The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1885-02-27
Temperance Reform.

The following is the substance of an adj
dress delivered by Joshua L.. Baily, of
Philadelphia, before a conference on TEN
perance, in charge of the Committee of
Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, which
was held at Green Street Meeting House
on Jan. 23d. 1885. We find it in the
Friends journal.
Intemperance is a great vice, and the
liquor traffic a great crime-the one sis-
tanning and stimulating the other. Hand
in hand they block all the avenues of ma
terial prosperity, and interpose the chief
barrier to social. moral and religious adj
vancement. 4
presume that in such a congregation as
this. there will be no difference of opinion
as to the personal duty of total abstinence.
Perhaps we will also agree in this. that the
liquor traffic must be suppressed. But we
may not altogether agree as to the meas
ures to be adopted for this suppression.
Going back some thirty years we may
remember how the opponents of slavery
were divided in opinion as to the means
by which that great evil was to be re-
moved. Some were for immediate and I'M
conditional emancipation, others advocated
1rddudl emancipation, and most unfortu-
nately these two branches of the anti-slav-
cry forces spent a large part of their time
and strength and means in warning against
each other.
1t is cause of congratulation that i'll the
great temperance movement OF to-day there
are no such marked differences or animos-
tiles. On the contrary, there is a great de-
gree of harmony and cooperation. OF
course the advocates of temperance are not
agreed in every particular. independence
in judgement and some freedom in action
must be looked for. and this will work no
wrong in any direction, so long as we eX-
ercise towards others opinions the same
federation we claim for our own, and keep
steadily before us not so much the means,
as the great end in view. : =
Much has been said lately about over
production. There is complaint not only that
there is a great surplus in the products of
the loom and the forge, but there is even an
unwelcome surplus in the products of the
field-as though the Lord of the harvest"
had made a mistake in blessing us too
that our present troubles are the results of
over-production. They are rather the results
of under-consumption. Let me illustrate:
We spent last year very nearly 5000, 900,
900 for strong drink-and only about $780,
600. 600 for bread. Nine hundred millions
for strong drink, and less than five hun
E bred millions for all the fabrics of cotton
and wool.
If this vast sum of money now worse
than wasted on strong drink could he used
in buying bread for the hungry and cloth
, ing for the naked and in supplying the va
rious necessaries and comforts of which
tens of thousands stand III need to-day. there
would be found no over-production to
complain OF. Idleness and dependency
would give place to thrift and chcerfulness.
f the wheels of would no longer
: stand still, every silent loom would be
started up to meet the demand for goods.
and every anvil would ring with the mu-
: sic of industry.
, If only the money which is pa id over the
bars Of the saloons in this city on the First
day of each week, in defiance of law, could
be turned from that channel to the relief of
the needy. it would feed and clothe comfor-
tably for all the year round, all the poor OF
: the city. 1t would provide for all the in
habitants of the almshouse. all the children
in your orphan asylum, it would supply
D the Union Benevolent and the home mis-
sionary society and the society for organ
lied charity it'll all the money needed for
4 their benoficent purposes, and in a thous-
, and households would supplant poverty
e and wretchedness with gladness and com
: fort and plenty.
e You know what a splendid railway sys-
: tenn we have in the United States. There
n is no state, indeed scarcely n county. not
Q traversed by one or more railways. You
can scarcely get beyond the sound of the
locomotive i'll any settled portion of the
n country.
t This system employs six thousand mil
lions of capital and gives labor to hundreds
of thousands of men, but all the net reve-
II nues of this vast system during last year.
We're less than a third the sum we spent for
strong drink.
In Philadelphia we have about 5000 sa-