Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1895-06-29
WORLDS WOMEN'S v. C. T.U
Miss Willard Recognizes Poverty
as the Parent of Vice.
Temperance Workers Must Awake to tho
Fact That Want aud Worry Lead
to Dissips TN.
Resource of the Helpless.

London, June 19.-The proceedings OF
The convention OF the British Women's
Temperance association were conclud-
ed last night at Queens hall with a
Special r8us.ca! meeting In which the
great feature was a vast choir Of white
~ribboners. numbering 400. This morn
ing the greatest gathering of the SO.
ries, the third biennial convention Of
the Worlds Women's Christian Tenn
perance union convened at Queens
hall In the presence Of an immense
throng Of visitors, many Of whom had
~journeyed thousands OF miles to wit
ness or participate in the proceedings.
Miss Frances Willard Of Chicago. who
is president Of the worlds organization.
presided over the gathering. In her
opening address she spoke in part as
follows:
Under the search light Of knowledge
In these later days 1t 10 folly for tenn
perance people 10 ignore the mighty
power of poverty TO induce evil habits
of every kind. 1t was only our igno-
rance OF the condition Of the Industrial
classes that magnifed a single propa-
ganda and minimized every other that
led the temperance people in earlier
days to believe that IL men and women
were temperate all other material good
would follow in the train OF his great
grace.
I'VE know now that the rapid pro-
gress OF invention Is constantly dimin-
ishing the number Of workmen required
in the different lines OF industry. We
know that within a few years a ma
chine has been invented which sets type
without the Intervention Of the human
hand, so { at one man can do as much
with this machine as five could accom-
plish in the same time without il. We
know that electricity has begun 10 play
its part as mans proxy in the world Of
force. The steam laundry successfully
contests the washerwoman's means of
gaining her livelihood. The steam
plough, thresher, roller, and scores Of
other ingenius con~trivances are re-
placing the silent force OF the human
hand by the cyclopean power Of the
unhasting. unresting force of steel and
iron backed by natures most powerful
agencies. harnessed by VANS skill.
There are miIions CT men and wo-
men in Great Britain and America who
would gladly work, but the pitiless re-
straining hand OF invention and monop-
~ ~ AAfAll - ~ AAAl OH bBHp41
tunitly to arm their bread by the sweat
Of their brow is already fought for as
strenuously as men in other times
fought for their lives. Under this pres
sure of relentless competition men are
ground into dust, and that by a heav-
Ter heel than old time %tyrannies could
boast; and they seek forgetfulness in
those i~ndulgencies whose authorizations
| Aafarf,ra . Il. l,lt. n,I rn,,1 IT.. Irf.x
and debauch themselves on the one
hand to forget, and on the other 10
crowd into their brief space Of recrea-
ton the Utmost amount Of sensation
and delirium. ! know that his state
ment will be controverted by the state
ment that alcoholic disease, the opium
craze. and other forms Of indulgence
are not confined 10 the poor. But the rich
form but a small class. and it is univer-
sally admitted that the drink habit and
allied vices are dying out among the
well TO do classes. Nothing short Of
willful ignorance can account for blink
ing the fact that poverty is perhaps
the chief aus of the drinking habit
throughout the English speaking
world. In view Of these facts il is more
than short sighted folly. ii is %unpardon-
able stubbornness. not to say criminal
apathy, in US as temperance workers
II we DO not clasp hands OF Intelligent
n earnest sympathy with the wage
worker and the unemployed. We must
be BE TO see that the eight hour law
is temperance measure. a purity
measure, a gospel measure, and nothing
less, for by means of the eight hour law
one third more men and women, now
unemployed, can find work and the
means to fight for a free life and a we'll
ordered home. The living wage means
not only that the wage earne shall live.
but that he shall live we'll"
Three sessions were held today. prac-
tically a continuous session. the speak
ers numbering nearly 100. Tomorrow
night the grand celebration at Albert
hall will take place.