
ideals of temperance reformers
whose schemes Of betterment must
be kept in their proper place until
after the war, but from the human
point of view Of keeping the man
who has to do war work in a good
temper. which will enable him to
make necessary sacrifices in a con-
tented spirit.
there would be much more
sense in depriving England of to-
bacco, but it would not help to win
the war. =.
The commission were frank
ly amazed at the strength of the
objections to the liquor restrictions.
These came not only from men in
the habit of drinking beer, but from
those who were lifelong teetotalers
and yet recognized the need of beer
to those working in certain occu
pations. . We hold no brief either
for or against beer drinking, but
we are convinced that it is a ques-
ton which men must settle for
themselves, and that it must be
recognized that beer is more than
a drink. We recommend to the
Government that the supply should
be largely increased. =.
With such valuable information
coming from such disinterested
sources, the wonder grows that oul
statesmen pay any heed whatever to
prohibition agitators. 1t