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Show MUST HAVE HIS BEER. Kind friends of the laboring men have for a great many years looked out for his inalienable rights and prerogatives. Among the theories advanced ad-vanced by his friends was that he must have his beer, and they proceeded to furnish it at so much per glass, all to the infinite profit of the friends and the infinite woe of the laborer. The saloon has been called the poor man's club, and it has been made to appear that this club contained one of the essential elements to happiness for the working man. And at election times we have been led to believe be-lieve that the liquor man held a kind of chattel mortgage on the worker's vote; that the labor vote was somehow or other pledged to the support of the whole business and the perpetuation of the poor man's club. Now these theories and beliefs have received a severe shock, and it is discovered unto men that laboring la-boring men are not a unit for the saloon. Instead, they are divided on the liquor issue. They have opinions of their own. on this as on about every other question, but the majority of them 'we believe be-lieve are for good government, morality and enlightened en-lightened ideals. And the result of the recent election elec-tion down at Birmingham, Ala., seem to indicate that a majority of them feel that they can dispense dis-pense with the poor man's club, so kindly provided by their friends for their well-being. Birmingham is one of the real live towns of Dixie. It was not on the map until long after the war, but in 1900 had a population of nearly 40,000, and in the years since that census has grown rapidly. rap-idly. It is a town of iron. Tremendous manufacturing manufac-turing enterprises there and in smaller towns tributary trib-utary to the city employ thousands and thousands of mill workers. Some of these workers are southerners, south-erners, some are northerners, but a large proportidn are of foreign extraction. Just about all the la-1 boring men of the city find employment in the mills. It would seem almost a cinch, therefore, that the right of the laborer to "get his beer" would not be infringed in such a community. That Birmingham Birming-ham and Jefferson county should vote "dry" by more than 2,000 was a very startling surprise, not only to the liquor interests, but as well to the prohibition pro-hibition forces. Here are laboring men throwing away their rights, and consternation reigns among their "friends." The tremendous and ever-growing force of the prohibition sentiment finds strength and encouragement encour-agement in the ranks of the laboring classes. The result of the vote in Birmingham is peculiarly gratifying grat-ifying to men whose lives have been spent among men who work for a living. No matter what personal per-sonal views one may have of temperance and prohibition, pro-hibition, the fact that laboring men in the southern city voted the saloon out of business must put a quietus on a lot of nonsense that the labor vote is one which may be controlled as a whole. No more impressive vindication of the laboring classes has recently come to hand. Laboring men think, more slowly perhaps than some others, but when thcy have a proposition thought out they know how to put that thought on the ballot. The vote in Jefferson Jef-ferson county, Alabama, shows the trend of public sentiment in regard to tfie liquor business. : u sentiment that is growing so rapidly th;it a! t;(, talk of "poor men's clubs," wherein the LiL-.:--r get his beer, cannot avail against if. Ar:l ?; -. most gratifying part of it all is that tin Li... -u in the forefront of the movement. |