[TO THE EDITOR OE THE " SPECTATOR.")
SEE,—I have never ceased to feel grateful to you for your article of November 6th on the drink question. A short time ago I was on a visit to a large Midland town where much work is being done day and night for the Ministry of Munitions and the Admiralty. When speaking with the manager of a large steel-works, he explained to me how the increased scale of wages, and the greater facility for spending in drink, were working against both the Government, the employers, and the employed. They run their mills all night, and to work certain sections, eight men are required for each mill, and if only one man is absent—as is frequently the case through drink—the other seven men cannot work, as, owing to enlistment, there are no reserves of men with technical knowledge to call up In such a case. The consequent loss to the Government and the export trade, therefore, for one night is eleven tons of steel. While the Government demand for steel is so enormous, it is greatly affecting our exports abroad, and drink, in such cases, is the cause of the increasing difficulty of keeping up the output. I was told by the gentleman in question that round the works there are twenty low-class public-houses, The following morning at 9.30 I saw a man and a woman entering one of these ; he had an empty bottle sticking out of his pocket, and the result con be imagined. What a boon prohibition would be to such a neighbourhood, for the men themselves would benefit the most if such a law were passed. If the Cabinet had allowed Mr. Lloyd George to carry out the drastic proposals which, a while ago, he is believed to have desired, it would have proved the groat act of his life, and it would have been for England—a new birth. I am not writing as a temperance man, but simply as one who saw fit to follow the King's example of abstinence, and deplore the fact that the Members of Parliament, and thousands of other men of light and leading, have not done the same. How can we expect to win the war if sacrifices of all kinds are not made ?—I am, Sir, &a., S.
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