The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-10-13
W. c. T. !. CONVENTION
The State Unions Annual
Gathering in Y. N. c. A.
Hall at Trenton.
MAKING WAR ON THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC
Reformed Drunkards and Pastors
of Local Churches Make
Addresses in the Evening.
Especial to ..rhe jersey city News..1


Especial to 1.-The Jersey City News."]
TRENTON. Oct. IS, 1Ss7.-The annua
State convention of the Woman's Chris
tian Temperance Union began yesterday
in the Y. NJ. C. A. Hall, and will continue
today, tomorrow and Friday morning.
The feature of the evening was the adj
dress by John G.. Wooley. of Illinois. Mr..
Wooley is a reformed drundard, a lawyer,
and his temperance work of several years
has given him a national fame. He is re-
markably graphic in every sentence, and
he does not hesitate to express all he
thinks on the subject of drink. He car
ried his audience with him as easily as he
could make his voice ring out in eloquent
| dennnciation of the church members who
do not vote for prohibition. He spoke in
this city last spring at the Methodist Con-
ference.
Mrs. Bourne, the State president. pre-
sided. and cleverly introduced those on
the programme.
Mrs. r. M. Anderson, of this city, made
an address, of welcome. She said that it
had been twelve years since the conven-
ton had met in this city. She hoped the
delegates would do he city good. She
wished that she could tell them that the
CITY HdQ no SaloOHS1 that tue pIlSOio WSlS
empty, and that the mills and factories
were full. She said that not one of the
delegates who represented the Union
traffic is outlawed.
Mayor Sickel, who was down on the pro-
gramme for an address of welcome, was
not present.
Mrs. Wells, President of the Mercer
1..~t a. H. -cNIoN -, a76rocc nf
welcome. She spoke of good work done
in the past, and asked for new enthu-
siasm in the cause.
Rev. DR.. Studdiford made an address of
welcome on behalf of the pastors of the
city. This convention, he said, was en-
titled to as hearty a welcome from the
citizens as that given to the Knights of
the Golden Eagle. The Knights were a
fine organization and did a great deal of
good, but no organization in the State
does more good than the w. C. T. U.
Mrs. Evan c.. Gebhardt of Clinton, re-
sponded to the address of welcome. 1t
was theirs to fight, no matter what was
the Encouragement. God had not COM
manded them to succeed. We only need
one State President, but she needs a
great plenty of workers. A loss of one
worker in a union means a great loss in
the aggregate throughout the State.
knowing this, say if you dare that it
makes 40 difference if a worker, or one
who would make a worker, leaves a
union or fails to join one.
Mr.. Wooley spoke on christian Citi-
zenship." Among other things, he said
it is nonsense to pray for pure citizen
ship while on election day the saloon
leads the van in politics and the church
brings up the rear.
There were too much going on in theo-
logical puts and calls" and there was
too little delivery of Christian merchan-
disc.
He spoke of a dead drunkard's face
which was staring upward in a northern
New Jersey town in the afternoon await
ing the coroner, and said thu a measure
ment must be made from this face to the
church, to the home, to the office, to the
Mayors office, and until that measure
The power of Jesus name will never
be greater than today. The fields are
now ripe for the harvest. Gods plain
ali tbe aa to i the people Tbd IS; a amh yie fdand y ye
be had by the mere stopping and taking
them.
The man who speaks of the necessary
evils, of a dirty party to represent a clean
man, either forgets himself or lies. There
never was a necessary evil.
The work. of driving out the saloon will
Christian heroism. He himself had been
stoned, Haddock had been shot and Gam
BILE had been murdered in the work. Some
body was going to get hurt.
He hoped the temperance cause would
continue to embarrass politics. The
church has not kept pace with the temper
c.. T. U. has been the best of all temper
ance societies. but it has been unable to
succeed with the government, society,
The low-browed, blear-eyed, wicked,
wife-beating drunkard of a husband to-
day is not considered so much a freak as
The question is, can voters be obtained
to vote to make the pledges of their
churches on the liquor question good
rather than in educating little children in
total abstinence?
Whatever cheats a wife or wrongs a
man is a Gospel. theme fit for any pulpit,
preaching such texts had better disband.
On election day the church member
takes one hand of the saloon keeper, CIV
ing him the hand that he gave to Jesus
Christ, and with the other hand in the
hand of a boss, goes to vote. That is
why the saloon has its power. He
sometimes he hides under a silver dollar
or a gold dollar, or a tax on wool or a
tariff on iron.
Mr.. Wooley said he would not harass
drunkard's life n that of his family
but he pointed out that in this land of
out of the doors of the 25o, 600 saloons to
a drunkard's grave. He pictured the
dead bodies of these drunkards as they
lay dead in hospitals. asylums, on rail-
roads, in street brawls, under elevators,
in barns, and in police cells. He said that
while he spoke for five minutes some
drunkard had died, some husband, some
son, some mothers baby and some friend.
He concluded these descriptions ofTvarious
dead men, to each of whom he directed
cLA>-~-