THE WORKING MAN AND BREAD T'ERSES BEER. (To THE EDITOR
or THE " SPECTATOR.") Sra,-Doubtless there are many causes to account for the strange paralysis which affects the Government in the matter of Bread versus Beer, but one cause seems to find pretty general acceptance, and that is that the Government are afraid of the working man. Now the working man is not a species; he is not even a variety; he is merely the man who thinks out his work with his bead and carries it out with his bands, as distinguished from the man who plans work for other people with his head and does not use his hands. The working man has given his blood as freely in the service of the country as any other man. He has his home, his wife, his children, his affections, his hopes and fears, even his idealisms. If he is appealed to on the common ground of a common humanity lie responds as any other man will; but if he is treated as partly wild beast and partly civilized, and if a Parliament which refuses to give up its own liquor holds up its hand and says he is so unpatriotic that he cannot be expected to give up his, there is no
wonder he resents it. •
Is not our inveterate habit of treating men as classes and not as individuals at the root of most of our social and industrial troubles? Until we learn to get rid of this habit of mind, the source of which is pure class arrogance, we cannot expect to have peace either social or industrial, and we shall never be able to handle wisely questions like the Bread versus Beer question. I am convinced of this, that if the Government had two years ago gripped the liquor question courageously they would not only have saved the country much anxiety, but they would have found the working man just as loyal and patriotic and just as self-saarifieing as any other member of the community. Our food supplies would have been in an infinitely more satisfactory position, and not only would our men at the front have been fighting with as much courage as they are fighting at present, but they would have been sustained by a fine inspiration.-I am, Sir, &c., ANDREW LAW. Glasgow.
Previous page
