Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-02-18
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT.

perance movement mt The last regular
meeting Of the Womau's club. Miss
Frances +. Willard told the story of the
first temperance meeting held in
the United States. II was in 1908 and
was gathering of teachers and preach
ers in country school-house in little
town near Saratoga N. Y. OF course,
no woman was present and Miss Will
lard thought IL doubtful il the gentle
men present even mentioned the subject
which they had under advisement to
their wives and daughters In 1886 a
national temperance convention was
held at Saratoga. At this convention
one woman was present Gov. Trum-
bel came down TO attend the convention
and was accompanied by his yonng
daughter Eliza. She went with her
father to the convention hall, and. al
though when she discovered that she
was the only woman present she want
ed to withdraw, her father insisted up
on her remaining.
Miss Willard spoke of the Woman's
Christian Temperance union as it now
existed, with a state or territorial
union in thirty-three states and terri
tories. as the result of the sober Sec
ond thought of the crusade. She said
that the movement had been a perfect
illustration of the law of gradual SIN,
and that the Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Union had been Obliged, as is
| each individual, to make its own exper-
fence. Seeing the man in the gutter. it
began with this terrible object lesson,
and for years it used all its efforts to
raise such from their wretched. unman-
ned state. After working with ali cour-
| age. zeal, and faithfulness for long
/ time in this direct on they found by
careful computation, that the proper
lion of those who s gned the pledge
who proved faithful to the obi CATION
they had taken were only about five
! oct of one hundred and fifty. 1t then
dawned upon them that the work which
| would be permanently effectual must
be prevention rather than cure. They
then began systematic work for chill
dren, first in the Sunday schools and
later in the pubic schools.
In speaking of the early work of the
| Nat onal union Miss Willard said that
the union then had but few hundred
dollars per YEAR at its command. but
now it disbursed many Thousand dol
lars a year, and also had a large and
thoroughly equipped publishing house
What has been done has been ac-
complished by wit, wisdom, good
| will, and an earnest endeavor TO show
/ why il WAS best 10 do certain things,
/ l.,vo v.nns,1n Nl,o.y -
like TO do them rather than by telling
them they must do them because of
their being right Theirs had both
been in aim and accomplishment a
work, not of segregation but of unifica-
ton. And the organ cation. in advo-
eating uncompromising prob billion.
had been actuated by the knowledg e
which experience and actual observa-
ton had given them, and that this
knowledge had made it seem TO them
that prohibition was the only course by
which to perform the duty of max ng
it easy for those about us TO do right"
Miss Willard further declared that she
believed any right-minded person, sub
| jcctcd 10 the same confluence of forces
which had operated upon them in their
work, would soon come to the same
| eonclus on.
In response TO the standing query,
does prohibition prohibits? she would
Bav does civil cation civiiize; does edu-
cation enl ghten; does religion Christ
iaaize, and does high license regulate?
| To get at the correct answer of ques-
| tons like these the trend of results
| must be taken, and the trend of prohib-
tion was most decidedly and incompar-
ably an improvement on any measure
| III re gard to intoxicants which had yet
been tested.
Miss Willard said that she was her
self constantly surprised at her in
finite power of not knowing things
| and she really did not see how it was
that It had taken her, and those work
Ing with her, so long 10 see that the
powerful strenth of the whisky evil was
IN its alliance with the government.
She had p purchased paper as she was
| coming 10 the club rooms to see the
price of whisky. If a year ago anyone
had told her that she would ever be
looking for the price of VIII sky she
| would have replied: "Is thy servant
d e q a. she should do such thing?'
but that now she was very interested in
/ tue pTlCe Oh WHISKY anu Inat sne nlQ
found that upon that day whisky was
81 05 per gallon, and that it was true
| that the government received 80 cents
of this amount. Here. then. was the
\ government, with an OVERLOOKING treas
ury, protecting and collecting an exor-
btant tax on that which was not only a
deadly evil to its citizens, but was not
wealth-producIng; only an Investment
Mss Willard approached the suffrage
question by saying that the National
union had not at first supposed they
could touch political questions even
with the tips of their fingers, but in
their evolution they had be, ONE OBJ
struction SITS. as it were, and they were
now looking forward to more direct
line of action in governmental affairs
| That they believed that nothing so
broadened and ennobled won rs
taking hold Of broad and enuobl ng
subjects. and that nationally entered
upon granting the suffrage to women
would tend to the upl fling of the race.
That the saloon interests feared the
ballot in the hand of women as did all
vicious interests, spoke volumes for it