Evening star., 1895-10-18
Sixteenth Annual Address to the
W. G. T. q.
THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION OPENED
Union With the Labor Movement
Favored.
A POLITICAL PLATFORM

E. Willard. president Of the Worlds and
National w. c. T. u, gave her sixteenth
annual address before the latter here to-
day. She spoke encouragingly of the
progress of reform. She said:
I'm the widening field Of athletics all
stimulation is discounted. The bicycle is
the most influential temperance reformer
of the time, and milk is the favorite bev-
erage of those who ride to win. Men who
drink take less, and more men do not drink
at all than in any previous year. This is
the testimony of railway managers life
insurance agents. police captains and the
general public. Steam and electricity have
put level heads at premium, and the
trend of invention lies parallel with the
white path of personal purity in all the
habits of life. Legislation follows on after
individual progress. The Canadian parlia-
ment this year declared by an overwhelm-
ing majority in favor of prohibition; in
South Australia and Utah women have
been admitted to the full rights of citizens.
Five legislatures last winter voted to SUBJ
NIT this question to the people. In New
York city reform has forsaken the line of
least and sought that of greatest resist
ance. Municipal politics in that metropolis
and many others turn on the temperance
question. The enforcement Of law by
Commissioner Roosevelt and the renewed
war upon Tammany, led by the redoubta-
BILE DR.. Parkhurst, are the salient features
of the time.
''The polyglot petition, with its 100000
names and Endorsements, has this year
been presented in America and England.
Its journey will continue until 1t has borne
the plea OF the home to every government.
A Political Platform.
"a union of reform forces is contemplat-
ed, and the leaders have agreed to the fol-
lowing basis, which is commended to the
good will of all white ribbon women:
81. Direct legislation; the initiative and
the referendum in national, state and local
matters; the imperative mandate and pro-
portional representation.
'.2. When any branch Of legitimate busi-
ness becomes a monopoly in the hands of
few against the interests of the many, that
industry should be taken possession of, on
just terms, by the municipality, the state
OF the nation. and administered by the peo-
pie
80. The election of President and Vice
President and Of United States Senators by
direct vote OF the people. and also of all
civil officers, so far as practicable.
81. Equal suffrage without distinction of
sex.
IS. AS the land is the rightful heritage
of the PEOPLE, no tenure should hold with
out use ard occupancy.
&c. Prohibition of the liquor traffic for
beverage purposes, and governmental con-
troll of the sale for medicinal. scientific
and mechanical uses.
'7. All money-paper, gold and silver
should be issued by the national govern
ment only, and made legal tender for all
payments, public or private. on future con-
tracts, and in amount adequate to the Ge
hands of business.
IS. The free and unlimited coinage of
silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to l.
'"The labor movement is the natural ally
of the White Ribboners. The working
class are the. only true aristocrats. The
time is not distant when those who do not
work will be drummed out of the camp and
stung cut of the hive, and will learn by
what they suffer that it is law of God
written in our members that He who will
not work, neither shall ne eat We are
confronted by a vegetating aristocracy on
one hand and an agitating democracy on
the other, and if the Federation of Labor
and the trades unions will, throughout their
ertire membership, decree that strong
drink shall be left teetotally alone, it will
within ten years become the arbiter of
destiny.
Against Low Amuscments.
1.-The agitation against low theaters and
impure living pictures which began in
London last autumn. has spread the world
around. Mrs. Laura Ormiston Chant, who
conducted the case on behalf of the White
Ribbon women, has endeared herself to all
good people. Every non-conformist pulpit
In England is open to her, and her pure but
liberal views on the amusement question
are doing much to broaden the outlook of
the home folk.
"The w. C. T. U. of New York deserves
great credit for the brave stand 1t has
taken in preparing bill, presented by Sen
ator Mullin. which provides that any
woman WHO makes public exhibition of
ferself the tendency of which is to arouse
impure thought, and any person who en-
ploys her to do this, and who, by bills,
posters and literature, corrupts the morals
OF the people, shall be heavily fined and i'm
prisoned."
Miss Willard closed her review of the
woman question with these words:
I'm primitive days we had the matriar-
chate, which means the rule of the mothers.
and now tor a painfully heightened period
we have had the patriarchate, or the rule
of the fathers; but we begin to see the
dawn Of the amphiarchate, or the joint
rule OF joint world by the joint forces Of
its mothers and it's fathers. Happy are
they who put their sturdy shoulders to the
wheels of this white chariot of the SUM-