The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-11-13
The Gentle Chautauqua Sa-
lutte for the Champion
ess of Feminine
Unrest.
PROHIBITION IN POLITICS
Protest Of the Home Against the
Saloon W. C. T. U. Thinks a
Heap of Itself, Anyway.

ST. LOUIS, Mo-, Nov. 49, 1Ss6-For the
twenty-second time in the history of the
organization, the Women''s Christian
Temperance Union met in annual conven-
tion this morning. The delegates to the
number of nearly 500 assembled in Schuy-
Ter Memorial House, at s. O'Clock, and
attended devotional exercises, led by Miss
Elizabeth Greenwood of New YORK.
Shortly afterwards the audience adjourn
ed to Music Hall, in the Exposition
Building, which had been elaborately
decorated in honor of the conference.
Nearly 1000 delegates and visitors were
present when Miss Frances E. Willard
called the convention to order at 9:45
o'clock. Among the prominent delegates
We're Miss Agnes Slack of England, sSeo-
retary of the Worlds w. c. T. u; Mrs.
Maud Booth, of the American Volun-
teers; Miss Rebecca Krikorian, of Arme-
MIA; the Rev. It. D. Greene, Secretary of
the Armenian Relief Committee, New
York; Z DR.. Mary Wood Allen, of Detroit;
Mother Ransom, of Los Angeles, Cal.
When Miss Willard appeared on the
platform the audience rendered the Chau-
tauqua salute. The proceedings began
with the reading of the Crusade Psalm,
after which Mrs. Henrietta L. Monrie
President of the w. C. T. u. of Ohio
delivered the opening prayer The con-
vention then Joined in singing the Crusade
Hymn: Give to the Winds Thy Fears
The report of the Executive Committee
brought out some spirited debate over the
recommendation that the State Superin-
tendents should be under the direct con-
troll of the National Committee so far
as the collection and expenditures of money
in the cause was concerned. The matter
was finally settled by a majority vote in
favor of the recommendation. The COM
mittee also recommended that the W. c.
Il u. begin an active crusade against the
evils of gambling and the Committee on
Legislation was authorized to take meas
ures towards the abolition of gambling
After the usual committees were appoint-
ed President Willard addressed the con-
vention
Miss Willard said that her annual adj
dress was partly prepared when the call
came to work for the refugees in Mar
seilles. and since that time it has been
l1nposs ible for her to complete her mes
sage, and she therefore gave familiar
talk to the delegates, of which the fol-
lowing is an outlne:-
She expressed the warmest appreciation
Of the White Ribbon women of St Louis.
who undeterred by the calamity of the
cyclone. invited the convention and had
made generous and elaborate provision
for its entertainment. In 1884, only few
days previous to the Presidential election,
the w. G. i. U. met here and ventured
on the high seas of political contention.
They had espoused the cause OF the Pro-
hibition party and called down curses on
their devoted heads.
She spoke of the heroines of the rank
and file who had borne and labored and
had patience when the W. c. T. u.
passed under the rod of a nations criti-
Miss Willard continued:-"We have
marched far since then and the align
ments of parties have changed. The
labor movement has taken on proportions
SO vast that no one speaks lightly of it
any more They are forging their way
to the front, misguided often making
pitiful paths in the wilderness following
faise lights and relegating the fight for a
clear brain to the Spartan band of Pro-
hibltionists when if labor would win It
must make the temperance reform the ark
of God to be born in the very van of is
swift gathering army.
..In 1892 some of US sat up all night
with the committee on resolutions of the
sand delegates. pleading with them to
put a prohibition and home protection
plank in their platform and they would
not
She said that prohibition In politics has
been and is now. and is to be the embod-
led protest of the home against the
saloon; it held up a torch in the gloom,
and 1t set the keynote of divine anthem
of liberty. When the white ribbon women
plighted their faith to the movement It
had poiled only ten thousand votes. In
gone on slowly increasing until 25000O
had been gathered; but owing to the
great controversy concerning the free
COMA. coinage @ ct silver, silver this party, like every
orable. year of 96, and the vote had fall
en- off to about two hundred thousand
out ut Of fourteen millions of ballots.
ago We declared for the only party that
was pledged to prohibition and the home
protection ballot: but as there are now
conscience declare for either, but we are
| hope, the earnest friends of both and
shall in this convention make it plain
that we win lend our influence to any
party that Incorporates our principles into
its platform. l do not mean that we shall
endorse all the planks in that platform.
Miss Willard then spoke of the wolnan's
ballot as "the surest method of political
prohibition" She emphasized the declara-
ton of the California suffragists that they
were defeated by the liquor league and
rejoiced in the victory for wonan's ball
LOT that seems to have been gained in
Idaho.
She made the point that the men of
Wyoming, after having watched the work.
ings of woman's suffrage for twenty
years, had Incorporated it into their con-
stituton, and that if the men of Kanfas,
Colorado and Utah had felt that the eff
feet Of the enfranchfsement of women had
been to make them less loyal to the home
and all that it involves they would never
have given them the ballot
It was significant that the States that
had enfranchised women We're all in a
group, fact that ought to be Conclusive
in favor of woman's ballot to any reason
able man.
She then spoke Of the Aranenians and
the excellent work done by Mrs. Stevens
Of Maine, Mrs. Fessenden and Mrs. Black
we'll of Massachusetts. in finding homes
for the refugees sent oyer by herself and
Lady Henry Somerset, and praised the
Armenian Relief Committee and the Sal
yation Army for the admirable work done
by them SO that nearly 400 friendless men
had found friends and occupations She
stated that the worlds w G. 4. II. In
tended to take up work for the Ar
menians as an important part of its en-
deavor; they wonld probably found a
colony in Cyprus for the women and chill
dren. It has been stated by those who
ought to know that among all the eocie-
ties not one had sent in 50 much for the1
Armenians as the w. C. 7. u. She spolss
OF the proposition to form a new depart-
ment, to be called 1.-THE Department df |
Work Against the Gambling Vice. ami |
expressed the disgust that all sensibh |
persons nlliet feel in view of this growing
evil as evinced by the universally of the |
election bet, the grotPg0iIey1<sse ~ Wl1i5zt, |