nditions,
Jonathan. But the Socialists, while they adopt this position, do not
mistake results for causes. They know from actual experience that
Solomon was right when he attributed intemperance to ill conditions.
Hunt out your Bible and turn to the Book of Proverbs, chapter 31,
verse 7. There you will read: "Let him drink and forget his poverty,
and remember his misery no more."

That is not very good advice to give a workingman, but it is exactly
what many workingmen do. There was a wise English bishop who said a
few years ago that if he lived in the slums of any of the great
cities, under conditions similar to those in which most of the workers
live, he would probably be a drunkard, and when I see the conditions
under which millions of men are working and living I wonder that we
have not more drunkenness than we have.

A good many years ago, "General" Booth, head of the Salvation Army,
declared that "nine-tenths" of the poverty of the people was due to
intemperance. Later on, "Commissioner" Cadman, one of the "General's"
most trusted aides, made an investigation of the causes of poverty
among all those who passed through the Army shelters for destitute men
and women. He found that among the very lowest class, the "submerged
tenth," where the ravages of drink are most sadly evident, depression
in trade counted for much more than drink as a cause of poverty. The
figures were:

Depression in trade 55.8 per cent.
Drink _and Gambling_ 26.6 per cent.
Ill-health 11.6 per cent.
Old Age 5.8 per cent.

Even among the very lowest class of the social wrecks of our great
cities, who have long since abandoned hope, depression in trade was
found to count for more than twice as much as drink and gambling
combined as a producer of poverty.

That is in keeping with all the investigations that have ever been
made in a scientific spirit. Professor Amos Warner, in his valuable
study of the subject, published in his book, _American Charities_,
shows how false the notion that nearly all the poverty of the people
is due to their intemperance proves to be when an intelligent
investigation of the facts is made.

Dr. Edward T. Devine, of Columbia University, editor of _Charities and
the Commons_, is probably as competent an authority upon this question
as any man living. He is not likely to be called a Socialist by
anybody. Yet I find him writing in his m