Evening star., 1895-06-17
What They Are Doing in the Cause
Of Temperance.
ADDRESS OF LADY HENRY SOMERSET
What Has Been Done for London's
Masses.
THE EMPIRE THEATER WAR


nral meeting of the British Woman's Tenn
perance Association opened in the City
Temple this morning. There was a large
attendance. The principal feature of the
| session was the annual address of the pres
| ident, Lady Henry Somerset. She said:
with u.s. as with our sisters across the
waters, this day celebrates the completion
| of an epoch in our annals. The temperance
question was never so vigorously alive in
our country it is today. No other great
nation ever before saw direct veto bill
| included in the platform of the dominant
party, twice recommended from the throne
| and champiCned by the leader of the house
of commons The strength of public senti-
| nent indicated by these facts marks Eng
| land as the leader of national sentiment
and purpoSed legislation among the nations
of the earth.
'In 1910, when Wendell Phillips and Will
liam Lloyd Garrison, those flaming heralds
of emancipation, came from Boston, Mass,
as delegates to great meeting in London,
Mrs. Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia, that
famous Quaker lady than whom nobler
ty pc has never been produced on either side
of the water, came with them. She, too,
| had been elected a delegate to the English
meeting, but our sturdy BritonS refused
her credentials. and, because she was
woman, she was relegated to the gallery as
a mere locker on. and the two brilliant
American men, whose names now i'm
mortal and whose work rendered the con-
tinuance of African slavery impossible in
the great republic declined to sit as dele
gates with men who had shown such in
justice and went themselves to the gallery,
with their sister. whose name-discoVered
in that circle of reformers-has become a
star of the first magnitude in the galaxy of
| the great reformers.
Contrast of Half n Century.
THAT was ffty-five years ago. and today
we welcome a shipload Of American wo-
men, who are among the most thoroughly
equipped sand best-known women reform
workers of the world; and the British mind
is so enlarged that more than 300 pupits
and mission halls were open to them yes
terday in conservative old London. And
they will speak to thronging audiences in
the largest auditoriums that the worlds
capital can furnish.
They have brought with them the poly
glot petition calling for the overthrow of
the legalized trade in alcoholic liquors and
in opium, and insisting on an equal stand
ard of personal purity for men and women
"a petition signed in fifty languages and
in all the important countries Of the world,
and which Is to be presented to the chief
officers of every leading government, as it
has already been to the President and
Representatives Of Congress in the United
States.
THE presence of such host, represent
ing such a work. when contrasted with
the gentle Quaker lady from Philadelphia,
who was not allowed to enter the old-time
anti-slavery convention. but could only
look down on It's proceedings from the gal
lery, gives some idea of the distance
We have come in the development of wo-
mans powers within half century, and
prophesies what her position shall be in
| ere another generation shall have unrolled
the record Of human destiny under the
guiding hand of Christian civilization"
Reform in London.
Regarding the progress of reform in Eng
| land, the speaker said:
THE action of the London county council
| en- the temperance question indicates the
high-water mark of the municipal reform.
| The council has not retained a single
| license which has fallen into its hands
when acquiring property. 1t has abandoned
twenty-SeVen licenses at a cost of f3I 900.
Alcoholic drinks have been abolished by
the council from the asylums and temper
ance refreshments are insisted on in the
parks. The council has exercised a thor
ough personal control over the health,
recreation and general needs of the public
of. London. Its greatest public health i'm
provement was brought about by the main
drainage committee for the publication of
the Thames. and nothing proves the thor
oushness of its work better than the return
of fish to the river, whose poisonous waters
had proved too much for them. Nearly
LOCO acres have been added to the open
spaces of London. The parks are well man.
aged. Bands of music are provided through
out the summer months and every facility
given for the healthful exercise of ath-
| letics. In the gymnasium special attention
is being paid to physical exercises for girls.
a municipal lodging house has been erected
on sanitary principles, with baths, laundry
| and reading and recreation entertainments
| organized largely by Mrs. Leon, wife of one
| of the councillors scheme is under way
for getting rid of fifteen acres of squalid
slums and replacing them with good dwell
| ings. The tramwayS are already coming
under the management of the council.
THE action in relation to the license of
| the Empire Theater has had wholesome
eleNatlng amusement. /
| is hoped that pawnbroking will ere long be
under the control of the council. Its COM
| mittee of works had action to do away
| with the middlemen.' so that labor is
| employed direct under fairer wages and
| under fairer conditions. 1t is expected that
| the supply of gas and water will long
abattoirs and bakeries will be municipalzed
| when the city and county of London shall
| have been amalgamated.
War on Living Pictures.
The agitation against immoral living
pictures (never, let it be remembered,
| against beautiful and pure pictures, either
| living dead) has gone hand in hand
| with the great movement for reform in
| municipal politics. Indeed. they are but
parts of one tremendous whole That this
| is true was proved by the immediate ap-
plication of our London reformers to the
| county council, whose action set an ex-
| ample of which England may be proud.
Those who imagine that the Empire The
ater cuts a large figure in the outworking
| of this problem mistaken. The light
ming was in the air and struck the EN-
| pire first because in the worlds central
| city, it the most influential whisper
| ing gallery of the liaison which bias
| phemes pure life and makes a happy
| home impossible.
"Our society has never done single
stroke of work that meant so much for
| the amelioration Of the common lot and
| l hope we shall by resolution adopt ii. by
| a rising vote evince our appreciation of
| those good and true White Ribbon women
of whom Mrs. Laura OrmiSton Chant is
chief, who were first and foremost in the
| London crusade against immortality mas
querading under the forms of art