Willmar tribune., 1897-10-05
<W. C,.=1,,''U1 Column

}W. CC,1lu. ! C Column. ! IN |
IN@N~~NNN NNA1NN~~NO.
In view ofthe fact that so many know
little or nothing of the w. G. T. U.
and its object, we present to our read
ers this week brief sketch of it's his
tory as given in the Annual Leaflet of
the National Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Union, of 1896.
The Woman's Christian Temperance
Union is an organization of Chris
tian Women banded together for the
protection of the home, the abolition
of the liquor system, and the triumph
of Christ's Golden Rule in custom and
in law. It is the outcome of the great
Woman's Temperance Crusade of
1884. In December, 1873, under the
inspiration of temperance address
delivered by DR.. Dio Lewis, of Bos-
ton, the women of .Hillsboro, WASH
ington Court House, and the Ohio
towns, were moved to concerted action
against the saloon. They gathered in
the streets to pray and marched two
by two into saloons. They besought
the men who drank, and the men who
sold, to cease to crafty the appetite
for gain and the appetite for stimu-
lants, and invited them to move on
with the procession, as it ended it's
days work at the affairs of God, where
the women knelt in conservation, and
countless tempted men in repentance
and faith. From that divinely light
ed fire the flames spread east, west,
north and south, until the whole land
was ablaze. In fifty days the whirl-
wind of the Lord had swept the liquor
traffic out of two hundred and fifty
towns and villages.
Why was not this war carried on to
the final overthrow of the saloon? Be-
cause the saloon itself was found to be
but the outcropping of the liquor sys-
tenn; that system was protected by law,
and .intrenchedi in the very heart of
our governmental life. The powers
controlling it soon rallied from the
shock Of the sudden onslau ght and in
trenched themselves even more
strongly behind their barricades,
political and legal. The argument of
defeat and the logic of events soon
forced the women to enlarge the circle
,ofstheir work until 1t e!shonld. include
not only ''mental suasion for the man
who thinks, and moral suasion for the
man who drinks; but legal suasion for
the drunkard-maker, and prison sua-
sion for the statute -breaker.'
A meeting was held at Chatauqua
Sunday School Assembly, New York
in August, 1874; from which call for
permanent organization was sent forth,
with the result that in the following
November, the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union of the
United States was organized at Cleve-
lang, Ohio It was. incorporated
March l, 1883, in Washington D. C.
1t has, at the present time,< forty-eight
auxiliary states and six territorial
unions, besides that of the District of
Columbia, and is the largest society
ever composed exclusively of women
and conducted entirely by them. It
has been organized in every state and
territory OF the nation, and locally in
about ten thousand towns and cities.
AS general estimate (the returns be-
ing altogether incomplete) we think
the number of local unions in the Uni
ted States about ten thousand, includ-
ing Young Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Unions: with a paid up mem-
bership of more than 15O,OO and s$al
direct following of 100000. Each
member is required to sign the pledge
and pay the annual membership dues,
which dues vary in different states,
but are usually not less than fifty cents
nor more than one dollar. OF this
amount a certain per cent is paid into
the state treasury, and from the state
treasury ten cents per member is paid
into the treasury of the national Or
Our national motto is "For God,
and Home and Native Lands Our
badge is knot of white ribbon, and
it was adopted in the convention of
1877. There was a division of opinion
as to the proper badge, one party