The Press., 1895-05-16
w. C. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
America's Guilt in the Liquor Traffic.

[Read at the PolygloG Petition meeting.l HomOred Representations and Rulers of tse People Vf the United States
 You have heard the cry from the heart of motherhood all over the world, voiced i'll the petition we present to you to-day. To you, perhaps, it sounds faint and dis ~tant. You may not catch the note of ag- ony in it; you may not realize that it rolls up in mighty volume to the throne of God, and enters His ear who answers as we'll as hears. But have heard these cries at my side, on my right hand and on my left, from high and lowly all over the world. For seven years I travelled in every quarter of the globe, and in nearly every country, in the largest cities of Europe and Asia, in the jungles of the Congo and 1 Madagascar at the foot of the great wall in China and where the Amazon and La Plata roll their mighty volumes to the sea under the midnight sun of Norway, Sweden and Finland and far up the slopes of the Himalayas; on the diamond fields of Africa and the gold fields of Aus tralia; in the midst of epidemics of chol- era and yellow fever--alone, graY-haired when I started.
 | Why all this? To do what one woman could do, by the blessing of God, to put an end to the awful horrors of drink, by organizing women everywhere against it.. | One item of my work was to procure the Petition you receive to be translated and put in circulation wherever l went.
 shall never forget the cry of the young queen of Madagascar to me: ''I want to save my people from drink but 1 cannot. My hands are bound by treaties forced upon me by England and France. I can do nothing" Her predecessor, born into heather family, uttered the remarkable words that have been attributed to nearly every dusky sovereign: ''I cannot derive benefit from that which injures my peo- ple." She lived up to this saying to the day of her death. Every tenth barrel landed was set apart for her, but all of them were stove on the beach where they were placed. Nor can I ever cease to hear the cry of that mother in Freetown "Oh, the drink from the Godmen's (mis- sionariesD country. It has killed my son. 1 am a lone woman now"
 l Americans began the traffic on the west coast of Africa and sell all they can now though hindered greatly at the present time by the Germans underselling them. We cannot throw off the guilt in Africa nor in the islands of the Pacific.
 Even the honorable functions of oul representatives in China and South Amer ica have been prostituted and they have become "touters'' for American liquor dealers. speak of what have seen ant th6refore know.
 ! GOiored peoples are worth saving fl fl T1RSe55 are as capable of elevation as Euro pehn races. Again I speak of what hake seen and therefore know. I have cohversed with persons of every coloreo race on earth who were as well fitted by native ability, by education, by manners by elevation of character and purity O life to take the title of gentleman or lady as any white person in the United States or Europe.
 But to turn to our own land. There art we'll on toward one hundred thousand babies less than year old, asleep to-nigh in sweet uncOnsciOusness of the life upOr which they have entered, who will, during some year not far off, go to untimely graves because of the licensed sale O drink in our owh country. Are not Amer ican children worth saving?
 In the past, congress made it duty tC refuse entrance to diseased hides from South America, because two men were poisoned to death by them in tannery 1T Massachusetts; and disease infected rags from Italy, because two women and mar lost their lives by handling them in pa per mill. Congress did we'll to protec the lives of Americans. Will it not pro :ect these one hundred thousand Ameri can babies by prohibiting the manufacture and sale in the United States, wherever i has jurisdiction, and protect the childre1 of foreign countries by fOrbidding expOr tatiOn?
 l knew the mOneyed complications There is not time to discuss them now We have had national crises in the past when we did not for moment consider money. There is always an eternal jus tice and right for nations and govern ments that they must heed without re gard to financial considerations if the, would continue to receive the favor O God, without which no nation can endure
 We have had a glorious record anon! the nations as the pioneer of human lib erty. I beg you, honored rulers, to b
 the leaders into the greater liberty c T. freedom from any complicity in the drinl