The Portland daily press., 1890-10-03
MRS. FOSTERS ADDRESS.
A Strong Plea for Nom Partisansh hip
In Temperance work.
Her Remarks Heard by Large and
Appreciatiye Audience.

There was a large and appreciative audi
ence at the First Baptist church last evening
to hear Mrs j. Ellen Fosters address upon
"Non-partisan Christian Temperance
Work" The pastor, Rev. DIR. Small, read
the 146th Psalm and offered prayer, and then
w. II. Looney, ESQ.,, introduced the speaker
with these words:
When we consider the appalling evils of
| the liquor traffic, that it is responsible for
| fOur-fifths of our poverty, seven-eighths of
our or me, and large proportion of our
disease, vice and wrong, we must admit that
there is no other channel through which
flows such depths of misery over the human
race as this.
To do everything in his power to extirpate
this Infamous traffic, to favor only such leg
islation as will prohibit it, and to vote only
for officials who will effectively and impair
TALLY enforce such laws is, believe, the du-
ty of every patriotic citizen.
10 listen to mastery, scholarly and logi-
| cal discussion Of this pertentous evil must
| ever be moral pleasure, and intellectual
treat. Such Will be the presentation of the
brave, eloquent and able advocate whom
now have the pleasure of Introducing to you,
| Mrs. j. Ellen Foster of Iowa.
Mrs. Foster gave resume OF the temper
ance reform. bringing it down to the move
ment of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Association. We were almost a nation of
drunkards. Nearly everybody drank. Min
listers, speaking divine truths, went to their
pulpits with the smell of alcohol tainting
their breaths. Then few awoke to the
realization that alcohol was bad. Then
came total abstinence for its own sake. The
| Washingtonian movement in 1910 was fol-
lowed by that introduced by Father Mathew.
Then came the Good Templar organizations
which have spread all over the civilized
world, and lastly the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union. The speaker detailed
the history of that organization in religious
and educational lines, speaking in terms of
great admiration Of these lines of work,
while deploring the departure of the society
into partisan controversy. When engaged In
the work of the Woman's Christian TEMPER
ance Union, she put her Repubicanism and
her Methodism in her pocket, and worked
only as Christian in the cause of temper
ance.
She then gave logical and strong recital
why the Woman's Christian Temperance
| Union should not alloy itself with any politi-
cal party. 1t hurts us in our relation to the
churches. Men have gone to the church to
hear temperance lecture, and heard the
relative merits of the candidates disc used
| instead
Mrs. Foster read an extract from the Port
land Herald, the organ of the Third Party
from Good Templar, who pro bobby voiced
the opinion of hundreds of good templars
throughout the state when he said he be-
lieved that the work of the temperance man
should be wholly non-partisan. For the
stand Mrs. Foster has taken on this subject
she said she had been vigorously assailed By
the partisan members of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, and her tenn
perance and Christian principles have been
called in question. And in defining her posi-
lion she had been Kissed by women calling
themselves Chr istians.
Mrs. Foster left on the midnight train for
Boston on her way West, and she will speak
in Chicago Sunday.