Strike! Fellow Workers, Strike!
By Editor
OCCASIONALLY we hear of a cigar-makers' strike, or of a brewery workmen's strike. Good; we wish they would strike forever. Not that we have aught against the men engaged in either line of business, but it would be a blessed thing for thousands of the workingmen and their wives and children if every worker, rich or poor, in the tobacco, beer, and alcoholic interests would strike, and strike forever. It would pay the workingmen of this country to pension them all liberally, on the condition that not another leaf of tobacco should be grown, nor another gallon of beer brewed, nor another quart of intoxicating drinks distilled or manufactured, nor one of these articles imported. Of course this will not be as long as men have appetites uncontrolled by reason or grace, but it is a thing devoutly to be wished. Many rumsellers who "sympathize" with strikers, whose saloons become the gathering-place of the disaffected, have well filled their tills from the hard earnings of the men on strike, or will absorb the greater part of the first month's wages after a strike is over, while in many instances the grocer, butcher, and baker go unpaid. The worst foe which the workingmen of this country have, the one which robs them of manhood, honor, and comparative plenty, the one which dulls the brain, brutalizes the mind, and enslaves the whole being of thousands, is King Alcohol, together with his prime ministers, beer and tobacco. These stimulants and narcotics are not needed. We know they are not. The writer has worked on the farm from 4 A.M. till 10 P.M., in the iron mines for twelve hours a day, at the printer's case, in building, in the lumber woods, in sawmills, for the same length of time, at hard brain labor for from fourteen to sixteen hours a day, year in and out, in Europe and America, indoors and out-of-doors, when the thermometer stood at 110 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, and ten degrees to twenty degrees below zero in the sun, and in all the various places, times, conditions, and environments, he has never needed either alcohol, beer, or tobacco; and he has fared as well, and been happier, he believes, than those who used these poisons. There are hundreds of others who can testify to similar experiences. Fellow workmen, strike on these things, connect with God in this strike, and blessing and victory shall be yours.