Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899: Volume LVVarious
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899: Volume LV
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
VI. REFUSAL OF EMPLOYMENT TO PERSONS KNOWN TO BE HABITUAL USERS OF
LIQUOR.--In two States--viz., New York and Ohio--clauses have been
introduced forbidding the employment by railways and other common
carriers of passengers, of persons known to be addicted to the use of
intoxicants. In the latter State the common carrier must be notified
that such person has been known to be intoxicated while in said
carrier's "active" employment, in order to bind the carrier with
knowledge. Such a provision as this may be criticised as the Czar of
Russia's proposition for a universal disarmament is likely to be
criticised--as admirable and millennial, but of no value if gradually
adopted, and impossible of instant adoption. No public industry, not
even the liquor industry, could cease and disappear in a day without
throwing tens of thousands of wage-earners out of employment, and it
would be hardship indeed if the family of the drinking man, the
toiling wife, scheming to save a morsel of the weekly wages from the
dram shop, should be forced to accept the alternative of no wages at
all. The suggestion presents, again, a maze of presumption from which,
once entered into, no practical exit would present itself. Supposing
that no skilled laborer, no finisher, no engineer, no oiler, no
fireman, etc., could be found who was a total abstainer for any one
factory or railway service, let alone a hundred or a hundred thousand
cases? Clearly this discussion could only be pursued as a curiosity
(or, say, a fascinating speculation as to the effects of an industrial
chaos). The first item in the recipe for making hare stew was to catch
your hare. To run our commerce with totally abstaining employees we
must find our totally abstaining employees. To pause to create them
would bring commerce, and with it society, including the churches, the
schools, and the Temperance Unions themselves, to a standstill like
that of Joshua's moon in Ajalon! In connection with this employment
question, however, a practical suggestion has been made. It is
suggested that, as Saturday night is the workman's "night off" and the
ensuing Sunday is his holiday, it might work well to make the weekly
pay-day of a Monday instead of a Saturday. The experiment is worth a
trial. The change could be made abruptly, and the bad half an hour to
the workman would occur but once. Let him be handed his wages some
Monday morning when the Saturday night's spree and the long Sunday's
headache had been novel and conspicuous omissions. The necessity of
good shape for Tuesday's stint would prevent a Monday night at the bar
room, and the probability is that the wife and family might realize a
substantial instead of a marginal proportion of the weekly wage. At
any rate, compared with some of the suggestions made for remedying the
drink evil, this is superbly sensible. Indeed, one who has not had
occasion to examine these matters can have little idea of the
absurdity to which otherwise perfectly sane persons will go in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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