Litchfield enquirer., 1879-08-14
The Temperance Vote.

The extract from Miss Wilard's address, published Tn recent number of the Independ- ent, which will be found on cur outside pages, l is well deserving the careful perusal of every friend of Temperance. Its chief value lies in
 the thorough way in which it1explodes the
 shadowy theory of woman's indirect influence
 in politics. Miss Willard's speech is not r,ere
 talk; it is history. It is the history of Tem-
 perance in the West after the Crusade
 Finding that they could not put any perma- nent check on rum m-selling by praying with and for the rum-seller, the women whose terrible earnestness was proved by the Crusade have
 been trying to make prohibition effective.
 Hitherto they have tried in vain. Men drink too much liquor themselves they are too little in earnest in Temperance faith or practice. to accomplish much in that way. That much can be effected, Miss Willard argues with great force Gin an earlier part of her address than the portion we have copied), from the success of prohibition in Maine. In other states, as she believes, the total abstinents are in such a small and dlsheartened minority that they seem able to accomplish little at the polls. It has, therefore, been thought best by earnest Temperance women who have no desire for universal woman suffrage to petition for the ballot on temperance questions. It is the his tory of this recent movement in the State of Illinois which Miss Willard gives in her Wood stock address.
 It began with immense petitions, signed by hundreds of thousands of Illinois people to the legislature of that State, for the passage of an act allowing women to vote on the question of temperance. On going up to Springfield they were surprised to find politics and the liquor interest combined against them. They were also surprised to find that the legislature was utterly obtuse to mere moral suasioa, but keenly sensitive to any indication of popular feeling on the part of the voters. They found them disinclined to do anything for Temper ance simply because such seemed the predom- inant view among their constituents They acknowledged, indeed, that there was cer- tain minority of Temperance voters, but these were men soho Gl,oays voted the reguAar Repu6- Jean ticket when election day cane and the politician could afford to disregard their wish- es. The liquor interest, however, was not to be dealt with in any such way. It controlled great body of voters and could ruin polti- cally any man, OF set of men, who attacked it, Where, asked one of the politicians with whom these ladies consulted, are the men who passed the Illinois Local Option law Shelved, every one of them! They had been dropped by the politicians because they were rendered una- vailable ny their temperance votes. The li- quor interest had forced the election of pliable fellows in their stead, who would risk nothing for Temperance. or any other principle. A winter of frutless effort taught even the most conservative of these ladies the lesson that there is no such thing as influence in politics with out votes; that If Illinois women wanted Ten perance they had only to get the ballot first, and then Temperance would follow of it's own accord
 We would ask of our own readers whether Temperance here in Connecticut can place any firm reliance on the male vote? Is Illinois the only American State where Temperance men vote the party ticket regardless of It's infuenoe on Temperance? Knowing as we all do that there are many more total abstinent women than total abstinent men, can we hope much for Temperance in politics till those women are allowed to vote.