The Press., 1897-06-24
w. C. T. U.
Victory in Illinois.

doing.
 One feature of the fierce battle for a stronger temperance law in Illinois, was the placing on the desks of the legislature who are members of the Grand Army of the Republic, on Memorial Day, the following appeal f1om our national super intendent, Ms. Mary H. Hunt, who was in Springfield helping the Illinois women to conduct the campaign for the ohe million children in the public schools of that state. Hearts as we'll as heads were moved, and the bill passed on Friday, June 4.
 The appeal was addressed to the honor able member of the legislature of Illinois, and of the late Union army in tho War of the rebellion, and proceeded as follows:
 ''Reyerent gratitude throbs in the heart of every true American in the presence of one who wears the emblem denoting membership in the Grand Army of the Republic. Gratitude for service rendered to us all, to our homes and to the land we loved. To the men who faced death that no stripe should be lacking in our dear old flag, nor star be missing from it's field of azure blue,we owea debt of grati- tude which can never be told.
 "By the token of this service on their part in the past we ought to be sure that deaf ear will never be turned by one of these veterans to any appeal for our country's need.
 The Union soldiers in the War of the Rebellion saved to us our nation, one great unbroken whole, but as we return comrades in that army, our dead heroes, whose memories will ever be cherished by a grateful people, we are reminded that the future of the country for which you risked your life depends upon the character of it's men and women, and that character is endangered by another dead Hest Of foes, and, therefore, the nation depends again upon you. The victims of war, famine and pestilence combined are outnumbered by those of alcholic drinks.
 Heralded by roll of drums on battle troubled air. the Union army at the can- non's mouth settled forever the question that no mothers child, whatever it's con- plexion, can again be torn from her en- brace and sold into chattel slavery in any territory over which our flag floats. Uncle Tom could say, This poor old body Is Massa Lagree's slave, but this soul is Gods free man. No slave of alcohol can say that enslaved soul any body for time and eternity he Is source of peril to hip sslf, ,ta society and to that freegovern- ment of which every American citizen is part
 ''Therefore the mothers of this state ask you to vote for that scientific tenn perence education in the public schools which will warn and protect their chill dren, one and all, from this worst form of slavery. They are not the mothers of an alien subject race that thus appeal 10 you whose bayonets freed the children of the slave mother, but they are the mothers in your own homes and the homes of your constituency, the mothers of your own children, and the children of that constit- ueney which you have sworn to protect. You can not, you will not, say them nay Added to these Is the petition from the sovereign people of Illinois voters, fathers as well as mothers, more than one-half million strong, who ask of you this most conservative of all temperance measures, the education of their children that will fit them to intelligently choose for them- selves concerning strong drink, and then choose. Why should any one object i? Such education confiscates no mans prop erty, dictates no man appetite, proscribes no mans liberty, interferes with no mans politics. It is only Gods primordial de- cree, Let there be light, for coming generation.
 "From the walls of your legislative chamber the face of the great emancipa- tor, Abrah m Lincoln, looks down upon the acts of your assembly. If those | pictured lips could break their silence in the light of two worlds he would bid you vote for the children and to the sugges- tion of fear industriously circulated that such vote will hurt the party either in or out of power, he would quote to you the wise saying ofanother wise chief mag istrate of these United States, that He who serves his country best, serves his party best.'
 "Why is resident of another state, with the women of Illinois, urging upon  you this duty ? For the same reason that Florence Nightingale went to the Crimea that our own Clara Barton cared for the sick and dying soldiers in our own camps and then ministered to bleeding Armenians in another land. The gospel, irrespective of state lines, that seeks to save, has led the writer to plead, and not in vain, with the men of America in the national con- gress and in forty one states of the United States to vote for such a temperance edu- cation of their children as we'll save them from the slavery of strong drink. Sixteen million children of school age to-day in our land under temperance education laws are the response to that plea, which is here renewed for the children of Illinois, and we cannot believe that it will be in vain."
 This world will be considerably happier than 1t is now when it is possible to build the kitchen fire successfully the nightsbe- fore.
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