AN EFFECTIVE METHOD OF ENCOURAGING TEMPERANCE.
By Carrol D. Wright
THE question of intemperance is one which is largely in the hands of the employers of labor. When the employer understands, and announces that he can hire a man with a clear head for the same compensation for which he can get one with a muddled brain, the temperance movement is subjected to a force not known by any other method. It may well be called the dynamics of the temperance movement, and began on the railroads a generation ago, first, in orders that men who drank while on duty should not be employed. It was soon seen that this meant nothing whatever, and so the next movement was to prohibit the employment of men who were habitual drinkers, even in slight degree. This movement has spread over the country. The public is interested as much as the railroads themselves. The safety of travel and the avoidance of disaster concern the whole people, and thus the economic value of the prohibition has been felt in every direction. It now extends to private and corporate concerns which desire to run their establishments with as little friction and as little loss as possible. The common and the statutory laws which make employers liable, in some degree and under certain circumstances, for the carelessness of their employees, are a most powerful incentive to the employment of men with clear heads. Thus economically again the movement acquires strength.
—Carrol D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor.