re's Mr. Brown, my next door neighbor," exclaims another wh boner; “his wife and children objects of charity because he sper time and money in the saloon." I heard one of our prominent Sta perance workers say but a short time ago, speaking of the arr children working in the cotton mills of the South, that if th hers would keep sober and go to work, child labor would cea Now what are the real facts in the case? Is temperance t mediate cause of poverty, or, on the other hand, does pover gely act as a cause in producing intemperance? And toda ler the present industrial system, are not a large proporti the workers poor, even though total abstainers? Two things are absolutely essential for a workingman to ha necessaries of life. First, work to do, and second, large enou ges to meet the needs of himself and family. If he is employ y a part of the time and his wages are low, poverty must as tter of fact follow whether he drinks or not. In the year 1903, Carroll D. Wright gave the percentage se unemployed during some portion of the year as 49.8 per cer e Eighteenth Annual Labor Report, page 42). The census of 19 ced it in round numbers at 6,468,964 or 22.8 per cent. of the tota Commissioner Wright enumerates some of the causes of idl s as follows: 1. This competition for a chance to work making labor a commodity in the market, its e law of supply and demand. At least oneg class employed get no more than $10 per Periods of unemployment, which occur to is amount down in the course of the year. es 20 to 25 per cent. of these wages must go $6 to $7 a week for the living expeness of a r or more. Does it look as if these poorly were only thrifty and frugal and left drink wolf from the door? ere all closed and the people were all total poverty would still hang over the home of use of his enforced idleness at times and the s labor. Many 11 careful students of social conditions today 1 said: "Under the searchlight of knowledge is folly for us longer to ignore the mighty other te of the d nal, in t her temperance organizations to get down to the bed rock ca E the drink habit! It is folly to work with effects; yea, it is cr al, in the light of the knowledge we have. -MARY E. GARBUTT in the Garment Worke e one), he mentions the impossibility of difinner tendencies or instigations to do wrong. one can reach is that certain external instite the commitment of crime; but this wisdom erefore not worth the trouble of finding out. y bare the extent and significance of single n only mislead. Then he proceeds: structive circumstance of this kind is innave direct relation to personal qualities case of habitual inebriety-promote abuse ry while in a state of intoxication. Furthertoxication may coincide with other outward ality; this is indeed regularly the stances does drunkenness appear as the sole the part of an otherwise blameless person. cation is considered in common with other tions, the question which one of the different inant one and whether intoxication had any r in the stated case, will always present case. ndable the efforts of temperance advocates of view of public hygiene and morals, their ggerate the statistics collected adapted for ing intemperance as a cause of criminality. a trustworthy basis, for experience shows of an offence naturally seeks to make his or exaggerates it. In the case of the persons ting o are the it will b out of cause us ing offences would have to be ascertained and compared. viously, such a count would be impossible. Equally doub are the inferences drawn from the number of crimes committed Sundays. As is well known, the day is not exclusively dev co recreation, or, more correctly, people have different idea: regard to what constitutes recreation. It lies at hand that cer offences should occur more frequently on a day of rest than work day. This would be the case even if alcohol did not ex It is a similar question in regard to the direct causation of crimina through the absence of alcohol in consequence of a deteriora of a moral or economic character. By examining individual c t will be found in many if not in most of them that inebriety spr out of or accompanies other causes, having their origin partly amily life and partly in economic conditions. It would b mistake if, as is frequently done, the offences committed und condition of general misery are attributed to drink; the ac cause usually lies deeper. "Using Austrian statistics as a basis I have elsewhere sou to show that there is no correspondence between the amoun alcohol consumed and the extent of criminality taking the f of assaults, in the different parts of the country, but that it depe apon the disposition of the peoples inhabiting the districts question." |