Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — A Heavy Burden. [ARTICLE]

A Heavy Burden.

The history of labor strikes, if fully written, would contain some odd incidents. None could be more so, perhaps, than the story of a recent strike in Omaha among the brewery workmen. An agreement had been made between the brewers and their employes which was acceptable In every point but one, and upon this one point they held out. It had been provided that beer should be furnished the workmen to drink without charge at nine, eleven, two, three, four and six o’clock, but the men Insisted upon having it free at every hour of the day! Here is oppression of labor by capital with a vengeance! In point of fact, there are no two things more at odds than efficient labor and excessive drinking. About a thousand million dollars a year are spent in this country for liquors, wines and ales. The proportion of this enormous sum that comes from the pockets of the working people of small means Is quite out of proportion to their number. The loss is not only direct, but indirect Indolence and incapacity always follow in the train of excess. A manufacturer has lately been quoted as saying that he had many men in his employ to whom he used to pay live dollars a day, but who could now with difficulty earn‘a dollar and a quarter; and that solely because they would drink. And the circumstance is not exceptional, but typical. Waste and Idleness are of the nearest kin to vice and excess.