Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-01-01
"HOme Protection"

our all to the conflict bring,
To conquer or die on the field
'Home Protection"
There is evolution in words. Old phrases
embalm history and new ones incarnate
progress. Stewards "lrrepressible Conflict
is an example of the first Home Protec-
tion"-the battle-cry of western temperance
women-is the latest illustration of the
second 1t is the nutshell argument for
the line of work which alone distinguishes
their methods from those of their sisters at
the east with whom they are linked in the
common enterprise of the Women's National
Christian Temperance Union. Their Off
cial journalistic organ is Our Union, the
literary outgrowth of the 'crusade.' 1t is
now five years since the era-beginning out
break in Ohio of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Crusade, which proved so CON
tagious that before three months had
passed, twenty states were enlisted in a
hand-to-hand conflict, that relied on prayer
and persuasion as its only weapons. That
crusade closed thousands of saloons and
emancipated from the liquor traffic entirely
though, alas but temporarily - over
three hundred towns. The figures of the
criminal record diminished by nine-tenths,
aud paupersm was decreased in like pro-
portion. The attendance in our public
schools largely increased. In one twenty
five children Of drunkards attended school
who had never done so before. There was
a falling off of tax receipts on intoxicating
liquors in Indiana and Ohio in February of
1874 (the crusade Year,, of three hundred
and sixty thousand dollars. One large dis
tillery fell off $3.50 per day. The manufac.
ture OF beer and ale in Cincinnati was $780,
600 less in February than in January of
that year, and the total United States
revenue of 1874 was fifteen millions less
than usual. ." Fifty years of eloquence and
law-making outweighed by fifty days of
faith and prayerl" Thus spoke the enthu-
siastic leaders, and they were justified in
making statement so extreme by what
they saw about them. Best of all, the
churches gained one hundred per cent. in
attendance; while prayer and hymn, Bible
lessons and tender invitations to "come to
Christ" were uttered to the erring and the
ignorant by the army Of Christian women
who in this blessed new war had "gone to
the front" 1t is well for us to recount this
heroic history once more as the 23d of
December, the fifth anniversary of the
crusade, draws near. Fitting it was that at
the recent Baltimore convention the two
hundred delegates from twenty states, en-
bracing all shades of Christian faith, from
Quaker to Episcopalian, united in the
agreement to celebrate this day with the
honors to which its memory is entitled. In
the five years since it dawned on a band of
seventy women of the church and fireside,
going forth to pray and plead in the saloons,
what hath God wrought for temperance in
America
But to the glowing picture we might paint
there is reverse side. The saloons that
were closed are opened once more-and why?
Because the laws of a Christian republic
make liquor-selling reputable. The tens Of
thousands who yearly since 1874 have been
reformed by efforts of the Women's Chris
tian Temperance Unions, have many of
them gone back to their cups-and why ?
Largely because, on every street corner, the
wide-open door OF the saloon, sheltered under
the egis of law, invites them back to the
old indulgence and the coveted comradeship.
Boys and young men in the slippery paths
of inexperience and the special danger OF
imagined strength are forming habits OF
drinking in far greater numbers than mod
crate and immoderate drinkers are form
ing habits of sobriety-and why Because
again, so long as the traffic in any com
modify is respectable (and in some states
nothing short of "a good moral character .
entities manly the law-to be a saloon
keeper y so long will it be respectable tc
buy and use that commodity. From al
these hard facts of experience the tenn
perance women OF Illinois have deducted &
very rational conclusion, namely: that they
use the great influence they are acquiring
over public sentiment to hasten the tim,
,.rba, bo li1uor trul abaIl l.a mi nn1ar ha
by the laws of Illinois. They have Otter
seen their whole years work on the mora
suasion line endangered or upset by th'
falseness to principle of the average vote
when election day came around. The.
have been taught "by the argument of de
feat that you must fight fire with fire
meet the enemy in his stronghold of powe
by overwhelming numbers and offset ba'
votes by good ones-if ever the liquor tratf
is to go down. Therefore, they are risin
up in the might of moral power and Chris
tian womanhood, and saying, son thi
question of license we want the ballot. w
ask it only on tbs one issue; as temperate
women we have nothing to do with othe
phases of the mooted question OF women
rights, and no matter what our privat
; opinions on the general question may be, W
do not bring them into this discussion
The ballot for Home Protection" so ia
as regards license or no license OF the gro
shop, merits the approval of all good mel
: They tell us that they like the phrase, an
are glad the petition for vote on IL
- license question bears the name of " Hon
Protection Petition"
Around this name will cluster new idei
concerning the mission of woman in Il
state. 1t has been said somewhere that ii
ballot is natural right; that whoever w
taxed ought to vote also that all men a
tyrants and all women slaves. The adv
Gates of " Home Protection" as we undt
stand them, make no such declaration al
: urge no such complaint. The outline
their argument is given in the petite
" which was printed last week, and which st
- forth that woman is the natural enemy
r. the saloon because of her instinct of Sc
preservation and her apprehension for
y, safety of her children, her tempted lov
ot ones aud her home. Every reasonat
'' man knows that this statement is true
women as class, and whatever may be
opinion as to the desirableness OF WON
an suffrage in general, he cannot deny its val
w. as a means Of " Home Protection in
to battle daily growing hotter, between Chl
be tianity and that gigantic crime OF crime
b. the rum power in America,-Frdnces
. Willard
,, GoD paralyze my arm, if ever lift it
cast a ballot in favor of the license