The Press., 1892-09-08
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
why I Am A Prohibitionist.

character and principles. About the year 1851, when I was twelve years old, my father came home to the old farm in Wis vile the newspapers, of which he was devotee, and said: "Well, Neal Dow has had his way. There is prohibition in the state of Maine. No man can now sell in- toxicating liquor without making himself criminal" As he was legislator and politician, too, my father took @ very practical view of this subject, and as he walked back and forth in the old kitchen he said to my mother: "When do you suppose our poor, rum-cursed Wisconsin will have law like thatp" My mother looked up from her sewing, and quietly observed: "When aoonaen 0ote." Seated at table with book was Ia chiel amang you, takin' notes''-"A little pitcher with large ears." Two principles then and there took root in my impressionable mind first, that there ought to be law against saloons; second, that the vote of women could be used to bring about such law.
 Years passed on, during which heard but little, comparatively, about the tenn eerance question. My home was alto gether sheltered from the evils of drink. We lived in an isolated fashion, and were wholly preoccupied with studying the book of nature and the printed page. When was fifteen years old my father said, looking up from his church paper, The Northwestern Christian Advocate "Our Methodists have started a univer- sity in a suburb of Chicago, called Evans ton, and have got a charter for it, which says that anybody selling intoxicating drink within four miles of the institution shall foI felt the title deed to his land. I believe that is the place we want to go to educate our children" Three years later this thought was carried into execution, and at the age of eighteen became Q resident of a strictly prohibition town, where have now had my abode for thir- ty-four years.
 It has been my observation that pro- hibition law, even in close proximity to one of the greatest and most alcohol stricken cities of the globe, Is sufficiently well enforced to throw a guarantee and safeguard around the homes of the peo- pie, so that sifted class comes to dwell here. From the first, Evanstonians have The university has smaller percentage of drinkers and tobacco users than can be found in almost any other institution of equal size. There has never been a saloon or hotel bar or a public billiard hall in Evanston. That there is some it. licit sale, we know, and beyond the four mile limit the traps are set on every side, but the enforcement of the law is, on the whole, excellent. Our officers favor en- forcement; our citizens insist upon it the w. c. T. U. keeps up the education of public sentiment year in and year out our white-ribbon kindergarten trains forty or fifty little people from the least protected homes in the way of total ab- stinence; the temperance textbook is in our public schools; temperance meetings are often held, and we have some pastors who believe it to be their duty to preach often and boldly on the sin of liquor drinking, liquor making, and liquor sell ing. Rev. Dr. H. A. Delano stands in the forefront of those who take this view of pastors christian duty. An over whelming majority of our population would cast their ballots to sustain the law, if 1t should ever come into question, but there Is no controversy whatever on the subject. Real estate men know that it is a good thing financially to have Evanston advertised as prohibition town, and school authorities know that it helps our institutions.
 When our wealthy and more pleasure loving people formed social club they entered it on their bylaws that strong drink should never be permitted as an article of entertainment at the club house, and no betting should be permitted on games played there,
 | In going out from a, town now having 12,000 or more inhabitants to liquor- cursed communities, the contrast con- firms me more and more in the belief in which I have been educated. I went to Maine and studied its laws, with the best helps that devoted temperance men and women could afford me. I have done the same in Kansas, Iowa, and Vermont, have studied the beautiful story of St, Johnsbury in the Green Mountain state, and other impressive object lessons of prohibition. I believe that no one thing could possibly bring so much sanity, health, happiness, cleanliness, morality and religion to our people as the banish- ment of grog-shops. But find the two old parties nationally committed to the liquor system, It seems to me in view of this fact something must give way, and it Is natural to work along the line of least resistance, namely: to form the nucleus of party committed to the prop osition, 'the saloon must go," and to get it's materials from among those voters who are most friendly to temperance and least bound by temperamental and habit ual ties to the political armies wherein they have long fought. This, of course. is difficult proceeding, and one that will arouse a vast amount of public ceusure, but as Lady Henry Somerset has tersely said: "All reformers are stoned until they succeed" Therefore, not only in theory but in practice, not only in law but in politics, propose to do all that lies in my power to build up, not only the sentiment, but the action that controls at the ballot-box in the interest of prohibit tion law, with a prohibiting officer be- hind it. It is thankless task, but we have become used to being criticised. We have formed noble and enduring