The record-union., 1891-05-07
MRS. HOFFMAN AGAIN.
She Lectures on dykes" Liquor and
Social Evils.
The Expected Reference to Sacra.
mento Affairs Proves to BE
Unsensationa1.

The meeting opened with prayer by Rev.
Mr.. Stevenson. Her text was the story OF
| the dykes of Holland. The little kingdom
was subjected to disastrous inundations
from the German Ocean. After the
| English Channel was cleared of rocks
the Atlantic influenced the trespasses oi
the waters upon the lowlands, the hol-
low lands from which the name Holland
comes. When the sea was swept by
tempests the waters rushed in and de-
vastated fields, undermined houses and
sucked to their depths precious lives.
The people had used many devices to
avoid these ills, but none were effective.
At last they decided to build embank-
ments or dykes along the whole line OF
| The coast where the land was low. Then
arose four classes of obiectors to the
| enormous expense and hurculean under
! taking that was to require years of labor
and vast outlay: ]. Those who were such
practical people that everything must be
| demonstrated in advance of experiment.
These said it is not practicable; you
cannot build against the ocean; so we are
| opposed TO the scheme, but we have no
other remedy to propose" 2. Those who
! lived on high lands, remote from the sea.
! The waters never harmed them, so they
would not approve the plan. 3. \ class
of good people-sO good are these that
sometimes they are good for nothing
they did not propose to fight nature or
! meddle with the ocean. 1t was Gods
ocean, he held it in his hand and stayed
its waves; it would be impiOus to inter
fere. 4. The wreckers, whose business
/ depended upon the ravages of the ocean.
! They justified themselves by saying that
if they did not engage in the business
| somebody else would
But the people of Holland who suffered
! by the ocean went TO work and they won,
and to-day 800 miles of dykes keep out
the waves. They laid the foundations
deep and broad, and built up strong and
! firm. Against the superstructre they
! built a slanting wall, upon which the
ocean tempests beat in vain. But as
eternal vigilance is the price of security
as well as liberty they watch the dykes
when the storms rage, and even teach the
| boys and girls in all the land that if ever
! they see so much as a little trickling
thread of water coming through a wall
| to drop all else and run with utmost
speed and notify the nearest authority.
| The application of this recital was, with
much elaboration and earnest eloquence,
| as follows: The ocean is the world of in
! temperance, the traffic in liquor and all
its cOncomitant ills, beating against the
social structure and devastating fair
y,
wrecking hopes and swallowing up for
tunes, manhood and womanhood, inno-
cent children and babes, visiting disaster,
cost and all manner of evil upon COM
munities. The objectors to Interference
| by prohibition are, first, those who claim
that prohibition does not prohibit. She
replied that it does. as much as the law
against murder prevents unlawful kill =
ing. She cited the experiences of many
communities in defense of her PROPOSE
| ton.
The next class of obiectors are those
who are insensible to the evil of the liquor
traffic, are callous and careless and will not
help against it, who say ''let liquor alone
| and it will let you alone,n which she
denounced as a flagrant untruth. Third
the high-license people, ''who want to
regulate that which confesses no master
and never has been regulated She paid
much attention to this branch of the sub
ject, and especially to Thomas McCon-
nelHs speech before the Board of Super
viSOrs, as reported in the RECORD-U UNION:
but the arguments she advanced are all
subject to effective refutation. Fourth,
the wreckerS, those in the traffic, who
say, Under Government protection we
have invested and spent large sums, and
! now you propose that Government shall
destroy all the work of our hands'-a
plea, she confessed, that had some
weakly done in the first instance as the
! tratiickers claim. She devoted consider
| able attention to the social evil, and
charged that Christian men" do not
make due effort to save youth of both
sexes from ruin.
In the course of her exposition of the
| four divisions of her discourse she dealt
freely in statistics compiled by DR..
Moore of San Francisco, an insurance
statistician. Thus, comparing Iowa with
California, she quoted these figures: Cali
fornia-Population, 1,204, 600; convicts,
2,057. Iowa-Population 1,906,739 con-
victs, 6O4. Maine-Population $4,000;
convicts, $50. Commitments in San
! Francisco to Jail awaiting trial mot
| police prisons), LIS persons in 1890; in
| all Iowa in $780, 1913.
The speaker referred only briefly to
the charge that was made by a Ventura
editor, whom she denounced as irrespon-
sible and worse, concerning remarks
attributed to her about Sacramento and
the private-entrance saloons. She did
did not repeat the charge or recite the
| alleged remarks, but contented herself
with saying that great pother had been
kicked up about the matter. Suisse
quently she said that not half the truth
had been told about the evils of intem-
perance and prostitution in cities, and
she doubted not that Sacramento could
be included. She looked upon Omaha
as the modern Sodom, as to debauchery
| of youth, intemperance, and gave some
startling statistics and statements as to
social evils in that place. She suggested
that Sacramento might in the matter OF
some evils be its equal, for she held a
handful of extracts from Sacramento
papers records of horrible crimes and
great misery and woe in this city due to
the triad of evils, Liquor, prostitution
and gambling"
Her argument was that it is neither good
policy, nor in the interest of good gov
ernment to conceal evils afflicting COM
munity. She believed the right way is
to speak out boldly and tell the truth
concerning all ills in a city, to make nc
concealments whatever. She went ex-
tensively in statistics and recital of facts
to show how in the rural sections and
lesser towns of Missouri, her State, the
| saloon influence has been greatly less
ened, and where high license is made eff
fective because the prohibition or local
option feature there connected with it
| that is the requirement that may be made
thata majority of taxpayers of the village
or district must sign petition for the
establishment of a saloon. The courts
had held there that women who pay taxes
are to be counted among taxpayers, and
so all the women get upon the assessment
roll and thus control.
In conclusion, she believed the time
was very near at hand when the dykes
would be put up and the ocean of the
liquor traffic kept out of the homes of the