Blue-grass blade. [volume] (Lexington, Ky.) 188?-19??, 1891-02-21
MISS WTLLARD'S WORDS.
GEMS FROM HER ANNUAL ADDRESS
TO THE NATIONAL W. C. T. U.

rrs and wageworkcrs In lee support.
Among the many good things said by
Frances T.. Willard in her annual adj
dress to the national convention Of the
w. G. 7. u. the following are of special
interest:
The Republican and Democratic plat
forms have both been strangely silent ON
the Prohibition question this fall II is
the ominous hull before storm. AS said
Judge East, Of Tennessee, ave have
two parties every plank in whose plat
form is either slippery elm OF dogwood."
| The president of the United States
senate, JohuJ. ingalls,, Of Kansas, makes
| this declaration.
Politics has no place for the deca-
| logue or the golden rule. All is fair in
| politics. The publication of politics Is
an iridescent dream"
, Beer and Doodle are partners today in
both big parties for none is great except
the littlVProhibition party.
The party Of reform is marshaling its
| lcgions. Wait for the wagon, the solid
old farm wagon, and we'll all take u
ride. The farmers are our natural allies.
They have never yet led the country IN
anything but good. They and the WON
EN- are homes chief defense today against
| the dram shop. A farmers daughter
and proud of the name, 1 stretch out
sisterly hand, on your behalf, to the
Farmers Alliance everywhere. Who
knoweth if they and we be come unto
the kingdom for such time as this?
With an undoubted majority in the
present congress, and controlled by
Republican administration, this is the
condition Of things at the national cap
ital
With civil service reform throttled.
$4,000 postmasters having been appoint
ed in a little over one year Of the pres
ent administration; the Blair bill, to
which the national Republican party
was pledged, defeated in the senate
which had already adopted it twice
over; with liquor sold in the Capitol:
with The New York Tribune declaring
that "the Republican party, as a party.
is squarely committed to high license;"
with Nebraska lost to Prohibition by at
least $1,000 majority, the outlook is not
brilliant.
No leaders have more bitterly opposed
Prohibition than Republican leaders in
Nebraska We can hope nothing from
them. and we can hope nothing from
Democratic leaders as class.
If in. the presence of facts like these
white ribbon women did not speak out
for the only national party that has de-
clared against the liquor traffic we
should be unworthy of this crisis hour
in our country's history; if the home
people did not speak, well might the
very stones cry out. Brain poisons at
the republics Capitol brain poisons
sold under the starry dome and in per-
mitted violation of the laws that con-
gress has promulgated! Could degra-
dation go further? But alas, the expla-
nation is that the brains of the men who
make our laws are muddled with the
very liquors against which public senti-
ment has obliged them to declare. The
priest and the prophet Of our nations
temple are out of the way.
Solemnly let the Woman's Christian
Temperance union say on its knees,
"Then arose l, Deborah, mother in
Israel" and if we are true to God we
shall live to hear this land ring with the
song of victory from Deborah and Barak
over the slain Sisera of the saloon, cat
her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down:
at her feet he bowed, he fell; where he
bowed there he fell down dead"
The thraldom of the liquor power,
cursing us all alike, has made us brothers
and sisters Of common sorrow and u
common hope. Why may we not here
help to plan the great campaign whose
guns are ballots and whose bullets are
ideas? Why may not the sacred cause
of Prohibition, for which your Grady
fought, become one with that great
cause Of fraternity for which he, fight
ing, fell? Nay, brothers, TO this COM
plexion it must come at last.
Temperance men north and south must
not cancel each others ballots; Christian
men must not upon election day keep
company they would disown ON any
other. Every bruiser, every burglar,
every betrayer of woman votes against
Prohibition; Christian men must cease
to vote with them; to do this they must
come out from among them, and be sep
choose the better part their partnership
will mean party! If that party is not
fit to be prayed about in church then
let us gather as did the early Metho-
dists, under Gods great sheltering sky,
and do our praying there.
1t has been said that between tenn
perance society and political party
there could be no common denomination;
but claim that in the mathematics Of
this great reform these two fractions can
be reduced TO a denomination common
to both, and that is, God in government.
We meet upon new battle fields; At
lanta's struggle for anti-slavery has been
glorious-the anti-slavery of Prohibition.
Georgia is SO true to this cause that
could her voters stand up and be counted
the undoubted majority would be for
temperance. We are here to declare be-
fore high heaven in the city where
Henry Grady fought for Prohibition.
near the church in which he worshiped
God, and at whose altar his coffin so
lately lay, that Atlanta shall not be ell
shaved by the saloon that Georgia shall
be free; that the republic shall have
national Prohibitions; that the world
shall trample its brain poisons into the
dust, Hand in hand, eye TO eye, heart
to heart, and ON our knees, we women Of
the north and south, east and west
solemnly swear eternal enmity TO al
cohol; we are for Prohibition by law,
Prohibition by politics, Prohibition by
woman's ballot, SO help us, Almighty
iod.