LABOUR'S FURROW.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 29 November 1916, Page 3

LABOUR'S FURROW.

j (To the Editor.) i Sir, -No cno ,so far appears xo hare ' thought it worth their while to reply I to "ilonest Sceptic JS'o. 2" (that litI t'e eimii.itl-on in lasti Wednesday's | Chronicle), yet the whole of it bristles I with iiil aei.s which should not go en- ! fci.rely nucha lh nged. Thus " Soeptic" : | "Though some labour men may not be J drinkers anil .smokers a greater part iol them arc." That may be near the truth as regards smoking. As t> drinking, it i.s not true. What is true is that if man's economy of vital force is heavily taxed by an exhausting daily task it produces a craving tor stimulants, which ai some cases is imperative and overpowering. Xo doubt in some cases the craving is due to hcre.iit.v, but among hard workers the chief causes are mono-tony and exhausting toil. Take a "teetotal' agitator in his confident egotism; put him in a gravel pit with a standard pick and shovel, at bushfellmg, in the coalmine, or in the stuffy hold of a ship handling poisonous chemicals and weighty parcels all day long and every day for (say) live years. It will be found that by that time, if not before, he will either take an occasional pot of ale, have a smoke, chew, or do all three; and think himself lucky if lie stops short of excess, as most workers do. The writer will at 1 once admit the truth that a worker witli a clear head and! of methodical habits is worth two with a bemuddled brain. 'He also fully realizes that men brutalised with excessive dlrink are a hin 'erance to their organization and worse than useless as a progressive unit. "Dr 11k steals thy bran away," says Shakespeare. Hav/ing admitted that fact, 1 part company witli ''Seppt't'" as to the causes and remedy! thereof. His letter shows that one may be teetotal and yet be up in the clouds and come a great deal .short) of requirements. The trades union, its 'agitators', its labour parties are of the working class, just as it is. With all its faults, with all its virtues (teetotal or not), of sumiry religious denomination, or no denomination—'are just men and women—the more intelligent workers in the nation. "Sceptic" says: While the labour men hobnob with the liquor monopoly all their efforts will go far naught, etc. Good. But if the labouring men hobnob with the teetotal party, what then ? What will ihe get? Judging by the past, he ' will be sold to the Tories? So in any case the "labouring" man is between the devil and the deep blue wave. "Sceptic's philosophy is that: the labouring man should not eljaim -firom the capitalist more, nor squeal when his teetotal boss or iVloderate -League bow squeezes anything from five "to five hundred l per cent profit on his family's necessities. He should savo his drink and tobacco money and so become' rich. That is a very ancient and long-expladedi bubble. The Tu-r----k jlih and Indian labourers are the most strictly teetotal and yet the most impoverished human worms on the planet. The labour man's policy is to side with neither the Moderate

League or with Teetotalism. He will plough his own ilurrow cf economic improvement, irrespective of side issues which, always land him "in the soup." It will aim at gathering within itself the more broad-minded! and humane in both sides, and to fight the reactionary remnants of both sides—l am, etc., HOPEFUL.