The Seattle Star Newspaper, October 30, 1914, Page 10

STAR—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1914, PAGE 10. POVERTY——NOT | THE GREAT CAUSE OF IN CELTIC UNION AND GERMAN-AMERICAN LEAGUE PROTEST AGAINST “DRYS” AMENDMENT |: LQUORAND FORBIDDEN FRUITS] ‘07 'S TH man CAUSE OF INTEMPERANCE », DIVORCE IN TEMPT DECLARES MARY E. GARBUTT "= CALIFORNIA By DR. MARTIN REGENSBURGER, The writer of this article was a garment worker and President of California State rdof Health came constantly in contact with the working classes—and reside: Boa LIQUOR | MPERANCE § one ‘One nator an. wees Mutual Conference Committee, Adopts Resolution Full of Con- vincing Arguments Against Prohibition. ‘ be In view of the fact that labor organizations in California | took the lead in resolving against State-wide Prohibition, it will be of interest to the Federation of Labor in Washington to be able to read the reasons why similar organizations in California oppose State-wide Prohibition. Hence the follow- ing is reproduced |this is what she said: By Hortense Russell IF the people of this country were educated to drink wine, alcoholism 6éT HAVE would be a rare disease, as has been proven in wine-drinking coun- I The line of argue It is the forbidden fruits that tempt. In my experience, in families |} ment many temperance workers make today as to the cause of poverty I used to make myse Thi y that if the work- quit drinking, he and his family would have the necessaries of life, if not 2 het lg mt itunes HE Committee of Mutual Conference been a member of the Woman's Christian Tem- and German-American League, representi Intemperance has the perance Union for twenty-five years Irish-American societies of S an: | rage in divorce cause elas where the wine flows freely, drunkards are the exception, whereas many of the offspring of teetotalers and wine abhorrers, who have not tasted alcoholics until they have almost grown to be men, become drunkards. Alcohol, in the shape of beers and wines, is not a poison. It is a stimulant, and the human system needs stimulation. If you bring up children with beer and wine on the table, as is done in some of the European countries, you will have no drunkards. German-Ameri cisco and the at their m ng posed state-wide prohibition of convincing arguments against amendment, is as follows h the exce; I lay ingman would keep away from the Jive dhecweed its comforts, They cite specific cases and then draw their ) P date P granted in the State of Califor | general conclusions from a few isolated facts fornia at the November, 1914, election, an amendment to the nia from 1905 to 1913, less than Constitution of this state t t the r sale gift or transportation within the state of intox quors, and prohibiting the transportation fess it is shown to be for medical, scier sacramental purposes; and, Ww the a pacey : Whereas, Ca’ has 320,000 acres devoted to culture The wine industry represents an investment of sae pa Ba ee $150,000,000, yielding annually $30,000,000; supports 75,000 ee persons The California breweries represent an investment statistics of $50,000,000, distribute 000,000 to 4,000 employes, con Rinkd decrees sume $1,000,000 worth of California barley, $175,000 worth of California hops, and $2,500,000 worth of other essentials. PHE following communication was published in a recent issue of The California Grape Grower: They pay the general government an annual revenue of $1,350,000, and about the same amount to towns and cities In the manufacture and distribution of liquors 28 i . The sons are employed and 4 i liquors $10,000,000 is inve is $3,000,000 ; and Whereas, The ad aot only destroy great properties and industries, impos Mr. G. E. Lawrence, R 501, 12 G Ss , San Fran- thousands of families and increase the army of unem : a res : cary Street but it Geculd substitute the vilest of poisonous concoctions for cisco—My Dear Sir: 1 regret the delay in replying to your letter of July |} | 17th. I am not and never have been in favor of prohibition. The W. C. T. U. people have asked me at different times (not recently) to help them, and I have always declined—not that | am not in favor of temperance, but because I did not think their methods were always wise, ‘or likely to to achieve the end in view. 1 am opposed to intemperance, but not to a |] “In the year 1903 Carroll D. Wright gave the perce: moderate use of wine, and I am convinced that the countries where wine |] |0f those unemployed during some portion of the year as 498 is freely used are not those where the highest rate of intemperance pre- |per cent (See Eighteenth Annual Labor Report, page 42). vails. In this wine-producing state, especially, | think it would be a mis- The census of 1900 place it in round numbers at 6,468,964, ’ Jour pure wines, beers and brandies, and make every taxpayer pay the cost of this industrial cataclysm ; and, jor 22.8 per t of the total. C issi Wrigh : actin o1 cent 0! ie total. ommissioner right enumer- © take and do much more harm than good to establish prohibition. lates some of the causes of idleness as follows: Yours very truly, There's Mr. Smith’s family,’ says a W. C. T. U. mem- Smith is drunk the greater part of the time, so that he cannot keep a job when he gets one.’ ‘And there’s Mr. Brown, my next door neigh- bor,’ exclaims another white ribboner; ‘his wife and children objects of charity because he spends his time and money in the saloon.’ ained on the ber, ‘in destitute circumstances. Mr. f intemperance . mechanical « Drunkennes@ com | “I heard one of our prominent State temperance workers say but a short time ago, speaking of the army of children working in the cotton mills of the South, that if their fathers | would keep sober and go to work child labor would cease. } “Now, what are the real facts in the case? Is intemper- jance the immediate cause of poverty, or, on the other hand, — |does poverty largely act as a cause in producing intemper- | ance? And today, under the present industrial system, are not a large proportion of the workers poor, even though total jabstainers? year ending June OB, sh emperance only in fependent. In the . and the annual | | ption of the foregoing amendment w + per cent, were gr nae ectuindi: Of iutacupes “Two things are absolutely essential for a workingman to have the necessaries of life. First, work to do, and, second, large enough wages to meet the needs of himself and family. | If he is employed only a part of the time and his wages are | ‘low, poverty must as a matter of fact follow, whether he | | drinks or not 4 1909 this percentage fell to per cent; in 1911 to 3 per cent; in 1912 the average was still 3%4 per cent Anti-Saloon League Head “Says Something” “T am by nature and education ‘ P ry dh » more powerful influence over us, in determining what this atti a teetotaler, and have been an tude should be We are opposed to the doctrine that it is the right of part of the people to compel the other part to do in all things what the first part thinks the latter ought to do, for its own benefit We believe that such doctrine is an invasion of the right of individual freedom. We believe that individual freedom is the cornerstone of American liberty. That the doctrine of indi vidual freedom is expressed in the words—that it is the right tant a matter as the drink ques- Methods of work must be ardent and sincere advocate of T hove. reached the Establishments closed ...........56.96 pet. PORNO soc sckises 23.65 pet. SONS s'5< scan 2.67 pet. Accidents .... - 1.66 pet. Drunkenness . 26 pet. “From this report simply a fraction of 1 per cent of the jidleness among workingmen is caused by intemperance, com- paratively a small proportion arises from strikes, but the shu ting down of mills, factories, mines and other industries causes, over one-half of the idleness, while the large per cent of sick-” {ness as a cause is largely attributed to a disregard, to a crim- jinal extent, of the employers of labor for the health of their Peace. | employes. 705.5 |] “Less than 3 per cent of the appalling total idleness which 163.8 }]| exists in this country can be charged to the working class. 775.7 “Now let us glance briefly at the wages paid and see if 478.9 they are commensurate with the needs of the working class, “At least one-fourth of the working class employed get no_ more than $10 per week for their labor. Periods of unemploy- |ment, which occur to most of them, cut this amount down in | |the course of the year : Whereas, The industrial, agricultuz| and commercial de selopment of California should in every manner be encouraged PHOEBE A. HEARST. Hacienda Del Pozo de Verona, July 27, 1914. ind assisted instead of being retarded and destroyed by the Whereas, The foregoing considerations should of them Here is a table showing the ratios of arrests for drunkenness and dis- selves wield a tremendous influence over ourselves in deter Nining the attitude that we should assume toward the prc turbing the peate in one year in a few prohibition cities: No. of Arrests Per 10,000 posed constitutional amendment, there are other considerations of a personal and political nature which should wield even a Population For. Drunk: Disturbing enness. 1,970.0 2,806.9 1,185.9 4,381.2 prohibition place, however, where I will no coees longer allow my desires to bias my judgment as to the best method of dealing with so impor- ‘of the citizen to act and live as he thinks best, so long as his tion conduct does not invade a like right on the part of others. It adapted to meet the present con- is the doctrine which enthrones individual conscience and ir Aitions To vidual responsibility law of any character upon There is not lacking eminent authori etherwise, that the use of, or the moderate or ir gence of such beverages is beneficial, whereas, the abuse attempt to people against their protest will fail in its purpose. Laws cannot CITIES. Kansas City, Kan Portland, Me. .. Topeka, Kan. .. Wichita, Kan. .. Estimated Population. 67,614 " , be successfully enforced without or the excessive or unreasonable indulgence of the same, is full) fimental. Is this not true of everything? Is it not tr fire and water, the greatest of human agencies? Yet such a movement would not be different in principl a sustaining public sentiment.” Rev. Dr. W. C Indiana, ex-Superintendent Anti- Holt, Evansville, 31,110 from that involved in the proposed constitutional amendment tnder consideration. Where is the line to be drawn? If the government represented by the majority has the right to con trol the individual in the matter of his drink it has the equa fight to control him in the matter of his diet, his dress, h speech, his labors, his recreation and ‘ right of reasonable the right of compul volved in the constitutional ame not the right to regulate or abo! to say what the individual shall drink in his o7 home or without his meals. We do not approve of folly or exces of any kind, but we believe t the correction of all such dis orders should rest the ¢ sense of the people themselve That regulation himself from withi+ Wont the 'euteide, ‘We b Saloon Leag ; ee In the majority of cases 20 to 25 per jcent of these wages must go for rent, leaving from $6 to $7 a week for the living expenses of a family of three or four or | more Does it look as if these poorly paid workers, if they were only thrifty and frugal and left drink alone, would keep |the wolf from the door? lation is not denied or challenged, i these matters is. The question Iment under consideration the saloon, but the r LIQUOR AND CRIME By CLARENCE DARROW “If the saloons were all closed and the people were all total abstainers, the pall of poverty would still hang over the | Homie of the workingman, because of his enforced idleness at jtimes and the poor wages paid for his labor. figure as a defense that the act was done by one] “It is a fact that all careful students of social conditio intoxicated beyond his control. y |today recognize that intemperance, as it erists mong the a “Passing from murder, the majority of crimes of|is more truly the result of poverty than the cause, Prof Rich. violence are committed for the first time by boys injard G. Ely says: ‘We should never forget the temptation 7 adolescent age and generally from surroundings of|intemperance which lie in the char mal poverty where no opportunity for life and activity|laborers. Many hours are regarded by competent authoriti can come. Boys from fourteen to twenty-one should/as @ cause which predisposes to the use of intoxicants The Clarence Darrow is one of the leading criminal lawyers of the country. His profession has always brought 1 him in contact with the criminal classes. Therefore, what Mr. Darrow says about crime and the use of liquor ve! should have great weight: : sipped cies 66 ROM more than thirty-five years’ constant experience in court, | am satisfied that intox- icating liquors have practically nothing to do with what the world calls real crime. “One needs but recall well-known murder cases within their own observation and reading to show the absurdity of any such claim. Not only has liquor should come to everyone that we have bee That it is our birthr h is right self-imposed slavery or i 1 r Trying to make men ove ) favorite occupations of many so-called ca \ to such look to yourselves, and let us ¢ we equal b Therefore be it r rd by the Ce of other likewise, for thus alone are Ma acter of the toil of many mmittee of Mutual Con ference of the Celtic nd Ger we are oppose tior amendment principles perance and Resolved Phat thi possible circulation among the membership of the ¢ podies hereto. further resolution be given the Dated September 3, 1914 COMMITTEE OF MUTUAL CONFERENCE OF CELTIC UNION AND GERMAN-AMERICAN LEAGUE GEORGE H. BAHRS, President T. P. O'DOWD, Secretary JOHN DONOHUE, Vice-President GUST BERGNER, Treasurer HENRY F. BUDDE GEORGE J. LOWE W. D. WOLPMANN THOS. F. ALFORD. a J. MUNSTER . J. DRISCOLL, Poms oun? next to nothing to do with crime, but the orfgin and cause of so-called criminal actions have In the main been clearly ascertained and are well understood by thoughtful men. “Take, for instance, murder. Many more homi- ides result from the affections and passions between men and women than from any other cause, and yet their feelings are responsible for life and for the best that the world gives. The catastrophes result because the feelings are so vital and so primitive. Homicides, too, come through the great social and political agita- tions incident to life. Out of some twenty-odd Presi- dents of the United States, three have been shot. Liquor had nothing to do with any of them. The cause lay in the strong feelings and agitation of the times. Many are murdered for money; many through hatred; many while other acts are being committed. Very seldom is there a case where even a lawyer can be carefully trained, not punished, no matter what act they may do, Under propér environment boys so trained, if they live to maturer years, will develop steady characters and staple lives. “But the great cause of crime is poverty. Most crimes are property crimes, or it might be said crimes against property, yet they have all been committed} by the poor. The people who have the wealth of the! world have committed no crimes against property;| but all the crimes against property have been com-| mitted by the penniless. “To say that liquor causes any considerable amount! of poverty is equally absurd. Monopoly is the father and mother of poverty and ever will be. do not drink all the liquor. They make it all, but the best of it is drunk by the rich. If drinking liquor causes crime and poverty, why is it that the rich do not go to jail as well as the poor?” PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISING The poor and other temperance organizations to get strain of work by the side of rapidly moving machinery on the nervous system is another predisposing c r which has attracted serious attention.’ Willard said; ‘Under the knowledge in these later days it is ause of intemperance Frances E searchlight of folly for us longer to ignore the mighty power of poverty to induce evil habits of every kind. It was only our ignorance of the condition of the industrial classes that magnified a single propaganda and min- imized every other, so that the temperance People, in earlier days, believed that if gmen and women were temperate all other material good would follow in the train of that great grace “IT call upon the Woman's Christian Temperance Union down to the bed- It is folly to work wi effects; yea, it is criminal, in the light of the k “— rie nowledge we rock cause of the drink habit!