Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-02-05

reform our suffrage laws; as long as
ignorant hordes go like dumb driven
cattle" at the behest of corrupt drivers
there is not much 10 hope for. When
education and not sex lie made the test
for the exercise of American sovereign
ty; then we may look for reform. We
thoroughly believe in, and work for,
the uplifting of humanity. We believe
also, the world will never be better
until men subject themsel yes to the
same laws they impose ON women
yet, his habits and his will corrupted
by the past he does not clearly see that
woman is half himself; that her inter-
ests are identical with his and that by
the law of their common being he
can never reach his true proportions
while she remains in anywise shorn of
hers. A nation rises no higher than
Its mothers, IS as true today as in the
days of the Spartan mothers, who
were equally interested with the men
in the welfare of their country.
In one of the towns of Connecticut
the public archives still show that a
motion was made and adopted by the
oShOOi tiubtCCb WlbDlu u COuDlH Oh
generations past to the following effect:
1T is the sense of this meeting that it
would be a misuse of public funds to
teach girls the back part of the arith.
metic"
We laugh at that today, but what
will future generations think of O ma
J'3r of the brothers of American wo-
men who would confer the SUFFRAGE
upon two millions of an illiterate race
just released from long years of the
most servile bondage, and at the same
time refuse 20 their own native born,
intelligent and patriotic mothers, wives
and daughters, the same ~elevating and
ennobling privilege. These are some
of the shadows. Are there no riffs of
light? Yes, a broad CLEAN comes from
the first city of the land proving be-
yond the possibility of a doubt that
prohibition will prohibit, even in a
large city, provided, of course, that
there are brave true men at the helm
like Commissioner Roosevelt, and not
a poltroon driven about at the dicta-
ton of party or pelf.
The w. G. T. U. has by its persistent
and untiring efforts secured reforms
innumerable. Notably in our own
State the temperance instruction law
which our last legislature gave us,
leaving only two States that have not
such a law. We have taught the chill.
dren, as best we could, the evil effects
OF alcohol and other narcotics on body
and brain. We have distributed litera-
ture, sem flowers and scripture texts
to the sick and imprisoned. and yet, as
a district, we have not earned the
plaudit "She hath done what she
could" Let us do more the coming
year than ever before. Let us organ
ize more thoroughly for we are fight.
ing an organized enemy. Let US do
more for the young realizing that in
them lies the hope of the future. The
boys and girls of today will be the men
aan women of tomorrow, and when the
glad time of victory comes, as come it
must, mayhap when the shadows are
thickest and the enemy is closing
around us, we whose ears are ever at.
tuned to catch the first notes of victory
like the lassie of Lucknow, will cry
"Oh, dinna ye hear the slogans fur
away" and it will come to us like the
voice of God, and we'll shout it along
the line. Then we can truly sing THE
star spangled banner in triumph shall
wave Ger the land of the free and
the home of the brave"
Presidents address prepared for the
third annual convention of the district
W. G. T. U, held at johnson City,
September q. 1895.