The Press., 1897-07-08
w. C. T. U.
Lady Somerset as a Witness.

Lady Somerset as B Witness.
 One day last month Lady Henry Somer- set appeared before the royal commission on the licensing laws a commission ap- pointed by Parliament and presided over by Lord Peel, the former speaker of the house of commons.
 One of the London daily papers says an eminently proper witness to call, and her appearance enlivened the commonly prosaic sitting of the commission. Lady Henry occupied the witness chair from II to 4:30, and capitol witness she made. None of the parliamentary experts engag ed were able to furry her or catch her mapping. Indeed, she succeeded in turn ing the questions upon her interrogators with a neatness and dispatch that many times drew wholesale laughter from her auditors"
 Ten brewers were on the commission, and saloon kept by one of them had been watched for twelve hours by Lady Somerset's orders on the day previous, so that she was able to show the numbers coming and going and the demoralization resulting from the attractions of this re- markedly well conducted public house. Lady Somerset based her evidence chiefly on the argument that the licenses being given and protected, it had always been understood that competition in the Ordi- nary sense of pushing the trade" among publicans was absolutely unfair, and not contemplated by the state, so that, there- fore, unless the drink traffic was conduct ed on the same lines as a pOst-Office or telegraph office, or any other employment which was eountenanced by the state be- cause there was a demand to supply but not demand to creata, 1t was absolutely contrary to the legislation that governed the traffic. This was apparently q new point of view. Her point was that the number of licenses should be diminished. Lady Somerset had the best possible | maps prepared, of all the congested parts of London, with the public houses colored thereon, and these were handed to the commissioners. Almost all of her evidence was, therefore, shown through the eye as | we'll as the ear, and this had a remarkably good effect.
 It was stated by leading men of the commission that the argument made by Lady Somerset had given them light on the subject that had not been before elic- lifted, and several said that the temper lance cause had, in their opinion, gone up Gninety per cent. As matter of course Lady Henry Somerset believes with Sir liWilfrid Lawson in the local control bill
 put forward by the liberal party, 1. G., that the residents of 8 locality should
 have tt1e right given them to determine | whether they should have saloons or not
 but as Lord Salisbury distinctly stated
 some months ago to the most influential temperance delegation that had been be-
 fore the house of commons in years
 that he could "do nothing for them," the
 practical question now is how to secure a
 reduction in the number of licenses, and 1t was to this that Lady Somerset address
 ed herself.
 | To change memorial day, J. Y. Niles,
 of Topeka. past assistant tadjutant-general of the Kansas department, G. A. R., has prepared a resolution against the desecra. ton of memorial day which he will pre-
 sent at the national encampment of the organization at Buffalo in August, for
 adoption. The resolution is approved by | National Commander CIarkson. It is as follows:
 Whereas, There Is growing tendency
 to deprive the Sabbath of the grand army
 of the republic (memorial day) of its
 sacred character, and turn it into day o
 secular enjoyment by making 1t day de
 voted to picnics, horse and bicycle racing ) and ball games and Whereas, such use of the day is entirely foreign to the hopes
 wishes, and desires of the patriots who proposed its inception, as we'll as of theiI |, comrades who still remain; therefore, 1t
 is Resolved, That the c ongress of tho } United States be requested and petitionet by this thirty-first national encampment
 to change the day now called Memoria
 day from the 3Oth of May, of each year
 to the last Sabbath, or Lords day, in tn
 month of May in each year, to the en'
 that this day of all days sacred to the sur
 vivors of the war for the Union and thei
 widows and orphans, as we'll as thos who have fallen, shall be more suitabl. and properly observed.