St. Landry democrat., 1890-07-26
Temperance Notes.

The Congressional hearing, June l4th
before the Senate Committee on Education
and Labor, and the House Committee on
the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic, on the joint
resolution proposing an amendment to the
Constitution of the United States to pro-
hibit "the manufacture, importation,
transportation, and sale of all alcoholic
liquors as beverage, was a momentous
affair in the history of the temperance
movement. Representatives of the several
national temperance organizations of the
country appeared together for the first
time before committees of Congress in ad-
vocecy of the National Prohibitory Amend
ment committee for Congressional work, a
committee consisting of the sneral officers
of the several national temperance socie-
ties which believe in absolute prohibition,
the general officers of the National Execu-
tive Committee of the Prohibition Party,
and of the Superintendent of Legislation
and Petitions of the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union.
Ada M. Bittenbender, President of the
Committee, made the first address, repre-
senting the National Woman's Christian
Temperance Union, of which she is the
Superintendent of Legislation and Petit
tions. She gave brief history of the
movement for National Constitutional
Prohibition, now fourteen years i'll exist
ence, and stated that petitions from more
than eleven millions citizens Of the United
States, praying for proposal of the amend
ment, have been presented in Congress
and none against it.
Able addresses were made also by sew
eral other temperance men and women.
The address of each one who spoke in
favor of proposal of the amendment: was
built up to show, in the language of the
Senate committee of last Congress in
reporting favorably on the joint resolution
that this evil (the liquor traffic. runs with
the blood throughout the whole system of
national life, and nothing but national
constitutional treatment will cure it,"
Louis Schade, editor of the Washington
Sentinel, was the last speaker and only
person who appeared in opposition to the
amendment. He is now ex-attorney of
the United States Brewers Association,
having been succeeded by Hon. A. P.
Fitch, Of New York, who represents in
Congress the thirteenth district of the
Empire State.
The notes of the hearing will be pub
lished by Congress. ANY person desiring
copy should address his or her Senator
or Representative in Congress for it. The
larger the demand, the larger the number
which will be printed. 1t will make a
most valuable document, and should have
vide circulation.
The day following the hearing, a mass
meeting was held at the National Capitol,
under the auspices of the National Prohib
tory Amendment Committee for Congress
sional Work, which was addressed by the
several speakers who appeared at the hear
ing, and by Hon. Henry w. Blair, United
States Senator from New Hampshire, au-
thor of the amendment and who has it in
charge in the Senate, and by Hon. ]. A.
Picker, congressman from South Dakota,
who has the amendment in charge in the
House of Representatives. Both of the
congressional leaders endorsed the 'Plan
of Canvass"
There are those who denounce the liquor
traffic as the heaviest drag upon progress,
and the deepest disgrace of the nineteenth
century, and seem to comprehend what
they say, yet do nothing, absolutely moth
ing, against it,