The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-24
Formal Opening of the biennial Con-
ventiOn of a Society That Has
Members in All Lands.
PLEA FOR LADY SOMERSET
WHOSE SOCIAL PURITY PLAN FOR
INDIA HAS BEEN ASsAILED.
What the Organization Is Trying to
Accomplish in the Suppression of
Intemperance and Other Vices.
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convention of the worlds w. c. T. u. was
formally opened in the pavilion at the horti-
cultural gardens to-day. The building was
thronged when the convention was called
TO order by Miss Frances E. Willard. The
platform was filled with the executive and
other official workers, prominent among
whom were Miss Agnes Slack, of England;
Mrs. Kirk, of Australia; Mrs. Barker, of
Chicago; Mrs. Barnes, of New York, and
Miss JohnnansdOttie, the Iceland representa-
tive The speakers were received with great
applause and the waving of handkerchief.
The arrangements for seating and other &C
commodations have been carefully made and
no confusion inconvenience exists. Com
munication between the members has been
provided for by means of little girl pages
dressed in white, who fit here and there at
the behest of officer or member alike. The
first fifteen minutes of the session were
given over to devotional exercises, lea by
Mrs. Rutherford, president of the Dominion
w. c. L. u.
The report of the executive committee was
read by Miss Agnes T. Slack. A notice to
amend the qualifications to membership by
adding the words without distinction of
race and color" was received with tu-
multuous applause
Miss Frances Willard then presented her
biennial address. She said in part:
Canada leads the world to-day in the
great prohibition struggle, and it leads with
cheering prospects of success. The country
is homeogeneo 1t has not that great
foreign population to contend with by which
we are almost fatally handicapped; its peO-
pie are serious MINDED and practical; its
average standard of morals and religion is
higher than ours; it has put itself on record
by a popular plebiscite in which prohibition
triumphed; it has survived the horrors of
the royal commission to investigate the
liquor traffic, and is on the eve OF another
popular vote in which, although 1t must
contend against the united power of the al
cohol trade in all countries which will be
brought to bear upon its politicians and its
people, we have faith to believe that our
lady of the SHOWS is going to pluck from
the heavens of purity and plant on her own
fair brow the bright star OF prohibition
and harbinger of peace to all the world
The first national convention OF japanese
women was held III April last and marks the
most significant temperance epoch in that
wonderful new land, which is Oldest of ALL
and it is spreading in the Islands Oh the IA
cific."
She then reviewed briefly the work of
the various delegates in foreign fields and,
continuing, said: 1.-THE cause of peace has
won great victories this year. the arbitra-
ton treaty with our mother country is only
lying over; already we have reason to be-
lieve that, through the influence of the
President arrangements are being made
for the presentation of another treaty of
wider scope. The Storthing of Norway has
appointed a committee of nine to consider
the question of forming arbitration treaties
with foreign nations and to submit pro-
posals to that end; France is moving in
the same direction, and the recent declara-
lions of the Car and the Emperor of Ger
many are Enthusiastically in favor of pacific
measures, while the treaty between Turkey
and Greece, recently promulgated by the
powers, is a peace triumph, even though
it registers the subserviency of the Chris
tan nations to the great Moslem HER
Norway has called in the help Of women
in it's afforts to solve the drink problem,
all above twenty-five years of age having
been made voters on the temperance queS-
ton, and by the united efforts of temper
ance men and women the Gottenburg sys-
tenn will disappear, and prohibition will be
the law of Norway"
Miss Wizards address covered in it's com
prehenSiVe scope references to the Queens
jubilee; to the India famine; to the aid Civ
en- to the Armenians through the efforts
of the w. G. L. T., the national society haV-
ing forwarded $4,000; to the splendid gains
in membership and work in all the large
auXiliaries; to the urgent calls that have
been made from Burmah, India China.
CeylOn, South America. Mexico and other
countries for resident White-ribbon mis-
sionaries and lecturers: to the need for in
ebriate industrial homes to food reform;
to substitutes for saloons; to the plans of
the Booth-Tuckers for relieving the con-
geSted quarters of great citieS-clOSing with
important recommendations for the extern
sion of the work and apprecative tributes
to General Neal Dow and other leaders who
have died since the convention met in Lon
don two years ago.
Regarding the purity question, Miss Will
lard said: mo good can come of legalizng
the violation of two laws of God-frst thou
shalt not commit adultery; second, thou
shalt love thy neghbor as myself. What
ever degrades the women of India puts the
stamp of deterioration on all women To
this it will be replied that they have de-
graded themselves, and the means proposed
are only to mitigate the consequences, but
1t makes all the difference in the world to
US whether their degradation came about
through any forces that we have set in mo-
ton. BY purity of reasoning we may say
the saloon is here, and here it will remain;
let us do all we can to make it less danger
GUS to the people. But this is not the point:
our attitude toward the saloon first last
and all the time, is attitude of utter hos
ulfty, and 1t makes all the difference in the
world to us whether its presence among us
is in spite OF our protest and work, or
whether we have taken measures that rem
der its consequence probable. The founda-
ton and the keystone in the Chinese heath
enlsm is the sacrifice of woman's purity
there is one monstrous thing which above
another represents the anti-Christ it is that
fact. In Oriental countries women are help
less In the hands of men, as they have been
through the dark centuries. and the depth
of degradation to which this utter depend
ence has reduced them is beyond all power
of Western comprehension.
THE ENGLISH LAW
The English law in the Straits Settle
ment is said to be for the protection of
Chinese girls none is allowed to register
as prostitute, except of their own free
will, and with the consent of their moth
ers. But women physicians among the
missionaries testify that they have treated
little Chinese girls, four and five years of
age, who have been bought in North China
and were taken south for vile purposes
and who, when made TO register, would
never dare to say the women with which
each was living was not her mother As
for her own free will none of these poor
creatures ever had free will or ever will
have That is the protection that England
anords to Chinese girls.
we hold that there is but one standard
fer women and that they are equally capa-
BILE OF living up to it, We steadfastly be-
lieve that all law should set forth the ideal; :
that Ii should beckOn men to the sum-