The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1885-01-23
TEMPERANCE.
THE TEMPERANCE LEAGuE.

HE TEMPERANCE LEAGUE.
A Broad. Unsectarian and bipartisan Or
ganization--Its Name, objects and Meth
eds.
Last week there was organized in
Boston society which we hope and
believe viii have long and wide reign
of usefulness. 1t is designed to oppose,
in every proper and effective way, the
sale and use of intoxicating drinks.
The time has come when the power and
resources of the rum interests are better
understood and more accurately meas
ured than they used to be; and out Of
the mistakes and failures of the past
has come, at least to many minds, the
conviction that the evil can not be over
thrown by any one scheme or party,
but must be antagonized by many meth
DDS and by united force The folly of
friends falling out and fighting each
other, because Of difference of opinion,
has been illustrated again and again;
but the oft-enforced lesson is learned
slowly, and the liquor dealers have
proiited by this obtuseness OF their foes.
The National Temperance League,
which has been organized by DR..
Dorchester. whose recent book on the
''Drink Question is a mine of cor
rect information, DR.. Edward Everett
Hale. Ex-Governor Long and other
solid reformers of Massachusetts and
other States, is the only National Tenn
peranee Association, except of women,
which is broad, unsectarian and I'M
partisan, and it ought to spread speedi-
" into every State in the Union. What
has been accomplished by the Women S
National Christian Union for sobriety
and society it would be impossible to
compute. If there has been any other
organization which has done as much
we can not name it. The National
Temperance LeagUe-league is very
fit and expressive word for such an or
ganization will be in some sense a
complement to the Women's Union, as
its members are chiefly. though not
wholly, of the other sex. Both men
and women are among its officers, Of
whom the following list is given:
President, Rev. D. Dorchester, D. D., OF
Natick; General Secretary, Mrs. j. Ellen
Foster; Recording Secretary, Rev. A. H
Plumb, D. D., of BOSTON, Treasurer, Hon
Joseph D. Weeks, of Pittsburgh; Directors
the officers and Hon. Oliver Hoyt, of Con
necticut; Lewis Miller, of Ohio: J. V. Far
well, of Illinois: Rev. Il. e. Hale D. D., Mrs
Mary A. Liyermore and Mrs. G, S. Prescott, Of
Massachusetts, and Mrs. Annie Wittenmyer
of Pennsylvania.
The platform of the League is broad
ana strong. We give three Of the arti-
cles of the constitution.
" ART. I. The name of this organization
shall be The National League mon. partisan
and non-sectaranl for the Suppression of the
Liquor Traffic
CART Ill Objects: l. The enforcement Of
laws against the liquor traffic. 2. The with
drawal of legal sanction from the liquor
traffic >. The suppression of the liquor
traffic. 4. Our ultimate purpose is, by consti
tptional and statutory provisions, to banisl
the liquor traffic from the land.
" ART ~. Methods: Discarding partisan
entanglements we announce our sole pur
pose to be the suppression of the liquor
traffic; and for this we propose: 1. Tc
create and intensity public sentiment, by the
pulpit, the platform and the press. 2. To edu
cate the young, in the public schools and else
where, as to the nature and effects of alcoholic
liquors 3. To use all legitimate civil legisla
ton, and to refer the question, for final decis
ion to the constitutional verdict of the people
We invite persons of all classes. creeds
p1rueS ana states 10 unite on this platform
and work ana vote against the liquor traffic
without exposing the cause with its varied in
terests to the schemes of personal politician;
and heperils OF party politics.
On such a platform as this all VINO
hate the rum traffic and love sobriety,
peace and good morals, can work in
harmony. In some States and com
munities the most that can be done al
nreSont is tO nnfOrcn rnctrictiVn To- VIC. IN
others, Local Option and Constitutional
Prohibition are feasible. But every
where there is great work to be done
in cultivating public sentiment, the
ultimate aim being suppression, com
plete Constitutional suppression, so that
the liquor traffic will become as dead as
the slave traffic.
We greet the League, on this the
centenary of the Temperance Reforma-
ton in this country. It's motto might
very appropriately be that of John
Wesley, slightly altered: II want a
league offensive and defensive with
every friend of Temperance" We
trust that Dr. Dorchester's suggestion
of celebration this year of the centen-
airy of Temperance reformation, as in
augurated by Dr. Rush's labors, and
particularly by his celebrated essay on
The Effects of Ardent Spirits on the
Human Mind and Body" will be carried
out.-M 7. independent.