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


 doing.
 One feature of the herce battle for a stronger temperance law in Illinois, was the placing on the desks of the Iegislatu ure who are members of the Grand Army of the Republic, on Memorial Day, the following appeal fl om our national super intendent, Ms. Mary H. Hunt, who was in Springfield helping the Illinois women to conduct the campaign for the oLe million children in the public schools of that state. Hearts as we'll as heads were moved, and the bill passed on Friday,
 The appeal was addressed to the honor able member of the legislature of Illinois, and of the late Union army in the War of the rebellion, and proceeded as follows: | "Reverent 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 its 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 from decorating the graves of your fallen 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 its 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 alcoholic drinks.
 'Heralded by roll of drums on battle- troubled air. the Union army at the can = nons mouth settled forever the question that no mothers child, whatever its con- plexiofl, 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 | a&.a fkxy Hn l- oF to hin ss1f, to society and to that free govern ment of which every American citizen is a 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 chil- dren, one and all, from this worst form oi 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-hali 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 IlnQVnG ho al fn 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 Hght,' for a coming generation.
 "From the walls of your legislative chamber the face of the great emancipa tor, Abrah m Lincoln, looks down upor 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 a vote will hurt the party either il ) or out of power, he would quote to you the wise saying of another wise chief mag istrate of these United States, that 'Ht who serves his country best, serves his } party best.'
 Why is a resident of another state with the women of Illinois, urging upor you this duty For the same reason tha Florence Nightingale went to the Crimes that our own Clara Barton cared for tn, sick and dying soldiers in our own camps and then ministered to bleeding Armeniani in another land. The gospel, irrespective of state lines, that seeks to save, has leC the writer to plead, and not in vain, witl the men of America in the national con gress and in forty-one states of the United States to vote for such temperance edu . cation of their children as we'll save then , from the slavery of strong drink. Sixteel million children of school age to-day il our land under temperance education law are the response to that plea, which Ii here renewed for the children of Illinois and we cannot believe that it will be il vain."
 This world will be considerably happie than 1t is now when it is possible to built the kitchen. fire successfully the nightsbe lore
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