The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1874-06-05
REFORMS.
To THE EDIToE or THE NEW NORTHWEST:
Those engaged in the Woman Suffrage

way for the present ''crusade" in our
country against intemperance. And
now, by the aid Of Providence, we may
soon look for clearing-out of whisky
shops
Though great moral reforms can not |
be brought about in day, yet they will
come.
Even in the agricultural department
the introduction of machinery to relieve
the labors of man has often been diff
cult. Was it not quite an innovation
to use horse power in reaping the vast
fields Of grain in our country? And just
so as to most of the Improvements that
have been introduced from time to time
in the land. But how much more diff
cult to bring about moral reforms
Old prejudices are like the everlasting
hills, aud yet they may be leveled down,
and the mountains may be tunneled.
Woman Suffrage and Temperance are
the great questions of the age. Woman
in savage life is slave, with privileges
scarcely above the brute creation. Moth
ers in heather countries mourn when
their offspring is Of the doomed portion
Of their race. No ray of light is found
to penetrate the dark cells Of their deg
radiation; hence life is burden-they
have nothing to live for. But Christi
anity has always been woman's special
friend. Wherever the Bible is read,
and God worshiped, woman is elevated;
she is allowed to sit at the table with
her family and to entertain her guests
as she may see proper. In youth she
studies and reads in the same books
with her brothers, enjoys equal privi-
leges, and may aspire to the greatest
nights of scholastic fame. AS Christi
anity obtains, she ventures to join in
the songs Of praise in the great congre-
CATION and at the same time she bark
ems to the cry of suffering and pleads
with her Government until asylums
and hospitals are established; and, when
necessary, she mingles with the wounded
and dying on the battlefield. She
soothes the sorrows of the aged, takes
the hand of the orphan and cheers his
young heart, while passing the dreary
route through q cold and uncharitable
world and yet she is not fully armed
I for usefulness. In order to bless her
/ race, she needs the Jdllot-she must hare
the ballot. This subject, both in Eng
land and America, is engaging the at
/ tention of the wlsest men and greatest
statesmen. This is the outgrowth of
Bible freedom, and as the cause Of Christ
advances, so will the reforms Of Woman
Suffrage and Temperance become popu-
lar. The friends of this cause are intel
ligent. Four-fifths Of them are said to
be Church-members, and large number
are ministers of the Gospel, who are
men of great piety and learning.
A fearful struggle is at the door. In
temperance is rampant throughout all
this land. Legalized by legislative bod
les, it whets the assassin's dagger, breaks
the heart of the drunkard's wife, starves
the helpless children, corrupts our courts
of justice. And who shall stay its raw
ages? Our only hope is to trust in God
and give woman the ballot. / ask, who
( feels the pangs of intemperance more
than the drunkard's wife? Hear that
mothers groans as she looks out upon
her dissolute son engulfed in ruin See
that daughter with manteled face,
ashamed of her fathers fall Could
/ they have the ballot, how quickly would
they close up the rum-shops throughout
all the land This Temperance reform
has already acquired prominence that
cannot be blotted out. Our country is
/ intensely excited on the subject, and as
! that cause goes forward, so will that of
Woman Suffrage. The clouds that
! thicken around us indicate a gathering
storm that may shake this Nation to its
very center. The friends Of Temperance
have suffered much and long. They
now call upon their God to aid them;
and who or what Nation can stand
against the God of the Universe {?
Hence, politicians and statesmen, while
they quake and tremble, must fall into
line and aid in this great moral reform
for the good Of their country.
The Crusaders all over this country
are doing great work. Certainly it is
an honor to be one of their number, and
while there are but thousands engaged
in this department directly, there should
be millions of women ready to take up
their cross, and millions more of men
to pray and furnish money to carry on
this work. This is OF God, and He will
sustain it by His power. But what
would the Crusaders have done had not
Woman Suffrage prepared the way by
constant agitation Of the fact that
woman is mans equal? This fact
before the people has made it much
easier for the women to engage in this
glorious reform than it would have been
twenty years ago. The people are now
educated to believe that woman can dc
something, and hence the Crusaders are
are finding it much to their advantage
in their present labors of love. The
time was when it was thought impossi.
ble to cross the Continent on the iror
horse, but the hills were graded, the
mountains were tunneled, and the shril
voice Of the locomotive was heard in th,
distance, as, to the astonishment of all
he came snorting across the Continent
TO bathe his forehead in the waters o