The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-30
MISS WILLARD SPEAKS
HER ADDRESS AT THE NATIONAL w.
c. It. U. CONVENTION.
Efforts of the Organization to Sup
press yice-The Chicago Temple
TroubIe-Ofiicers' Reports.


fourth convention of the organization to
order in Music Hall to-day Miss Willard
stated that the Crusade Bible was held up
by the customs officials and for the first
time she was unable to read the crusade
psalm from 1T. such Is the brotherly love
between nations" she added. The psalm
was then read responsibility by Miss Willard
and the delegates. Many OF the women,
who had seen actual service in saloon cru
sades. accepted Miss Wizards invitation to
seats on the stage. Mrs. Mary ]. Weaver,
missionary at Brooklyn, offered prayer and
the crusade hymn, Give to the Winds Thy
Fear" was rendered by the delegates. Mrs.
Clara c. Hoffman, of Missouri. read the
roll call of the official members, who are
the state presidents, corresponding and re-
cording secretaries and treasurers.
The executive committee reported its con-
sideration of plan of finance presented by
Mrs Marian Baxter of Illinois, the feature
of which was an appeal to local unions for
81 EACH 80 per cent. of the proceeds to go to
the state department in which the coIlec-
tions were made, and to appoint assistant
financial agents to work in States under
permission from state officers. The report,
which was adopted showed that the ex-
ecutive committee had held part of its ses-
sion as committee of the whole.
MISS WILLARD'S ADDRESS.
Miss Willard then delivered her annual
address, which, in part follows:
while there is a widening out of the to-
tai abstinence principles, there seems to be
a weakening in certain quarters where we
might have looked for growing strength
The episode at Princeton University, where
the alumni dinner displayed wine, and the
alumni hotel sells intoxicants, is q case in
point. when, coupled with the fact that the
Presbyterian General Assembly voted down
q resolution expressive of regret that the
alumni dinner, with an ex-President of the
United States participating, should have
been thus furnished forth
THE world is SO Injured to formulated
opinions that / have been put in pillory
many times because, in trying to do Justice
to the point Of view of other people | was
supposed to be uttering my own convic-
tionS. For instance, when, in 1894, my an
nual address contained a political pro
gramme agreed upon at Prohibition Park
between a group of PopulistS and Prohibi-
tionists, and rejoicing that they had at last
come together, and without personally in
dorsing each plank of the platform, rec
commended it as a whole, the word went
Now, | am free to say that have no opin-
ion on that subject and never have had. L
believe We are on the threshold of new
era in finance, with a less artificial basis OF
values from that taught by economists of
the old school, and this opinion, based on
the law of development, is the only foot
ment 1t will be proved that the opinions
now put forward as the law and gospel OF
finance by our safe men among fnanciers
will sound like .'old wives fables to d flu
ture generation. In view of this statement
may / not ask you to so home and say that
| have not been so lost to every. sense of
human propriety as to commit either this
convention or myself to such carnivorous
anthropological specimens as the silver
beetle or the gold bug
Miss Willard referred to the failure OF the
general arbitration treaty and paid a trib
ute to the press. Regarding lynchings, she
said:
have disgraced the annals of America this
year. 1t is grim way of reckoning to an
ticipate more of these barbarie proceedings
before the birthday of the Prince OF Peace,
but alas, we have abundant warrant to be-
lieve they will go on The President of the
United States in his inaugural address
spoke out strongly against lynching, and
some of our public men have urged the
adoption of a law declaring that those who
participate in lynching shall hold no public
office. similar law abolished dueling, and
would doubtless do more to put lynchtng
under ban than any method yet devised. I
feel sure we shall not weaken, but If posi-
BILE strengthen the resolution adopted with
out a dissenting vote last year; namely,
We declare ourselves unalterably opposed
to lynching and all other lawless proceed
ings affecting white or colored people in
cur own or other countries So far as I
know, we are the only National Society of
women in the United States that has taken
believe we shall have an undivided vote.
REGULATED VICE.
'Our point of view does not permit US to
think with a moments liberation Of the
regulation side of this most odious of all
personal sins, because as Lady Henry Som
erset reminds us, we in America have prac-
tically no standing army; we have no
Oriental difficulties no deterioration by
thousands of our troops while the British
government must deal with a condition
and not a theory. But it must be admitted
that if every man who in our cities visits a
house of shame were duly registered, his
name and address being given and himself
subjected to health examination, the deg
radiation, as he is pleased to term it, would
in ten thousand instances deter him from
going at all. But the real degradation con-
sisted in the personal baseness that led him
to be willing, nay, even to desire to visit
such a place, and our most unrelenting con-
troversy with the government conducted by
men is. that just because they can, they put
the penalty of that personal examinations
which is the elimination Of personal shame,
upon a weaker partner in a dual sin, and
let the stronger one go free Against such
a method Lady Henrys Indignation is so
strong that she says since you will do this
we will meet you on your own plane, and
enforce upon men precisely the same PEN
alties that have so long been borne by
women But American men have never de-
scended to the level-either in or out of the
army-of examining women, save IN Few
sporadic instances of municipal degeneracy
and this record is the glory of American
women. If by adverse immigration laws
we can prevent the influx of old world sedi-
ment for a season. the growing influence OF
women and exaltation of men will render
us secure from the barbarism of prostitu-
ton protected by law.
s'We cannot check an immoral disease by
NJ eaSures which recognize sin as something
to be regulated rather than prohibited. This
is the crux of the situation. We believe
that the moral injury to the soldier, re-
sulting from any possible provision for the
dishonor that he works upon himself and
poor ignorant and debased woman is un-
worthy that Christian empire whose Queen
declares that the Bible is the foundation of
her government. Ard we believe there is
no blot upon her throne so deep and so in
delible as that these wretched little beings
provided for the soldiers of India by its
government. universally bear the name Of
the Queens women.
LAS one of our leading missionaries from
India has recently said Hard, harsh and
impractical as We may seem at present in
holding strictly to the highest standard, 1t
is to my mind the only course compatible
with the deepest pity and love for the
greatest number of our fellow-beings liv-
ing or as yet unborn Let those who hold
convictions and we will do the same but
above all things let us avoid all harshness
of utterance or the tone that implies an
impression of our own infalibility. / be-
lieve it is quite possible to be as unchris-
tian by reasonsDf our severity toward good
people who seeking the same end propose
a different means as 1t would be for
white ribbon woman to open a saloon.
''Woman's suffrage. this greatest of all
movements looking toward a real republic
moves forward as steadily as the stars in
their orbits for nothing can arrest the
progress of a true principle on its way to
the hearts Of an intelligent people The
universal opposition of the alcoholic fra
ternity to woman's vote is helping us