MANUFACTURERS AND TEMPERANCE.
By Rose Terry Cooke
Our manufacturers have it in their power to give the cause of temperance such mighty help as will set it forward years in advance of its present position. Our manufactories are infested with workmen who are drunkards because they are good workmen; that is to say, they keep their places in the workshops because it is not easy to find others skilled in their trade. I know more than one factory where men get drunk every few weeks, go off for a day or two, and then come back, sure of finding their places kept for them. Manufacturers permit this for two reasons: first, from an idea that they cannot find workmen able to do some special sort of work easily, and they do not like to lose a capable hand; second, because they are afraid that the discharged man will revenge himself on their buildings or machinery. I should like to ask these gentlemen one or two questions; and firstly, is the damage done to your business by the delay of fulfilling contracts, or the necessity of breaking them, incurred by the employment of men who can never be relied on, fully compensated by the spasmodic labor and skill of these men? Secondly, do not you honestly think, on considering the matter, that a manufactory so respectable and so respected that it employed only sober and steady men, would always be preferred by that class of workmen? Thirdly, are there not in this country enough specialists, of honesty and sobriety, in your particular trade, who could be procured by advertising for them? Fourthly, if you fully insure your factory and machinery, is it not better to have them burned down once in a few years than to break your contracts and lose your customers continually? Besides, there is a great deal of truth in the old proverb, "Threatened men live long." I know there are a few kind-hearted men who keep taking back a drunken employee out of kindness to his family; but is it kindness? Do you not by this continual encouragement take away every reason for being temperate from this man? I believe one timid, soft-hearted manufacturer is worse for a town than its worst saloon, as far as the encouragement of drinking goes. I know that this experiment has been successfully tried. Not very many years ago a great manufacturing firm set up large workshops near a certain New England town, and hired two master-mechanics, young men highly recommended, one as general overseer, the other as machinist. Work began with a full complement of "hands," but in a short time one man was finally discharged for drunkenness, then another, and another, all skilled workmen. The proprietor of the concern, hearing of these losses, hurried up from the city to remonstrate. "What are you doing, young man?" he angrily cried. "You will ruin the business at this rate. You have turned off three of our best hands in a fortnight." "Their places are already supplied with steady, skillful men," calmly replied the overseer. "But it won't do, I tell you! it won't do. You may find three, but that's more than you could expect. If it happens again I shall have to put the machinist in your place." "He has done the same thing twice this week, sir," said the overseer, with a smile. "We are of one mind; for we were brought up under the same master; and Mr. W., I will promise to pay you out of my own pocket at the end of the current year, any losses you may sustain from this method; but I tell you plainly I will not run this or any other factory on any other principle." Mr. W. did not want to lose both his overseer and machinist, so he let the matter drop, and found at the year's end, every contract had been punctually fulfilled, neither delay nor loss had occurred, and his business had never been so flourishing. Both these men are now wealthy manufacturers themselves. Need I enlarge on the illustration?—Rose Terry Cooke.